Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The importance of mean and variance in predicting changes in temperature extremes

The important role of the evolution of mean temperature in the changes of extremes has been recently documented in the literature, and variability is known to play a role in the occurrence of extremes, too. This paper aims at further investigating the role of their evolutions in the observed changes of temperature extremes. Analyses are based on temperature time series for Eurasia and the United States and concern absolute minima in winter and absolute maxima in summer of daily minimum and maximum temperatures. A test is designed to check whether the extremes of the residuals after accounting for a time‐varying mean and standard deviation can be considered stationary. This hypothesis is generally true for all extremes, seasons, and locations. Then, the comparison between the directly fitted parameters and the retrieved ones from those of the residuals compares favorably. Finally, a method is proposed to compute future return levels from the stationary return levels of the residuals and the projected mean and variance at the desired time horizon. Comparisons with return levels obtained through the extrapolation of significant linear trends identified in the parameters of the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution show that the proposed method gives relevant results. It allows taking mean and/or variance trends into account in the estimation of extremes even though no significant trends in the GEV parameters can be identified. Moreover, the role of trends in variance cannot be neglected. Lastly, first results based on two CMIP5 climate models show that the identified link between mean and variance trends and trends in extremes is correctly reproduced by the models and is maintained in the future.
A field‐scale reactive transport model for U(VI) migration influenced by coupled multirate mass transfer and surface complexation reactions

This study explores field‐scale modeling of U(VI) reactive transport through incorporation of laboratory and field data. A field‐scale reactive transport model was developed on the basis of laboratory‐characterized U(VI) surface complexation reactions (SCRs) and multirate mass transfer processes, as well as field‐measured hydrogeochemical conditions at the U.S. Department of Energy, Hanford 300 Area (300 A), Washington. The model was used to assess the importance of multirate mass transfer processes on U(VI) reactive transport and to evaluate the effect of variable geochemical conditions caused by dynamic river water‐groundwater interactions on U(VI) plume migration. Model simulations revealed complex spatiotemporal relationships between groundwater composition and U(VI) speciation, adsorption, and plume migration. In general, river water intrusion enhances uranium adsorption and lowers aqueous uranium concentration because river water dilution increases pH and decreases aqueous bicarbonate concentration, leading to overall enhanced U(VI) surface complexation. Strong U(VI) retardation was computed for the field‐measured hydrogeochemical conditions, suggesting a slow dissipation of the U(VI) plume, a phenomenon consistent with field observations. The simulations also showed that SCR‐retarded U(VI) migration becomes more dynamic and synchronous with the groundwater flow field when multirate mass transfer processes are involved. Breakthrough curves at selected locations and the temporal changes in the calculated mass during the 20 year simulation period indicated that uranium adsorption/desorption never attained steady state because of the dynamic flow field and groundwater composition variations caused by river water intrusion. Thus, the multirate SCR model appears to be a crucial consideration for future reactive transport simulations of uranium contaminants at the Hanford 300 A site and elsewhere under similar hydrogeochemical conditions.
CERTIFIED TO MIGRATE: PROPERTY RIGHTS AND MIGRATION IN RURAL MEXICO

Improving security of tenure over agricultural land has recently been the focus of a number of large land certification programs. While the main justification for these efforts was to increase productive investments and facilitate land rental transactions, we show that if access rights were tied to actual land use in the previous regime, these programs can also lead to increased outmigration from agrarian communities. We analyze the Mexican ejido land certification program which, from 1993 to 2006, awarded ownership certificates to 3.6 million farmers on about half the country’s agricultural land. Using the program rollout over time and space as an identification strategy, we show that households obtaining land certificates were 30% more likely to have a migrant member. The effect was larger for households with ex-ante weaker property rights and with larger off-farm opportunities. At the community level, certificates led to a 4% reduction in population. We show evidence of certificates leading to sorting, with larger farmers staying and land-poor farmers leaving in high productivity areas. We use satellite imagery to determine that, on average, cultivated land was not reduced because of the program, consistent with increases in agricultural labor productivity. Furthermore, in high productivity areas, the certification program led to an increase in cultivated land compared to low productivity areas.
Two varieties of the invasive cat's claw creeper, Macfadyena unguis-cati (bignoniaceae) in Queensland, Australia

The invasive liana cat’s claw creeper, Macfadyena unguis-cati, native to tropical Central and South America, is a major environmental weed in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW). Two morphologically distinct cat’s claw creeper varieties occur in Australia, a ‘short-pod’ variety that is widespread through Queensland and NSW and a ‘long-pod’ variety restricted to a few sites in southeast Queensland. In this study we report the differences in the above-ground morphological, phenological and reproductive traits between the two varieties. The ‘long-pod’ variety has significantly larger leaves, larger pods, and larger number of seeds per pod than the ‘short-pod’ variety. The ‘short-pod’ variety has a slightly wider pods, and thicker leaves than the ‘long-pod’ variety. Both varieties have a yellow trumpet shaped flower, but the flower of the ‘long-pod’ variety has a deeper hue of yellow than the ‘short-pod’ flower. The fruits of the ‘short-pod’ variety mature in late summer to early autumn while the fruits of ‘long-pod’ variety mature in late winter to early spring. The more widespread nature of the ‘short-pod’ variety could potentially be due to a preference for this variety as an ornamental plant, due to its more presentable foliage characteristics and shorter pods, in contrast to the ‘long-pod’ variety.
Low-temperature illitization of smectite in the late eocene and early oligocene of the Isle of Wight (Hampshire basin), U.K.

Abstract Variegated palaeosols, which formed from weathering of clays, silts, and brackish to freshwater limestones, are present in the late Eocene-early Oligocene Solent Group of the Hampshire Basin, southern U.K. The detrital clay mineral suite is dominated by illite and illite-smectite with minor kaolinite and chlorite. In pedogenically modified (palaeosol) and evaporitic lacustrine clay-rich sediments, the proportion of illite in the illite-smectite is greater than in the non-pedogenically modified sediments, and where alteration is most intense, kaolinite and chlorite are absent. The smectite to illite transition has been investigated in the <0.5 μm fraction by XRD analysis (powder and oriented mounts), thermogravimetry (TG), analytical SEM, and chemical analysis of Fe2+. Modeling of XRD data reveals that the illite-smectite is a mixture of compositions (overall 60.95% illite), R0, with high rotational stacking disorder. Dehydroxylation occurs mainly at 500 °C, but also at higher temperatures, indicating heterogeneous octahedral cation composition. Analytical SEM and chemical analysis of Fe2+ indicate that the illite to smectite transition occurs through Fe reduction in octahedral sites leading to increased layer charge, coupled with K fixation. The driving mechanism for what appears to be irreversible Fe3+ reduction is wetting (reducing) and drying (oxidizing) cycles in gley soil, in which reoxidation of reduced Fe is never complete.
Status Trofik Dan Daya Tampung Beban Pencemaran Waduk Sutami

Sutami reservoir water quality declined due to the high character of organic waste disposal. This degradation is attributed by contamination due to natural erosion and agricultural waste, is also due to the entry of domestic waste (household) and industrial waste in upstream reservoirs Sutami. The addition of organic and inorganic materials in the form of waste into the reservoir in addition to changing the chemical composition of water, also affects the biological properties of these waters. The purpose of this study was to determine the load capacity of pollution that occurred in the reservoir Sutami and trophic status based on the Regulation of the Minister of Environment No. 28 of 2009. The study was conducted in the reservoir Sutami using primary and secondary data. Sampling locations in the central part of the reservoir at a depth of 0.3 m and 5 m and the lower reaches of the reservoir at a depth of 0.3 m and 10 m. Observed variables include levels of P (Phosphorus), water clarity, and Chlorophyll-a is contained in water reservoirs Sutami. Chlorophyll-a and the brightness of the water obtained from the sampling process independently, while the number of secondary data from phosphorus (P) obtained from Perum Jasa Tirta I from January 2010 until May of 2011. The data obtained were analyzed with descriptive statistics showing the average and standard deviation. The results showed that the condition of the water reservoir was contaminated Sutami in moderate to severe, both in the location of reservoirs upstream and downstream reservoirs. Trophic status of reservoirs Sutami is eutrofik to hypertrophic occurs on the downstream and middle reservoirs. Impacts arising from pollution levels that occur in the Sutami reservoir is the potential for algae bloom due to the high amount of phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. Load carrying capacity of the reservoir pollution Sutami for total phosphorus (kg / year) at the upstream location; 39 kg P / year, the middle; 195 kg P / year and downstream; 178.5 kg P / year. Keywords: pollution, trophic status, chlorophyll-a, reservoirs Sutami
Diversity and mobility in households with children orphaned by AIDS in Couffo, Benin

This paper characterises children orphaned by AIDS in the Couffo region of Benin. A 2006 census conducted for the research revealed a total of 315 such orphans, aged 0 to 14 years, within 88 households. Seventy-one percent of these children were under the care of their mothers or grandmothers, 68% were fatherless, 58% were between the ages of 7 and 12, and 68% were in primary school. An in-depth study of the orphans' lives, undertaken to complement the census, revealed that these orphans were highly mobile between households, with almost 50% of them moving homes within a six-month period. An analysis of this phenomenon found that orphan mobility was a deliberate household strategy to manage orphanhood. Tensions arising out of care arrangements and resource allocation were among the main reasons for the high degree of orphan mobility. The context of orphan mobility also highlighted the practical role the orphans were able to fulfil within the affected households. The findings show that orphan mobility is a social phenomenon with two functions: on one hand, it may help HIV/AIDS-affected households to manage the increase in the number of orphans; on the other, it can provide an opportunity for orphans to move to a ‘safer’ environment anytime they do not feel secure. The implications for institutions providing care to orphans were also identified. Among other things, we recommend that a distinction be made between the main caregiver and the ‘endorser’ of an orphan as this was found to be an important difference. We also recommended that a distinction be made between orphans under and over the age of 10. For instance, children in the age group 10-14 years should be defined as ‘pre-adults,’ as their position within the household and their needs for services are different from those of orphans under age 10.
Exploring the relationship between HIV and alcohol use in a remote Namibian mining community

In southern Africa, the use of alcohol is increasingly seen as creating a context of risk for HIV transmission. This qualitative study investigates the links between alcohol use and higher-risk sexual behaviours in a remote southern Namibian mining-town community. Using data from six focus groups and 16 in-depth interviews conducted in 2008, the researchers investigated knowledge of the link between alcohol consumption and HIV risk, focusing on the specific mechanisms related to drinking and higher-risk sexual behaviours. Although knowledge regarding HIV and alcohol was high among the mineworkers and other community members, the social structure of a remote mining town appears to lead to high levels of alcohol use and higher-risk sexual behaviours. The heavy use of alcohol acts as an accelerant to these behaviours, including as a source of fortitude for those with an intention to engage in casual sexual partnerships or multiple concurrent partnerships, and as a cause for those behaviours for people who may otherwise intend to avoid them. The findings suggest a need for HIV-prevention programmes that focus more holistically on HIV and AIDS and alcohol use, as well as the need for structural changes to mining-town communities in order to reduce the likelihood of both heavy alcohol use as well as a high prevalence of higher-risk sexual behaviours.
HIV-prevention knowledge among illiterate and low-literate women in rural Amhara, Ethiopia

More than 85% of Ethiopia's population lives in rural areas and literacy levels in the country are relatively low. Despite this, little is known about levels of knowledge in regard to HIV/AIDS and condom use among illiterate and low-literate rural individuals. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 200 illiterate to semi-literate women, ages 13 to 24, from two rural communities in the Amhara region of northwestern Ethiopia. Nearly all the women had heard about HIV and AIDS. Among the illiterate individuals (n = 54), 24% did not know that HIV was the cause of AIDS and 48% did not know that HIV could be transmitted by sexual intercourse without a condom with an HIV-infected person. Among the same group, 59% did not know what a condom is. Literacy had a strong positive association with knowledge of HIV transmission and condoms. Thus, due to a generally higher level of literacy (grade 5-8 attainment), very young women (ages 13-20) had better knowledge of HIV transmission and condoms than did women ages 21-24 who by comparison were less literate. Given poor knowledge of HIV transmission and condoms among illiterate and low-literate women in Amhara, targeted HIV-prevention interventions are needed in this region.
Evidence for Ecological Speciation and Its Alternative

Natural selection commonly drives the origin of species, as Darwin initially claimed. Mechanisms of speciation by selection fall into two broad categories: ecological and mutation-order. Under ecological speciation, divergence is driven by divergent natural selection between environments, whereas under mutation-order speciation, divergence occurs when different mutations arise and are fixed in separate populations adapting to similar selection pressures. Tests of parallel evolution of reproductive isolation, trait-based assortative mating, and reproductive isolation by active selection have demonstrated that ecological speciation is a common means by which new species arise. Evidence for mutation-order speciation by natural selection is more limited and has been best documented by instances of reproductive isolation resulting from intragenomic conflict. However, we still have not identified all aspects of selection, and identifying the underlying genes for reproductive isolation remains challenging.
Indian ocean sea-surface temperature patterns and australian winter rainfall

Indian Ocean sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) for the period 1950–1988 are analysed using principal component analysis, and their relationships with Australian winter rainfall totals for the period 1950–1979 are studied using regression analysis. As has been demonstrated by others, significant simultaneous correlations exist between the dominant patterns in the Indian Ocean and the wintertime rainfall over a large part of Australia. There is also evidence of significant correlations between autumn SST patterns and winter rainfall. These relationships are tested using multiple linear-regression-based predictions of winter rainfall categories for the period 1980–1988. Skill is quantified in terms of categorical predictions. Predictions based on the autumn SSTs exhibit more skill than those based on the autumn SOI, but much less than predictions based on the concurrent winter indices.
Summer Roost-Tree Selection by a Male Indiana Bat on the Fernow Experimental Forest

We attached a radio transmitter to an adult male Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) in June 2001 on the Fernow Experimental Forest in the Allegheny Mountains of north-central West Virginia. The bat was tracked for 4 successive days before the transmitter failed. The bat roosted in three living trees over the study period. Two roosts used for a single night each were in large shagbark hickories (> 45 cm d.b.h.); the roost used for two successive nights was located in a large sugar maple (69.1 cm d.b.h.). Roost trees were characterized by large areas of exfoliating bark and all were canopy-dominant within surrounding stands. One shagbark hickory was a residual tree left following a patch clearcut 6 years earlier. Although few inferences can be drawn from one Indiana bat, many characteristics of this individuals? s roost selections in the central Appalachians were consistent with tree roosts observed in other regions during the non-hibernation period of this species
Subalpine Pasture-Woodlands in a Changing Climate

Keywords: climate change ; subalpine ; grassland ; pasture ; woodland ; transplantation ; altitude gradient ; temperature ; precipitation ; snow ; plant biomass ; litter decomposition ; soil respiration ; soil microbial communities These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 5989 (2013)Programme doctoral EnvironnementFaculte de l'environnement naturel, architectural et construitInstitut d'ingenierie de l'environnementLaboratoire des systemes ecologiquesJury: J.S. Arey (president), M. Bahn, S. Hattenschwiler, J. Six Public defense: 2013-11-22 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-5989Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2013-11-18, modified on 2016-08-09
A hermeneutic analysis of the shell-drilling gastropod predation on mollusks in the Korytnica Clays (Middle Miocene; Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland)

Shell-drilling predation by naticid and muricid gastropods on mollusks has been studied in the fossil assemblage of the Korytnica Clays (Middle Miocene; Holy Cross Mountains, Central Poland). To this end, the hermeneutic method has been employed, which begins with a pre-understanding of a natural phenomenon, then proceeds with data analysis, thus leading to improved understanding, etc. Three large bulk samples have been analysed, each of them consisting of two spatially adjacent subsamples; these samples cover much of the paleosynecological variability discovered previously in the Korytnica Clays. Sample representativeness analysis did not reject the null hypothesis of subsample identity (and hence sample representativeness) in two of three considered samples; for the third one, its subsamples have been consequently analysed separately from each other. Taphonomic analysis focused on the preservation condition of mollusk shells, left-to-right valve ratio among mollusks, bivalve articulation and gastropod preservation, scaphopod preservation, and size-frequency distribution of a number of species. This analysis leads to the conclusion that fossils experienced only local post-mortem transportation, virtually no chemical dissolution, and very little time-averaging, except for the one nonrepresentative sample. Fossil fragmentation is mostly due to compaction. Prey analysis has largely focused on the bivalve Corbula gibba and the gastropod Nassa hoernesi, which has been commonly drilled. Predator analysis concerned both naticid and muricid gastropods. Quantitatively, prey-size preference by the predators, drillhole location distributions, and predation efficiency have been studied, whereas some other questions, such as the preference hierarchy of prey species by the predators could be addressed only qualitatively. Beyond the conclusions concerning the fossil assemblage of the Korytnica Clays, the study also points to the inevitable limitations of qualitative paleoecological inference.
Agronomic behavior of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) in Tapaste locality, Cuba

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a plant that has grains with high nutritional value and also the characteristic of being resistant to drought. Because of that, different cultivars from Syrian Arab Republic have been introduced, in order to disseminate them on local rural sector. It was necessary to evaluate them under Cuban conditions to characterize their agronomic behavior. This work was developed at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA) in Tapaste locality on dry period 2010-2011. To describe the lentil behavior in these local conditions four advanced lines were used arranged in a randomized block design with three replications. They were evaluated 10 agronomic traits and the results showed that lentil showed lower days to flowering and days to maturity than those reported in the literature for this specie requiring less time for maturation than for flowering which coincided with warm temperatures and low rainfall records. Variability was detected for agronomic traits such as number of branches plant -1 , number of pods plant -1 , number of seeds plant -1 , number of seeds pods -1 , weight of 100 seeds and the weight of seeds plant -1 (yield plant -1 ). The number of pods plant -1 and the plant height was those more correlated with the yield plant -1 .
Changes in climate, ocean and ice-sheet conditions in the Ross embayment, Antarctica, at 6 ka

Evidence from the Ross embayment, Antarctica, suggests an abrupt cooling and a concomitant increase in sea-ice cover at about 6000 BP (6 ka). Stable-isotope (δD) concentrations in the Taylor Dome ice core, at the western edge of the Ross embayment, decline rapidly after 6 ka, and continue to decline through the late Holocene. Methanesulfonic acid concentrations at Taylor Dome show opposite trends to δD Sediment cores from the western Ross Sea show a percentage minimum for the sea-ice diatom Fragilariopsis curta between 9 and 6 ka, whenTaylor Dome δD values are highest, followed by an increase through the late Holocene. Radiocarbon dates from raised beach deposits indicate that the retreat of ice shelves in the Ross embayment ceased at about 6 ka, coincident with the environmental changes inferred from the sediment and ice-core records. The similarity in timing suggests an important role for climate in controlling the evolution of ice-shelf margins following the end of the last glaciation.