Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological variation and differential susceptibility to herbivory in the tropical brown alga Lobophora variegate

tropical brown alga Lobophora variegata (Lamouroux) Womersley has 3 distinct morphological forms (ruffled, decumbent and encrusting) along the Belizean barrier reef. These forms are commonly associated with habitats that differ in environmental characteristics and herbivore abundance. Previous research into among-habitat variation in plant susceptibility to herbivores has focused on interspecific comparisons; here we emphasize intraspecific variation. Field (fish) and laboratory (crab) experiments compared grazlng on L. vanegata forms with 2 other frondose algae of the same family (Dictyotaceae), the highly palatable Padina boergesenii and the unpalatable Stypopodium zonale. Transplant feeding studies were conducted in several reef habitats to determine if these forms differed in their susceptibility to fish herbivory. Significantly different susceptibilities to grazing among L. variegata forms for both fishes and crabs were observed. Preferences of fish and crabs were similar (from most to least preferred): Padina = ruffled Lobophora = encrusting Lobophora S decumbent Lobophora = Stypopodium. The distribution of ruffled and decumbent forms appears to be related to the intensity of fish grazing normally encountered in their habitats and their differential susceptibility to herbivory. The encrusting form is common in areas with high fish and sea urchin herbivory, despite being susceptible to fish grazing when removed from the substrate. The presence of this form in areas of intense grazing pressure is probably related to its encrusting habit. We suggest that the distributions of these forms, their growth morphologies and potential defenses are in some measure related to differential grazing intensities among habitats. Form variation and habit may represent an important evolutionary strategy for tropical algae when herbivory is locally intense but patchy.
Tilted Circularly Polarized Beam Microstrip Antenna With Miniaturized Circular Sector Patch Under Wideband Dual-Mode Resonance

A design approach to miniaturized, dual-resonant microstrip circular sector patch antenna with tilted circularly polarized (CP) beam is proposed. As mathematically laid down at first, the range of an asymmetric multiresonant prototype dipole’s length should be set as the positive odd-integer multiples of one-quarter wavelength, such that the resonant frequency could be accordingly reduced by one-half to the symmetric case. In this way, an asymmetric circular sector patch radiator can then be employed to realize a unique tilted CP beam by simultaneously exciting two orthogonal, odd-order resonant modes via proper perturbations. As numerically and experimentally validated, dual-resonant microstrip antennas with compact patch, flared angles of 330°/270°, impedance bandwidth of 26.6%/35.8%, and tilted CP 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 7.3%/12.0% can be realized on single-layered, air substrate with a height no more than 0.07 wavelength. It is evidently verified that the proposed approach should be effective for reducing patch size, enhancing impedance bandwidth and realizing tilted CP beam without increasing antenna profile, inquiring multiple radiators or employing reactance compensation techniques.
Variable effects of the Hen Flea Ceratophyllus gallinae on the breeding success of the Great Tit Parus major in relation to weather conditions

We investigated the effect of an ectoparasite, the Hen Flea Ceratophyllus gallinae (Siphonaptera), on the reproductive success of the Great Tit Parus major, a hole-nesting passerine bird. Parasite levels of cleaned nesting boxes were experimentally manipulated during the egg-laying period of the birds either by spraying nests with pyrethrin or by introducing c. 100 adult fleas, while other nests were left as controls. Only in 2 out of 5 years did hen fleas significantly affect reproductive success. Nestlings from parasitized nests showed reduced body-mass, tarsus-length and condition, whereas wing-length did not differ between nestlings reared with or without fleas. The impact of the fleas on the growth performance of host nestlings was more noticeable in years with lower temperatures and higher precipitation.
Species richness of ectomycorrhizal fungi in cutblocks of different sizes in the Interior Cedar-Hemlock forests of northwestern British Columbia: sporocarps and ectomycorrhizae

We investigated the species richness of ectomycorrhizal fungi based on epigeous sporocarps in an Interior Cedar-Hemlock forest in northwestern British Columbia in gap sizes of 49-4526 m2, 3-4 years following harvest. We also determined ectomycorrhizal diversity on Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm. and Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg. seedlings 2 years after outplanting. Ectomycorrhizal fungal richness, based on epigeous sporocarps, decreased exponentially as gap size increased. There were sporocarps of 15 species along 475 m of transect in gaps larger than 900 m2, which was approximately 13% of the number of species present in neighboring forests (115 species along 300 m of transect). These data have implications for foresters who would be interested in managing forests for both timber and edible mushroom harvesting. Ectomycorrhizal richness on seedlings decreased slightly at increasing distances from the edge of the intact forest. The maximum richness was found at 7 m or less from the forest edge for .
THE EFFECT OF JOB SATISFACTION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT ON EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE OF PT. BANK RAKYAT INDONESIA BRANCH MEULABOH

This research is to examine the effect of job satisfaction and psychological contract on employee commitment and its impact on employee performance at PT. Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) Branch Meulaboh. The population is all its employees as many as 208 people. While the sample is determined using Clustered Random Sampling technique that the respondents are taken based on their respective Work Units. By using the Slovin formula, the number of sample in this study is 139 people. Data is collected using questionnaires. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) is used to test the research model, and, Sobel test is also used to measure special for the indirect effects in the model. The result shows that job satisfaction effects employee commitment significantly, psychological contract effects employee commitment significantly, job satisfaction effects employee performance significantly, employee psychological contract effects employee performance significantly, employee commitment effects employee performance significantly, job satisfaction effects employee performance through employee commitment significantly, and psychological contract effects employee performance through employee commitment significantly. The employee commitment is proven as the partial mediation variable for both indirect effects. These all findings confirm the model as a fit model so it contributes to science as an update of the theory. The novelty lies in the integration of the causality model from the previous theories, and in using a new object. The limitation resides in the amount of variables and the scope of object. This model also can be a reference for the practical managers, especially the managers in PT. BRI Branch Meulaboh, to respond to the latest conditions of their organization. Keyword: Job satisfaction, psychological contract, employee commitment, employee performance
Temporal Changes in Genetic Variation of Boll Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Populations, and Implications for Population Assignment in Eradication Zones

ABSTRACT An existing microsatellite genotype database has been used for several years in population genetic assignment analyses of boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), captured in eradication zones. It is important to update it in case of changes in genotype frequency at any of the locations over time. Such changes at neutral loci could be caused by drift, immigration, or population bottlenecks. We examined allele frequency distribution for 10 microsatellite loci to determine genetic differentiation among 10 boll weevil populations sampled from Texas and Mexico in 2009. In addition, temporal changes in genetic composition were examined in the eight populations for which samples were available from previous years. Substantial levels of spatial genetic structure were observed, with the 10 populations clustering as four major groups. Pairwise FST estimates in 2009 samples ranged from 0.001 (College Station-Cameron) to 0.492 (College Station-Ojinaga). There was little change in genetic profiles over time at four of the eight locations. Thus, for those four locations, genotype and allele frequency data can be pooled over the two sample dates, which will provide greater statistical power in future population assignment tests. However, genetic profiles changed substantially at Ojinaga, and to a lesser extent at Uvalde, Cameron, and Rosales, so the 2009 genotype data should be substituted in future analyses. Finally, populations from two new locations, Brownsville and Lockhart, TX, were sampled, genotyped, and added to the database. The addition of Lockhart is particularly important given its surprisingly high differentiation from the relatively nearby populations of Cameron and Uvalde.
Comparative analysis of profitability of real estate, industrial construction and infrastructure firms: evidence from India

This study aims to identify the most profitable segment of construction firms amongst real estate, industrial construction and infrastructure. This paper also examines the determinants of profitability of real estate, industrial construction and infrastructure firms. ,The data of 67 firms (20 real estate, 21 industrial construction and 26 infrastructure) is collected for a 15-year period (2003–2017). Two models are created using total return on assets (ROA) and return on invested capital (ROIC) as dependent variables. Leverage, liquidity, age, growth, size and efficiency of the firm are identified as firm-specific independent variables. Two economic variables, i.e. growth in GDP and inflation, are also used as independent variables. Initially, the models are tested for stationarity, multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity, and finally, the coefficients are estimated using Arellano–Bond dynamic panel data estimation to account for heteroscedasticity and endogeneity. ,The results suggest that industrial construction is the most profitable segment of construction, followed by real estate and infrastructure. Their profitability is positively driven by liquidity, efficiency and leverage. The real estate firms are somewhat less profitable compared to industrial construction firms, and their profitability is positively driven by liquidity. The infrastructure firms have low ROA and ROIC. ,The real estate, infrastructure and industrial construction drastically differ from each other. The challenges involved in real estate, infrastructure and industrial construction are altogether different. Therefore, authors present a comparative analysis of the profitability of real estate, infrastructure and industrial construction segments of the construction and compare their determinants of profitability. The results provided in the study are robust and reliable because of the use of a superior econometric model, i.e. Arellano–Bond dynamic panel data estimation with robust estimates, which accounts for heteroscedasticity and endogeneity in the model.
Life Cycle and Synchronization of Nymphal Development of the Mayfly Ephoron shigae in Japan (Ephemeroptera: Polymitarcyidae)

The life cycle of E. shigae, including eclosion, nymphal growth, last instar recruitment and adult emergence, was studied in a Japanese river. The synchronization of nymphal development is discussed. Eggs hatched sporadically from mid-March to early April as determined from continuous sampling of eggs from the river substratum. Nymphs attained the last instar in mid- to late August and emerged in mid-September. Size of nymphs at the time of last instar recruitment decreased gradually as did the size of emerging mayflies. Smaller individuals entering the last instar later developed more quickly and required a smaller number of degree-days to complete the last instar than did larger individuals. Consequently, larval development synchronized during the period between last instar recruitment and adult emergence.
Review on Coffee Production and Marketing in Ethiopia

Coffee, Ethiopia’s largest export crop is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. However, Ethiopia has not yet fully exploited its position as the producer of some of the best coffees in the world. Hence, a little information has been gathered on different aspects of the coffee with the objectives of reviewing coffee production and marketing in Ethiopia, and marketing actors and margin distribution of coffee in Ethiopia. Data from FAOSTAT, CSA and different published materials on coffee were used. According to the review, lack of competitiveness, lack of infrastructure, in adequate access to services, low value addition, in adequate technology transfer and research, competition of khat and rainfall variability are among major constraints of coffee production in Ethiopia. Price volatility, Poor accesses to market, little market promotion and incentive mechanism, and low price were reported to be the major problem of coffee marketing in Ethiopia. Licensing of more traders and inspecting their activities, enhancing infrastructural and institutional facilities and improving of coffee production technologies through development, and extension of improved coffee varieties and other related agronomic practices were among the major recommendations forwarded from the review. Keywords : Coffee, Ethiopia, Production, Marketing DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/67-02 Publication date: April 30 th 2020
METABOLIC ECOLOGY: LINKING INDIVIDUALS TO ECOSYSTEMS

Metabolism sustains life and controls the growth, reproduction, and longevity of living entities. As Brown et al. (2003, 2004) show, the ‘‘fire of life’’ is central to our understanding of patterns and dynamics at all levels of biological organization. However simple, it took 70 years to substantiate this statement; from Kleiber’s (1932) conclusion that the mass of the organism raised to the 3⁄4 power was the best predictor of metabolism to the model of West et al. (1997, 1999) that explains this relationship as a consequence of fundamental attributes of biological networks. This work paved the way to the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) outlined by Brown et al. (2004). We think that the theory outlined by Brown and co-workers represents a breakthrough that endows ecological sciences with a fresh perspective and a quantitative theory to tackle ecological complexity, from individuals to ecosystems. However, as with any new theory in science, it can be improved and refined.
Responses of Leymus arenarius to Nutrients: Improvement of Seed Production and Seedling Establishment for Land Reclamation

Iceland has vast areas of mobile sand resulting from volcanic glacier bursts and erosion. Seed of the coastal, dune-building grass Leymus arenarius is harvested from natural stands for use in extensive land reclamation programmes. We investigated the economic use of fertilizer treatments in managing the production of seeds, and to facilitate the establishment and survival of seedlings. Seed yield could be increased dramatically in coastal dunes by the application of nitrogen fertilizers, mainly as a result of increased flowering-spike density. Little short-term advantage accrued from additions of phosphorus or potassium. Additions of N (rapid-release formulations) at 50-100 kg ha -1 could be highly cost-effective in providing the current production from a much smaller area of dunes or in increasing seed production. Other consequences would be to minimize the environmental impact of harvesting and to allow more focused management of the seed resource. If periodic applications of and K should prove necessary to maintain yield, they would be economically justifiable. Establishment of seedlings on volcanic, sandy barrens over the first two seasons from sowing was improved by the application of slow-release fertilizers; however, rapid-release formulations applied annually, produced a similar tiller density and biomass after 4 years more economically. Untreated control populations became extinct over the same period, underlining the necessity for nutrient addition. A sand-culture experiment indicated that plants severely deprived of P allocated more dry mass to roots and rhizomes, and those deprived of K allocated more to above-ground parts. These responses might be manipulated to improve establishment in slowly and rapidly accreting environments, respectively. The seed production of moribund, late-successional stands could not be rejuvenated by fertilizer application. On the contrary, where there was a vegetational response, competing species were stimulated at the expense of L. arenarius.
SmartHeating: On the Performance and Lifetime Improvement of Self-Healing SSDs

In NAND flash memory-based solid-state drives (SSDs), during the idle time between the consecutive program/erase cycles (dwell time), the dielectric damage of flash cell can be partially repaired, also known as the self-recovery effect. As the effectiveness of the self-recovery effect can be improved under high temperature, self-healing SSDs are proven feasible to extend the flash endurance significantly. However, current self-healing SSDs perform the heating operations on all the worn-out blocks without considering the data retention requirement, and measures the lifetime of flash memory based on the worst-case self-recovery effect, leading to some unnecessary heating operations and the degraded performance. We propose SmartHeating, a smart heating scheme that exploits the dwell time variation and the write hotness variation to improve the I/O performance and the lifetime of self-healing SSDs. SmartHeating tracks the dwell time of all worn-out flash blocks, predicts their self-recovery effect and reliability, and avoids performing heating operations on the worn-out flash blocks that still have strong flash reliability. In addition, by exploiting the data hotness variation, SmartHeating only heats the worn-out flash blocks that store write-cold data, while allocating write-hot data to a small portion of worn-out flash blocks with negligible refresh overhead. The experimental results show that SmartHeating reduces the number of heating operations by 12.5% on average, boosts I/O performance of flash storage systems by 21.0%, and improves the lifetime of flash memory by $1.20\times $ compared with conventional heating scheme.
Secular change in atmospheric Ar∕N2 and its implications for ocean heat uptake and Brewer–Dobson circulation

Abstract. Systematic measurements of the atmospheric Ar∕N2 ratio have been made at ground-based stations in Japan and Antarctica since 2012. Clear seasonal cycles of the Ar∕N2 ratio with summertime maxima were found at middle- to high-latitude stations, with seasonal amplitudes increasing with increasing latitude. Eight years of the observed Ar∕N2 ratio at Tsukuba (TKB) and Hateruma (HAT), Japan, showed interannual variations in phase with the observed variations in the global ocean heat content (OHC). We calculated secularly increasing trends of 0.75 ± 0.30 and 0.89 ± 0.60 per meg per year from the Ar∕N2 ratio observed at TKB and HAT, respectively, although these trend values are influenced by large interannual variations. In order to examine the possibility of the secular trend in the surface Ar∕N2 ratio being modified significantly by the gravitational separation in the stratosphere, two-dimensional model simulations were carried out by arbitrarily modifying the mass stream function in the model to simulate either a weakening or an enhancement of the Brewer–Dobson circulation (BDC). The secular trend of the Ar∕N2 ratio at TKB, corrected for gravitational separation under the assumption of weakening (enhancement) of BDC simulated by the 2-D model, was 0.60 ± 0.30 (0.88 ± 0.30) per meg per year. By using a conversion factor of 3.5 × 10−23 per meg per joule by assuming a one-box ocean with a temperature of 3.5 ∘C, average OHC increase rates of 17.1 ± 8.6 ZJ yr−1 and 25.1 ± 8.6 ZJ yr−1 for the period 2012–2019 were estimated from the corrected secular trends of the Ar∕N2 ratio for the weakened- and enhanced-BDC conditions, respectively. Both OHC increase rates from the uncorrected- and weakened-BDC secular trends of the Ar∕N2 ratio are consistent with 12.2 ± 1.2 ZJ yr−1 reported by ocean temperature measurements, while that from the enhanced-BDC is outside of the range of the uncertainties. Although the effect of the actual atmospheric circulation on the Ar∕N2 ratio is still unclear and longer-term observations are needed to reduce uncertainty of the secular trend of the surface Ar∕N2 ratio, the analytical results obtained in the present study imply that the surface Ar∕N2 ratio is an important tracer for detecting spatiotemporally integrated changes in OHC and BDC.
Genetic Variability in Sorghum Exotic Accessions for Nutritional Attributes and Methane Emission Potential

Part of the Plant Sciences Commons, and the Soil Science Commons This document is available at https://uknowledge.uky. edu/igc/23/4-1-1/13 The XXIII International Grassland Congress (Sustainable use of Grassland Resources for Forage Production, Biodiversity and Environmental Protection) took place in New Delhi, India from November 20 through November 24, 2015. Proceedings Editors: M. M. Roy, D. R. Malaviya, V. K. Yadav, Tejveer Singh, R. P. Sah, D. Vijay, and A. Radhakrishna Published by Range Management Society of India
Treatment outcome of different antiretroviral drug regimens in HIV-positive pregnant women

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the maternal and fetal outcomes of currently preferred tenofovir-based regimen with previous zidovudine-based regimen and also to determine whether the time of starting antiretroviral therapy (ART), whether it can affect the pregnancy and fetal outcome. Materials and Methods: Pregnant patients prescribed any of the above regimens were followed up every month till delivery and newborns for initial 6 months. Maternal endpoints were body weight, hemoglobin, and CD4 count, whereas fetal endpoints were birth weight, Apgar score, body weight, and HIV status at 6 months. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and unpaired t-test.P <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A significant increase in CD4 count was observed in patients treated with both the regimens at 12 months as compared to baseline (P < 0.001 and 0.05). Moreover, a significant increase in CD4 count was observed at 12 months as compared to baseline, whether treatment was started before or after the diagnosis of pregnancy (P < 0.05 and 0.001). A significant difference in mean body weight at the end of 9 months was observed in patients wherein ART was started before or after the diagnosis of pregnancy (P < 0.005). Majority of patients had a favorable maternal outcome, while fetal birth weight, Apgar score, body weight, and HIV status were comparable at 6 months irrespective of treatment and time of starting ART. Conclusion: All ART regimens are equally effective in terms of increase in CD4 count, gestational gain in body weight, and pregnancy and fetal outcome. Furthermore, there is no significant difference in efficacy, pregnancy, and fetal outcome in women who were already on ART when diagnosed pregnancy or who were started ART later in antenatal period.