Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sugar maple decline and lessons learned about Allegheny Plateau soils and landscapes

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) decline was a major forest health challenge in northern Pennsylvania starting in the mid- to late 1980s and continued through the mid-1990s. During this time sugar maple suffered extensive crown dieback and rapid mortality, primarily on the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau in northwestern and north-central Pennsylvania (Drohan et al. 2002, Horsley et al. 2000). Declining trees exhibited a slow loss of vigor and increased fine twig dieback, which was followed by large branch mortality. This frequently ended in tree death (Kolb and McCormick 1993). Surveys conducted as part of the North American Maple Project found sugar maple healthy in most parts of its range, though declines in Quebec were noted in the mid- and late 1980s (Allen et al. 1992, 1995, 1999). In northern Pennsylvania a series of stressors, which included insect defoliators and extreme drought, played a significant role in accelerating crown dieback and mortality.
HYDROGEOLOGY OF DEEP AQUIFERS - The Hydrogeological Basin as the Basis of Groundwater Management

Recent hydrogeological studies可 deep aquifers have demonstrated the importance of leaky flow, the main source of groundwater movement. Carefuly coordinated geological, hydrodynamic and hydrochemical research has produced a conceptual model of the aquifer and the hydrogeological basin一useful in establishing a plan厂or sound devel opm ent and m anagem ent可 this valuable resource. Deep aqui厂ers represent a water supply source which, i厂care厂uly managed, could meet many development needs in arid zones.
ENGINEERING FACTORS AFFECTING EXTRACTION OF CANOLA OIL

A study was carried out to test and evaluate the effect of pre-thermal treatment, pressing pressure and holding time on mechanical extraction of canola oil using a laboratory scale hydraulic press unit. The experimental parameters included five different levels of crushed seeds heating temperature (30, 75, 100, 125 and 150 o C) for 30 minutes, five levels of pressure over the samples mats (163, 204, 244, 285 and 326 bar) and four levels of holding time (20, 40, 60 and 80 min). The experimental measurements included, seed bulk temperature, extracted and remained oil percentages, extraction efficiency and percentage of free fatty acids in the extracted oil. The obtained results showed that, the percentage of remaining oil decreased with the increase of bulk temperature among 30 to 62 o C, while it was increased as the bulk temperature exceeded 62 till 90 o C. Also, the percentage of remaining oil decreased and the extraction efficiency increased with the increasing of both, the applied pressure and the holding time at all levels of crushed seeds. On the other hands, no effect on the percentage of FFA in the extracted oil was observed at all levels of experimental parameters. The recorded values of the FFA percentage were ranged from 0.32 to 0.38% which was in the safe level for similar type of oils.
Water requirement of oil palm in two different edaphoclimatic conditions in Brazil

10 LIST OF FIGURES . 11 LIST OF TABLES . 13 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . 14 LIST OF SYMBOLS . 17 LIST OF INITIALS . 18 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION . 19 References . 22 2 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION AND CROP COEFFICIENT OF YOUNG OIL PALM TREES IN THE BRAZILIAN HUMID SUBTROPICAL CONDITIONS FROM LYSIMETRIC MEASUREMENTS . 29 Abstract . 29 2.
Boundary Detection in Three Dimensions With Application to the SMILE Mission: The Effect of Photon Noise

Imaging magnetospheric satellite missions provide information, which is complementary to in situ observations. Imaging is often able to provide an instantaneous picture of large‐scale structures, whereas in situ measurements, even multipoint in situ measurements, can only provide an average view of large‐scale structure. But imaging also presents some challenges. When three‐dimensional structures need to be extracted from two‐dimensional images, it is necessary to either make suitable assumptions or record a large enough number of images from different viewing geometries to allow a reconstruction (e.g., tomography). Imaging data exist over a wide range of sources including visible light, ultraviolet light, extreme ultraviolet, energetic neutral atoms, and X‐rays, each informing different physical mechanisms. In this paper we consider the extraction of the geometry of the magnetopause and the bow shock from single X‐ray images expected from the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission. We examine the effect of photon‐counting noise in determining the boundary geometries. We also consider the effect of different viewing geometries in the form of orbital vantage point and target look direction. Finally, we consider the effect of background noise. We find that our approach is relatively robust to viewing geometry effects and works at low count rates.
Estimating Forest Canopy Height Using MODIS BRDF Data Emphasizing Typical-Angle Reflectances

Forest-canopy height is an important parameter for the estimation of forest biomass and terrestrial carbon flux and climate-change research at regional and global scales. Currently, various methods combining Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data with various auxiliary data, particularly satellite remotely sensed reflectances, have been widely used to produce spatially continuous canopy-height products. However, current methods in use for remote sensing reflectances mainly focus on the nadir view direction, while anisotropic reflectances, which are theoretically more sensitive to the forest canopy height in the multiangle remote sensing field, have rarely been explored. Here, we attempted to examine the potential of using modeled multiangle reflectances at three typical viewing angles (i.e., from the hotspot, darkspot, and nadir directions) to estimate forest-canopy height as auxiliary data sources. First, the sensitivities of the typical angular reflectances as a function of forest canopy height were fully examined using the Extended Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test (EFAST) method based on the 4-scale Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model simulations. This indicated that reflectances in the off-nadir viewing directions are generally sensitive to canopy-height variations. Then, the canopy heights were extracted from airborne Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) data, which were further divided into training and validation data. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) multiangle reflectances at typical viewing angles were calculated from the MODIS BRDF parameter product (MCD43A1, version 6) as partial training-input data, based on a hotspot-adjusted, kernel-driven linear BRDF model. Subsequently, the Random Forest (RF) machine learning model was trained to acquire the relationship between the extracted canopy heights and the corresponding MODIS typical viewing reflectances. The trained model was further applied to estimate the canopy height metrics in the study areas of Howland Forest, Harvard Forest, and Bartlett Forest. Finally, the estimated canopy heights were independently validated by canopy heights extracted from the LVIS data. The results indicate that the canopy heights modeled through this method exhibit generally high accordance with the LVIS-derived canopy heights (R = 0.65−0.67; RMSE = 3.63−5.78). The results suggest that the MODIS multiangle reflectance data at typical observation angles contain important information regarding forest canopy height and can, therefore, be used to estimate forest canopy height for various ecological applications.
Cultures of Enthusiasm: An Ethnographic Study of Amateur Map-Maker Communities

ABSTRACT:Further attention should be paid to contextualizing the spaces and practices of amateur map-making. Doing so will provide further insight into the ways that maps, mapping epistemologies, and mapper identities emerge in the practices of everyday life. In order to deconstruct the map, and ultimately the power of maps, it is necessary to investigate maps from the bottom up as well as the top down. The motivations of amateur cartographers, the contexts in which map-making takes place, and the technological processes involved are all important factors to consider when examining how and why maps are produced. Empirical ethnographic evidence from a study of OpenStreetMap and humanitarian "mapping parties" is presented here to demonstrate how the often overlooked cultures of amateur map-making offer novel perspectives on who contemporary map-makers are and what motivates them to map. It is shown that amateur map-making is a broad category that includes close-knit hobby communities and more diverse groups of enthusiastic volunteers. As cartography continues to open up and become more accessible through a range of digital mapping technologies, studying these shifts will be important for understanding how and why the role of the map in contemporary life is changing. RÉSUMÉ:Il conviendrait d'accorder davantage d'attention à la contextualisation des espaces et des pratiques de cartographie amateur, ce qui nous renseignerait davantage sur les modalités selon lesquelles les cartes, les épistémologies de la cartographie et l'identité des cartographes se manifestent dans les comportements de la vie courante. La déconstruction de la carte, et ultimement du pouvoir des cartes, exige l'analyse des cartes dans l'axe ascendant aussi bien que descendant. Les motivations des cartographes amateurs, le contexte dans lequel se déroule la pratique de la cartographie et les processus technologiques auxquels elle fait appel sont autant de facteurs importants à prendre en considération dans l'étude du mode de production des cartes et des raisons pour lesquelles elles sont produites. L'auteur recueille des données ethnographiques empiriques tirées d'une étude d'OpenStreetMap et d'« activités de cartographie » humanitaires afin de démontrer comment les cultures souvent négligées de la cartographie amateur ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives quant à l'identité des cartographes contemporains et à ce qui les motive. Il apparaît que la cartographie amateur est un vaste domaine qui rassemble des collectivités très unies partageant ce passe-temps ainsi que des groupes plus variés de bénévoles enthousiastes. La cartographie ne cessant de s'ouvrir et devenant plus accessible grâce à l'éventail des technologies de cartographie numérique, l'étude de dynamique sera indispensable si nous voulons comprendre l'orientation et les raisons de l'évolution du rôle des cartes dans la vie contemporaine.
Nonlinear wave transformations and randomness

ABSTRACT Variations of raw spectral estimates of ocean waves with quite different sea states are examined for confirming their fitness to theoretical chi-square distribution with two degrees of freedom. A hypothetical numerical experiment is devised and histograms of spectral variability for artificially produced initial wave spectrum of constant shape undergoing nonlinear transformations are computed and compared with the chi-square distribution. As the nonlinear energy transfer among wave components develops, the histograms of spectral variability, initially constant, evolve to the exponentially decaying chi-square form. Once the variability distribution attains the exponential form it remains so regardless of the change in wave field characteristics, as for waves becoming linear by propagating into deeper regions. Irreversible nonlinear wave transformations not only redistribute the spectral energy broadly but also do it by imparting a variability to spectral components which accords with the chi-square distribution, indicating true randomness.
INHANCEMENT OF SOME CITRUS TREES TOLERANCE TO GASEOUS POLLUTANTS AND HEAVY METALS BY USING DIFFERENT ANTIOXIDANTS AND EFFECTIVE MICROORGANISMS

The pattern of changes in reducing the total amount of both Pb and Cd in the leaves and fruits of Valencia orange and Balady mandarin were apparent . Also, the combined treatments V.C,V.E. and EM produced a synergistic influence on the reduction of Pb and Cd inside the leaves tissue and fruits . It is interesting to mention that the combination of the treatments used induced a marked decrease in the toxic elements in the leaves and fruits peel and their pulp ,below the values maintained under single treatment through the both seasons of the study . A decrease in both Cd and Pb in leaves and fruits ,attribute to the effect of different treatments applied. Also ,significant increase in the concentrations of chlorophyll a,b and total chlorophyll were detected in both cultivars. Moreover , stimulatory effects of the treatments on total number of fruits ,fruit weight and yield per tree of Valencia orange and Balady mandarin were recorded .
Estructura y diversidad de especies arbóreas en bosques templados de San Luis Potosí, México

El estado de San Luis Potosí cuenta con ecosistemas boscosos que tienen limitada investigación en el ámbito forestal. Los estudios sobre la estructura y diversidad arbórea se realizan para generar información necesaria para efectuar un manejo conveniente en estos ecosistemas. El objetivo de la investigación fue evaluar y comparar la estructura y diversidad de especies forestales para dos condiciones de bosque templado bajo manejo forestal en San Luis Potosí. Se realizó un muestreo aleatorio para lo cual se establecieron tres parcelas de muestreo de 2 500 m2en cada localidad. Se obtuvo información dasométrica de individuos mayores de 7.5 cm de diámetro normal y se determinó la composición de especies, densidad por hectárea, abundancia, dominancia, frecuencia, índice de valor de importancia (IVI) e índice de distribución vertical (A). Para la UMA San Rafael se registraron 323 individuos, de cuatro familias, cuatro géneros y 10 especies; la abundancia fue de 430 árboles ha-1; siendo Pinus teocotela especie con mayor IVI (71.02%). En el Predio San Joaquín se registraron 277 individuos, que pertenecen a tres familias, tres géneros y ocho especies; la abundancia fue de 369 árboles ha-1; P. devonianafue la especie de mayor IVI (98.92%). La riqueza específica fue de 10 y 8 especies, con índice de Margalef de 1.55 y 1.24. En relación con la diversidad del área, el índice de Shannon (H’) tuvo un valor de 1.91 y 1.51, respectivamente. P. devoniana es la especie con mayor dominancia en ambas localidades con 4.04 y 6.62 m2ha-1.
Identification and Characterization of Critical Sites for Small Pelagic Fish in the Coastal Marine Area of Senegal, West Africa

Better management of coastal marine resources generally requires good knowledge of habitats and resources. This need led to the performance of an identification and bioecological characterization study of critical sites for small pelagics in the Senegalese coastal marine zone. Biological and ecological data were collected using beach seines (12 to 28 mm mesh) and surface drifting gillnets (28 to 36 mm mesh) at sites identified by fishermen on the basis of surveys. The results of the study highlight the bioecological characteristics of these sites: (i) the Port-Baie Hann site - a nursery and spawning site with a high diversity for the target species; it is under marine pollution threat; (ii) the Mbodiène-Ngazobil site, with high diversity for target species and the Kafountine-Cap site are nursery and spawning sites under high fishing pressure, (iii) the Diakhanor-Sangomar site - a spawning site under the potential threat of exploration of offshore Sangomar oil in addition to the high fishing pressure. This work is a first flagship contribution to a process that should lead to the development and control of new tools for the effective and sustainable management of small pelagics at national and regional scales.
Climate change impacts on viticulture in Croatia: Viticultural zoning and future potential

Since changes in temperature and precipitation have different effects on (a) all developmental stages of grapevines in most of the wine regions worldwide (i.e., on their phenological characteristics) and (b) different varieties, a comprehensive database of bioclimatic indices has been calculated and analysed for Croatian wine producing regions. The database consists of the average growing season temperature, growing degree‐days, Huglin index, dryness index and cool night index that are based on all available meteorological measurements as well as the outputs of regional climate models (RCMs) from the EURO‐CORDEX database. The horizontal grid spacing of 0.11° from the RCM ensembles enabled a fine‐scale determination of bioclimatic indices for the present and future climate in Croatia. In addition, statistical analyses (standard statistical parameters and Bayesian method) were carried out to examine trends in sugar content, total acidity and date of harvest. Calculations were performed for the present and future climate on the basis of data from seven selected vineyards/wineries and four varieties (‘Graševina’, ‘Plavac mali’, ‘Chardonnay’ and ‘Merlot’). The results show whether the part of Croatia that is suitable for grape cultivation in the present climate will continue to be favourable in the future within the Mediterranean area. In general, projections suggest further warming and drying of the climate in Croatia and an earlier harvest, with some variations among varieties that show latitude dependence. Projections for the future climate also suggest that the existing viticultural zoning will be much less adequate for the Croatian territory because it reduces the economically sustainable production of wine in certain areas.
Contribution of forest to rural households’ livelihood: evidences from Da river basin in the northwest mountainous region of Vietnam

This paper examined how forest has contributed to rural households’ livelihood in Da river basin, the northwest mountainous region of Vietnam. The results revealed that forest predominantly contributes to the total income of rural residents in the region. Specifically, forestry land area, access to non-timber forest products, and payment for forest environmental services significantly affected household’s income in the region. However, rural people in the region have still faced several difficulties that constrain household’s livelihood. Of these difficulties, lack of financial capital, epidemic diseases in animal husbandry, limited access to market information and natural disaster are popular barriers to livelihood of people in the region. This paper also recommended several policies to improve rural livelihood in Da river basin. These includes: (i) integrating issues regarding payment for forest environmental services and REDD+ into socioeconomic development plan; (ii) improving awareness of local people on sustainable natural capital use through ecosystem conservation policy; (iii) providing preferential credit and training on agricultural production techniques; and (iv) encouraging market-oriented agriculture.
Lessons learnt from checking the quality of openly accessible river flow data worldwide

ABSTRACT Advances in open data science serve large-scale model developments and, subsequently, hydroclimate services. Local river flow observations are key in hydrology but data sharing remains limited due to unclear quality, or to political, economic or infrastructure reasons. This paper provides methods for quality checking openly accessible river-flow time series. Availability, outliers, homogeneity and trends were assessed in 21 586 time series from 13 data providers worldwide. We found a decrease in data availability since the 1980s, scarce open information in southern Asia, the Middle East and North and Central Africa, and significant river-flow trends in Africa, Australia, southwest Europe and Southeast Asia. We distinguish numerical outliers from high-flow peaks, and integrate all investigated quality characteristics in a composite indicator. We stress the need to maintain existing gauging networks, and highlight opportunities in extending existing global databases, understanding drivers for trends and inhomogeneity, and in innovative acquisition methods in data-scarce regions.
Effect of Organic Nutrient Sources on Biological Properties of Soil in Potato and Turmeric Cropping System

Soil harbors dynamic population of microorganisms which play major role in decomposition of organic matter and transformation of plant nutrients. The availability of organically bound nitrogen through transformation in soil to the plant mainly depends on the population of microorganisms, which is influenced by the application of organic manure. The microbial biomass, which is the total mass of bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes present in soil, serves as a temporary sink for nutrients including nitrogen and can be considered as an index of soil fertility. The factors like cropping system, manure application etc., affects the soil microbial growth, activity and diversity. Microbial biomass carbon and enzyme activity increases with continuous application of organic manure (Zhao et al., 2016). Enzymes are important soil components involved in dynamics of soil nutrient transformations and enzyme activity is considered to be a major International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 08 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Hyphenated Analytical Techniques for Studying the Speciation and Fate of Contaminants and Nanoparticles in Waste Treatment and Bioenergy Processes

vi Riassunto . viii Glossary . xv Introduction . Chapter 1 1 1.1 Motivation . 2 1.1.1 Waste to energy . 2 1.1.2 Valorization of biomass with high calorific value . 3 1.1.3 Valorization of biomass with low calorific value . 8 1.2 Goals and scope of the thesis . 10 1.2.1 NPs emission in combustion processes: on-line characterization . 11 1.2.2 Method development for the analysis of siloxanes in biogas . 14 1.3 Structure of the thesis . 14 Chapter 2 . Methods and experimental 17 2.1 Instruments. 18 2.1.1 Aerosol sources . 18 2.1.2 Conditioning and sampling unit . 20 2.1.3 Characterization techniques . 22 2.2 Hyphenated techniques for the different applications . 23 2.2.1 GC-ICP-MS/FID . 23 2.2.2 RDD-SMPS-ICP-MS . 25 2.2.3 Different aerosol sources coupled with RDD-SMPS-ICP-MS . 29 2.3 Materials . 32
The Influence of the Kłodnica Fault Tectonic Zone on the Degree of Damage to Buildings Resulting From High Magnitude Tremors

Abstract On 18 April 2015, a regional tremor with an energy E=4·109 J occurred in the main saddle of fault VIa. This phenomenon emerged as result of summing up of stresses caused by underground exploitation conducted in the vicinity of natural faults with unrelaxed tectonic stresses, which resulted in the very strong influence of this tremor on the surface infrastructure and on the emotional well-being of local people. This analysis suggests that there is a statistical relationship between these values. Diversity of location both of the size of measured vibration parameters, damages in the buildings and of feelings of the vibrations prove an unequal radiation of the seismic waves caused by the amplifying influence of the fault zone.