Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clipping and long-term grazing effects on biomass and carbohydrate reserves of Indian ricegrass.

Long-term heavy grazing had little effect on root and crown biomass of Indian ricegrass (Oryzopsis hymenoides [Roem. and Schult.] Ricker), nor did it significantly affect the total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) reserve levels or the seasonal cycle of reserves in this grass. Fifty years of protection from livestock use had not resulted in ecotypic differentiation in Indian ricegrass for these variables. Clipping reduced crown biomass more than root biomass and removal of 90% of the aboveground biomass resulted in more than a 50% reduction in crown biomass and reserve carbohydrate pool. Two commercial strains of Indian ricegrass ('Nezpar' and 'Paloma) were compared with native Chaco Canyon strains in a uniform garden study. The Nezpar strain was superior to Paloma and the Chaco Canyon strains in production of crown biomass and TNC reserves at the more mesic garden site. The native strains from the more arid Chaco Canyon site were superior to both cultivated strains in production of roots. The native Chaco Canyon strains were little affected by clipping and have promising genetic potential for tolerance of drought and heavy grazing.
Weed Management through Bio-herbicidal Activity of Rice Straw for Mitigating Herbicide Dependency

Phyotoxicity related ecological significance of ten rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties was evaluated under laboratory and greenhouse conditions against Avena ludoviciana Durieu. Basmati 370, Govind and VL Dhan 85 significantly (P<0.01) reduced seed germination and seedling dry weight in A. ludoviciana. Pot experiments exhibited a significant (P<0.01) reduction in height of A. ludoviciana with VL Dhan 85 and Govind. Proline accumulation was recorded with all varieties, whilst malondialdehyde with Govind and Pant Dhan 11. Ten phenolic acids viz., cinnamic, chlorogenic, benzoic, gallic, ferulic, p-hydroxybenzoic, salicylic, syringic and vanillic were identified and quantified from straw extracts of all ten rice varieties. Maximum seven phenolics were identified in Govind and VL Dhan 85 followed by Basmati 370 (six) whereas minimum in Pant Dhan 16 and Tarori Basmati (three each). These findings indicated the involvement of phenolics in phytotoxicity of rice straw, which could be utilized for developing natural compound based bio-herbicides to achieve sustainability in agriculture.
An X-Ray Observation of the L1251 Dark Cloud

An X-ray image of the L1251 dark cloud in Cepheus was obtained with the XMM-Newton telescope. More than three dozen sources were detected above a 3 σ limit in X-ray luminosity of LX = 1029.0 ergs s-1. Among the detections are eight optically visible T Tauri stars, which had been identified in earlier work from their emission at Hα. The two strongest X-ray sources have steady luminosities of LX ∼ 1031 ergs s-1 and are at the saturation limit for X-ray activity in late-type stars, LX/Lbol ∼ 10-3. X-ray emission was also observed from two CO emission cores in L1251, core C (L1251A) and core E (L1251B). Both regions contain high-velocity molecular gas, bright IRAS sources (Class I protostars), thermal radio sources, and Herbig-Haro (HH) jets. In L1251A strong X-ray emission was discovered in close proximity to the near-infrared and radio source IRS A/VLA 7 and to IRAS 22343+7501. IRS A/VLA 7 thus appears to be the most likely source of the molecular and HH outflows in L1251A. In L1251B X-ray emission was observed from a visible T Tauri star, KP2-44, which is thought to be the driving source for HH 189. Also reported is the tentative detection of X-ray emission from VLA 3, a thermal radio continuum source in L1251B that is closely associated with the extreme Class I protostar IRAS 22376+7455.
Understanding Aggregate Default Rates of High-Yield Bonds

The New York-New Jersey region's hard-earned recovery in employment is being overshadowed by ongoing job losses in certain sectors and the prospect of moderating growth in the United States as a whole. Fortunately, several positive trends are bolstering the region's employment picture. Strength in the services sector, a falloff in restructuring, and gains in income point to continuing--though modest--regional job growth in 1996.
Reflected Action Learning: a Method for Collective Competence Development.

This paper is about the knowledge transferring between IT-consultants. IT-consultants are involved in many complex and challenging situations. They need to manage organisational, semantic and technical issues. Managing this complexity requires a high and a variety of competences. Examples of competences needed are business development, project management, information system development methods and techniques. An IT-consultant often makes continuous movements between different assignments and clients. The competence developed is often individually based. Individually based knowledge is not sufficient since the IT-consultants have to carry organisational working procedures. Furthermore, the competence needed is not static; it is something that should evolve dynamically. In this paper we are proposing a collective competence development approach. The collective competence development approach consists of a process model and a conceptual model. The aim of both these models is to make individual based knowledge as subject to collective reflection.
Conservation and restoration of the Pinus palustris ecosystem

Abstract The well-documented decline of the Pinus palustris ecosystem has resulted from several anthropogenic influences, such as forest clearing (e.g. pine plantation forestry, agriculture) and urban development, both of which are closely related to increases in human populations. Other impacts have arisen from alterations in disturbance regimes responsible for maintaining the structure and function of these ecosystems. Restoration and management of degraded pine savanna ecosystems is critical. Identification of ecological processes that determine the structure and function of the intact system are important because successful restoration efforts should be based on sound scientific understanding. In this paper, we introduce this special issue on the ecology, conservation, and restoration of the Pinus palustris ecosystem. Some global climate change scenarios have suggested that future changes may occur that alter frequency and severity of disturbances such as fires and hurricanes. Such changes may have large effects on pine stands, and ultimately entire Pinus palustris savanna ecosystems, thus presenting further challenges to their sustainable management.
A numerical study of the role of the vertical structure of vorticity during tropical cyclone genesis

An eight-level axisymmetric model with simple parameterizations for clouds and the atmospheric boundary layer was developed to examine the evolution of vortices that are precursors to tropical cyclones. The effect of vertical distributions of vorticity, especially that arising from a merger of mid-level vortices, was studied by us to provide support for a new vortex-merger theory of tropical cyclone genesis. The basic model was validated with the analytical results available for the spin-down of axisymmetric vortices. With the inclusion of the cloud and boundary layer parameterizations, the evolution of deep vortices into hurricanes and the subsequent decay are simulated quite well. The effects of several parameters such as the initial vortex strength, radius of maximum winds, sea-surface temperature and latitude (Coriolis parameter) on the evolution were examined. A new finding is the manner in which mid-level vortices of the same strength decay and how, on simulated merger of these mid-level vortices, the resulting vortex amplifies to hurricane strength in a realistic time frame. The importance of sea-surface temperature on the evolution of full vortices was studied and explained. Also it was found that the strength of the surface vortex determines the time taken by the deep vortex to amplify to hurricane strength.
Geographical Delineation of Sugar Market Basing on Elzinga-Hogarty Method

The aim of the paper was to define the geographical scope of the sugar market using the Elzinga−Hogarty method. For practical use of this method the authors made three assumptions: 1) sugar market was studied integrally, independently from type of sugar, its origin and kind of customer, 2) the European Union market treated en bloc was the starting point for the analysis, 3) LOFI and LIFO tests were established at the level of 90% (“strong” market). The authors used secondary data on sugar production, consumption, imports and exports on country and the EU level gathered for 2013 by the International Sugar Organization. Sugar market was defined by “adding” to each other subsequent national markets characterised by the highest trade exchange.The markets were added until the requirements for LOFI and LIFO tests were met at the level of 90%. The results of the research allow the authors to define the sugar market as a global market which consists of the EU area and 30 other countries in the world. Such market has production of 114 million tonnes, consumption of 110 million tonnes and small share of import and export at the level of 10.7 million tonnes and 11.4 million tonnes, respectively. The geographical definition of the sugar market determined in the paper is much broader than the ones used by the European Union and the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. The controversy about the geographical scope of the sugar market suggests the need for further research in the area.
Relationships between calving traits in heifers and mature cows in Australia

Genetic correlations between the calving traits of dystocia, calf size and fate and gestation length are calculated for Holstein Friesian mature cows and heifers. The fixed effects of calf sex, cow age and month of calving indicated that winter (especially August) is associated with longer gestation lengths, larger calves and increased calving difficulty. The correlations for the same direct trait between heifers and mature cows varied from 0.78 (dystocia) to 0.96 (gestation length). All the correlations between the direct traits were positive. This means that EBVs calculated largely from mature cows are of relevance to heifers. Maternal-direct correlations were generally negative, but the correlation between the sire and the maternal grandsire effects were positive. This suggests that the use of an easy calving bull by farmers will result in easier calvings from his daughters.
Bottom production asymmetries at the LHC

We present results on bottom hadron production asymmetries at the LHC within both the Lund string fragmentation model and the intrinsic bottom model. The main aspects of the models are summarized and specific predictions for pp collisions at 14 TeV are given. Asymmetries are found to be very small at central rapidities increasing to a few percent at forward rapidities. At very large rapidities intrinsic production could dominate but this region is probably out of reach of any experiment.
Arts Res . Determinants of Improved Rice

uncertainties, and food -farm income. Consequently, , Wollega University. All Rights Reserved. largest livestock Over the past two decades, decision makers in Ethiopia have pursued a range of policies and investments to boost agricultural production and productivity, particularly with respect to the food staple crops that are critical to reducing poverty in the country. A central aim of this process has been to increase the availability of improved seed, chemical fertilizers, and extension services for small-scale, resource particularly those cultivating food staple crops (David al, 2010). Thus, rice is one of the staple food crops for more than 60 percent of the world’s population. Rice belongs to the family “Gramineae” and the genus “Oryza”. There are about 25 species of Oryza. Of these only two species are cultivated, namely Oryza sativa Linus and Oryzaglaberrima Stead. The former is originated from North Eastern India to Southern China but has spread to all parts of the world. The latter is still confined to its original home land, West Africa. R (Oryza sativa Linu) is one of the main staple foods for 70% of the population of the world. Africa produces an average of 26.4 million tones of rough rice ( tonnes, milled) in 2012 (FAO, 2013). Rice is among the important cereal crops grown in different parts of Ethiopia as food crop. The country has immense potentials for growing the crop. It is reported that the potential rice production area in Ethiopia is estimated to be about 5.4 million hectares. According to the national Original Research
Time-Varying Mixing Weights in Mixture Autoregressive Conditional Duration Models

Financial market price formation and exchange activity can be investigated by means of ultra-high frequency data. In this article, we investigate an extension of the Autoregressive Conditional Duration (ACD) model of Engle and Russell (1998) by adopting a mixture of distribution approach with time-varying weights. Empirical estimation of the Mixture ACD model shows that the limitations of the standard base model and its inadequacy of modelling the behavior in the tail of the distribution are suitably solved by our model. When the weights are made dependent on some market activity data, the model lends itself to some structural interpretation related to price formation and information diffusion in the market.
A B-to-C Trust Model for On-line Exchange

The purpose of this research is to develop a theoretical multi-dimensional model of trust for on-line exchanges in B-to-C e-commerce. The overall objective of this study to investigate the determinants of the trust in on-line exchanges that lead to the success of transactions using content analysis, a relatively novel methodology in the MIS research area.
A Simple Atmospheric Model of the Local and Teleconnection Responses to Tropical Heating Anomalies

Abstract A minimal complexity model of both the local and remote stationary responses of the atmosphere to tropical heating anomalies is described and demonstrated. Two levels are recast as baroclinic and barotropic components with thermal advection in the tropics neglected. The model is linearized about some idealized and realistic background wind fields and forced with a localized heating for illustration. In the tropics, the baroclinic responses are familiar from the Matsuno–Gill model; these excite barotropic responses by advective interactions with vertical background wind shear. The barotropic signals are in turn transmitted to high latitudes only in the presence of barotropic background westerly winds. For an El Nino–like equatorial heating, the barotropic response has anticyclones to the north and south of the heating reinforcing (opposing) the anticyclonic (cyclonic) baroclinic gyres in the upper (lower) troposphere. With realistic background flows, the model reproduces the hemispheric asymmetry .
Cellular Automata Approach to Durability Analysis of Concrete Structures

This paper presents a novel approach to the problem of durability analysis and lifetime assessment of concrete structures under the diffusive attack from external aggressive agents. The proposed formulation mainly refers to beams and frames, but it can be easily extended also to other types of structures. The diffusion process is modeled by using cellular automata. The mechanical damage coupled to diffusion is evaluated by introducing suitable material degradation laws. Since the rate of mass diffusion usually depends on the stress state, the interaction between the diffusion process and the mechanical behavior of the damaged structure is also taken into account by a proper modeling of the stochastic effects in the mass transfer. To this aim, the nonlinear structural analyses during time are performed within the framework of the finite element method by means of a deteriorating reinforced concrete beam element. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology in handling complex geometrical and mechanical boundary conditions is demonstrated through some applications. Firstly, a reinforced concrete box girder cross section is considered and the damaging process is described by the corresponding evolution of both bending moment–curvature diagrams and axial force-bending moment resistance domains. Secondly, the durability analysis of a reinforced concrete continuous T-beam is developed. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to the analysis of an existing arch bridge and to the identification of its critical members.
Rural electrification in Indonesia : the role of micro hydro power in shaping forest conservation behavior

It is reported that villagers at the villages electrified by micro hydro power (MHP) show more favorable attitudes, intentions, and behaviors toward forest conservation. They initiated a community-based agreement regulating forest cutting, reduced trees chopped from the forests, reduced intention toward forest cutting, and even participated in reforestation. The present study is supposed to test this phenomenon and to find out which variables are determining intentions to behave more favorably toward forest conservation. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is applied to explain the behavior in question. TPB suggests that intention is the best predictor of behavior and it is determined by attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. These concepts, together with descriptive norms and past behavior, are compared between participants from a village with MHP and participants from a village with no electricity. A comparison between participants from another village with MHP and those from a village with grid electricity is also conducted. The results reveal that MHP inconsistently predicted participants’ beliefs, attitudes, norms, perceived control, intention, and behavior toward forest conservation. Participants from the village electrified by MHP for 4 years showed more concern toward forest conservation than participants from the village without electricity. However, participants from the villages electrified by MHP for a year showed less concern toward forest conservation than participants from the village, which has been grid electrified for 10 years. Regrouping the villages into electrified and non electrified villages gave evidence that rural electrification, regardless of its sources, positively shaped participants’ beliefs, attitudes, norms, perceived control, intention, and behavior toward forest conservation. Regression analyses showed that intentions to behave toward forest conservation were determined by subjective norms, past behavior and educational background.
Chronic industrial noise affects pairing success and age structure of ovenbirds Seiurus aurocapilla

Summary 1Anthropogenic noise is rapidly increasing in wilderness areas as a result of industrial expansion. While many road studies have attempted to assess the effects of industrial noise on birds, conflicting factors such as edge effects often inhibit the ability to draw strong conclusions. 2We assessed pairing success and age distribution of male ovenbirds Seiurus aurocapilla in the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada, in areas around noise-generating compressor stations compared with areas around habitat-disturbed, but noiseless, wellpads. This allowed us to control for edge effects, human visitation and other factors that are not controlled for in studies of noise generated by roads. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to assess the impacts of noise on ovenbird pairing success, age structure and body morphology. 3We found a significant reduction in ovenbird pairing success at compressor sites (77%) compared with noiseless wellpads (92%). These differences were apparent regardless of territory quality or individual male quality. Significantly more inexperienced birds breeding for the first time were found near noise-generating compressor stations than noiseless wellpads (48% vs. 30%). 4While there are multiple proximate explanations for these results, the ultimate cause of the changes seems to be noise pollution. We hypothesize that noise interferes with a male's song, such that females may not hear the male's song at greater distances and/or females may perceive males to be of lower quality because of distortion of song characteristics. 5Synthesis and applications. This work demonstrates that chronic background noise could be an important factor affecting bird populations. It can impact upon pairing success and age structure of passerines; in boreal Alberta this could pose a problem for certain species as energy development expands rapidly.
Preferences, intentions, and expectation violations: A large-scale experiment with a representative subject pool

We specify and estimate an econometric model which separately identifies the effects of distributional preferences and penalizing unfair proposer behavior (“perceived intentions”) on responder decisions in the ultimatum game. We allow the effects of perceived intentions to depend, among other things, on the subjective probabilities responders attach to the possible offers. The latter allows expectation violations to be a driving force for responder behavior. We estimate the model on a large representative sample from the Dutch population. We find that the relative importance of distributional preferences and perceived intentions depends significantly on the socio-economic characteristics of responders. Strong inequity aversion to the other player’s disadvantage is found for lower educated and older respondents. Responders tend to punish more unequal offers made by proposers if they expect that unequal proposals are made less often. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Findings of this integrated model suggest managerial guidelines for brand managers in this industry regarding how to maintain the brand-customer relationship through social media strategy and they contribute to theory building in continuance intention

Purpose The study is to examine determinants of continuous brand-customer relationship via company-hosted SNSs (social networking sites). Factors that influence fans to continue using fast-fashion brands' Facebook fan pages and to maintain the brand-customer relationship are firstly discussed. Subsequently, predictors of fans' engagement and affective commitment to a fast-fashion brand are examined with aim to explore key elements which nurture brand-customer relationship via brands' SNSs.
Multinuclear Solid-State NMR, DSC, and Conductivity Studies of Solid Polymer Electrolytes Based on Polyurethane/Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Segmented Copolymers

Solid polymer electrolytes based on polyurethane/poly(dimethylsiloxane) segmented copolymers (PS55) have been characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), ionic conductivity, and multinuclear solid-state NMR measurements. The results of DSC measurements indicate the formation of transient cross-links between Li+ ions and the ether oxygens on complexation with LiClO4, resulting in an increase in the soft segment Tg. However, the soft segment Tg remains almost invariant at high salt concentration. There is a conductivity jump at around 310−330 K that the behavior of ionic conductivity changes from Arrehnius- to Vogel−Tamman−Fulcher (VTF)-type behavior. Below this jump temperature, the conductivity follows Arrehnius-like behavior, implying a diffusing mechanism for transport of the charge carriers where the charge carriers are decoupled from the segmental motion of the polymer chain. By contrast, the diffusion of charge carrier is assisted by the segmental motions of the polymer chains above the.