Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Finger Millet ( Eleusine corocona ) Production in Lower Eastern, Kenya: Status, Constraints and Opportunities

Due to its drought resistant nature, high nutritional content and ability to produce with few inputs, finger millet is one of the crops that can combat food insecurity in arid and semi-arid lands like eastern Kenya. Against this backdrop, a survey was carried out in Kalama and Katangi divisions of Machakos and Kitui counties, to assess status, constraints and opportunities for finger millet production. Logit model was used to determine effect of education, land size, age and gender on finger millet production. Finger millet production was reported by 93% of respondents in Machakos and 92% in Kitui, to be on the decline in the past 20 years due to; lack of seeds (47%, 50%), pests and diseases (33%, 20.8%), overdependence on maize (97.8%, 95.9%) and climate change (20%, 29.2%) in Machakos and Kitui, respectively. Constraints in production were; blast disease (43.8%, 37.2%), bird predation (39.9%, 39.6%), weed infestation (57.1%, 55.8%), climate change (30%,
The autocyclic nature of glaciations

The maximum extent of a glaciation is often confused with the coldest part of a glaciation. During the Last Glaciation, the date of the Last Ice Maximum Extent (LIME) is diachronous very early at high latitudes close to the traditional date in the intertropical mountains. The classical Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) never corresponds to the LIME with the exception of intertropical regions. At middle and high latitudes advances of the LGM only correspond to surges of a lately thickened ice sheet. The same structure also exists at the level of the entire Cenozoic of a whole glaciation or of much shorter events as the scale of a whole Bond’s cycle. For each type of event the reactional sequence is autocyclic: a rapid warming ends a slowly cooling trend due to the higher susceptibility of lower latitudes to external forcing (orbital and solar activity). Moisture supply from an ice-free ocean is the sine qua non to build glaciers. The syngenetic extent of the cold desert toward the equator is the limiting factor for ice volume: when glaciations develop in intertropical mountains with the development of sea ice in the polar zones, glaciers recede by precipitation starvation with restricted sedimentation. During a glacial era in parallel with ice cap building, the progressive sea level lowering and the subsequent enhanced aridity counterbalance the generalization of a world-scale glaciation. This concept could be also valid for the Neoproterozoic Glacial era and should probably invalidate the snowball hypothesis.
A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of a Web-Based Intervention on Perceived Stress and Diet Quality Among First-Year University Students

Background: e-Health interventions can potentially improve health care. My Viva Plan® (MVP) is a web-based program that focuses on mindfulness, nutrition, and physical fitness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of this platform on stress indicators and diet quality among first-year university students. Methods: Ninety-seven university students were enrolled in a randomized, controlled clinical trial. Participants were randomized into control (n = 49) and MVP (n = 48) groups. Perceived stress was measured using the self-report Stress Indicator Questionnaire. Diet quality was assessed by the nutrient-rich foods index, and body composition was assessed by a hand-to-foot, multifrequency, bioelectrical impedance analysis. Results: There were no differences in physical, sleep, behavioral, emotional, and personal habit indicators between groups. Diet quality and body composition were similar between groups, except among women in the MVP group with decreased body fat (−1.2 ± 2.6 kg, p < 0.05). Participant engagement was low: 50% of the MVP group did not access the platform. Conclusions: The MVP web-based intervention was not associated with improvements in stress indicators, diet quality, and body composition, likely due to the characteristics of our cohort of healthy young individuals. Future studies should focus on enhancing motivational approaches to explore the potential of e-health interventions that improve health behavior. Clinical Trial Registration number: NCT03579264A.
Alterations of ecosystem processes as a result of anthropogenic modifications to streams and their catchments

Ecosystem services are the benefits human societies derive from ecosystem processes. Freshwater ecosystems provide many ecosystem services including clean water and waste assimilation. However, humans are altering freshwater ecosystems through practices such as hydrologic alteration and nutrient loading. The objective of this dissertation is to examine how anthropogenic alterations of streams and/or their catchments affect ecosystem processes and concomitantly the ability of streams to provide ecosystem services. I focus on effects of three human modifications: climate change, dam operation, and urbanization. Future climate scenarios can cause dramatic shifts in flow regimes in the Cle Elum and the Apalachicola-ChattahoocheeFlint River systems. These flow regime changes would result in decreased habitat availability and changes in food resources and demonstrate that these types of analysis are a starting point four understanding the ecological implications of future climate scenarios. The Chattahoochee River below Atlanta, GA is regulated by hydropower dams and receives most of Atlanta’s wastewater treatment plant effluent. Processing of the effluent-derived fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) and nutrients is essential for maintaining downstream water quality. Hydropeaking reduces gross primary production. FPOM and phosphorus (P) loading increases respiration and overwhelms the effects of low flow discharge regime on respiration. Nutrient retention by the river is sporadic and temporary. P retention is controlled by sediment absorption, but retention is temporary as P is readily released from sediments. The study reaches are more likely to be sources of ammonium than sinks. Nitrate uptake is controlled by biological uptake associated with suspended FPOM. Overall, P and ammonium uptake velocities in the Chattahoochee River are lower than those in less modified systems. Urban headwater streams had lower uptake velocities and higher ambient nutrient concentrations than forest streams in the Etowah Basin, GA. P uptake is controlled chemical sorption to sediments. Ammonium uptake is controlled by biological processes. Conserving functioning riparian areas and channels in a conservation subdivison reduces some urbanization effects and maintains nutrient retention. Human alterations have diminished the capacity of these rivers and streams to provide ecosystem services, but reducing hydropeaking, decreasing nutrient loading, and maintaining riparian areas and stream channels could increase the ability of urban streams and rivers to provide the services that human communities value. INDEX WORDS: Ecosystem services, Nutrient uptake, Ecosystem metabolism, Climate change, Flow regime, Urbanization, Streams ALTERATIONS IN ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES AS A RESULT OF ANTHROPOGENIC MODIFICATIONS TO STREAMS AND THEIR CATCHMENTS
The Effects of Grazing Intensity on Soil Microorganisms and Soil Microbial Biomass in Meadow Steppe

Soil microorganisms and soil microbial biomass(carbon,nitrogen) in meadow steppe were studied.The results showed that the relation of the soil microorganism numbers was bacterianitrogen fixing bacteriaactinomycetesfungi.In addition,soil microbial biomass(carbon,nitrogen) were gradually reducing along with aggrandizement of pasturing intensity.The numbers of the soil microorganisms and soil microbial biomass(carbon,nitrogen) in heavy grazing area were less than the control area and the light grazing area.Correlation analysis indicated that the numbers of the soil microorganisms and the soil microbial biomass were in significant or very significant positive correlation.
Ultramafic xenoliths in plio-pleistocene alkali basalts from the eastern transylvanian basin: Depleted mantle enriched by vein metasomatism

Ultramafic xenoliths from alkali basalts in the Per§ani Mountains in the Eastern Transylvanian Basin (ETB) of Romania are mainly spinel Iherzolites, although spinel harzburgites, websterites, clinopyroxenites and amphibole pyroxenites are also present. Amphibole veins cut some spinel peridotite samples. All are derived from the shallow lithospheric upper mantle. In general, textural variations are restricted to protogranular and porphyroclastic types, compared with the more varied textures found in mantle xenoliths from the alkali basalts of the neighbouring Pannonian Basin. Also, ETB peridotites are richer in amphibole. Thus, the mantle beneath the edge of the ETB is less deformed but more strongly metasomatized than the mantle closer to the centre of the Pannonian Basin. Mineralogical and bulk-rock geochemical variations resemble those of spinel Iherzolites from other sub-continental shallow mantle xenolith suites. There is no apparent correlation between deformation and geochemistry, and much of the major and trace element variation is due to variable extraction of picritic melts. The REE patterns of separated clinopyroxenes from the peridotite xenoliths are mostly LREE depleted, although clinopyroxenes from regions adjacent to amphibole veins have experienced an enrichment in La and Ce and a change in their Sr and Nd isotopic values towards those of the vein, while still retaining an overall LREE depletion. Clinopyroxenes from the websterites and clinopyroxenites are more variable. Amphibole in the hydrous pyroxenites and amphibole veins is strongly LREE enriched and is considered to be metasomatic in origin. 87Sr/86Sr and
Paleolimnological Evidence from Diatoms for Recent Environmental Changes in 50 Lakes across Canadian Arctic Treeline

Abstract Changes in diatom assemblage composition since preindustrial times were analyzed in a landscape paleolimnological study of 50 lakes and also in a more detailed analysis of a dated sediment core from Slipper Lake in the Canadian central arctic treeline region. The most apparent taxonomic shift was toward a higher relative abundance of the planktonic Cyclotella stelligera complex and a lower relative abundance of benthic Fragilaria taxa (F. pinnata, F. construens var. venter, F. construens, and F. brevistriata) in the modern versus the older sediments. Diatom assemblage composition in Slipper Lake recorded a marked change in the top 5.0 cm (ca. mid-1800s) of the core with a clear shift to a more planktonic diatom assemblage characterized by higher percentages of the Cyclotella stelligera complex. Possible causative factors, such as recent anthropogenic acidification, nutrient enrichment, or atmospheric deposition of contaminants, do not appear sufficient to explain these species changes. Instead, these recent assemblage shifts are consistent with limnological changes occurring with climatic warming, such as a shorter duration of ice cover, a longer growing season, and/or stronger thermal stratification patterns.
The May threshold and life-history allometry

One of Robert May’s classic results was finding that population dynamics become chaotic when the average lifetime rate of reproduction exceeds a certain value. Populations whose reproductive rates exceed this May threshold probably become extinct. The May threshold in each case depends upon the shape of the densitydependence curve, which differs among models of population growth. However, species of different sizes and generation times that share a roughly similar density-dependence curve will also share a similar May threshold. Here, we argue that this fact predicts a striking allometric regularity among animal taxa: lifetime reproductive rate should be roughly independent of body size. Such independence has been observed in diverse taxa, but has usually been ascribed to a fortuitous combination of physiologically based life-history allometries. We suggest, instead, that the ecological elimination of unstable populations within groups that share a value of the May threshold is a likely cause of this allometry.
Horizontal hydraulic conductivity of shallow streambed sediments and comparison with the grain‐size analysis results

Streambed horizontal hydraulic conductivity (Kh) has a substantial role in controlling exchanges between stream water and groundwater. We propose a new approach for determining Kh of the shallow streambed sediments. Undisturbed sediment samples were collected using tubes that were horizontally driven into streambeds. The sediment columns were analysed using a permeameter test (PT) on site. This new test approach minimizes uncertainties due to vertical flow in the vicinity of test tube and stream stage fluctuations in the computation of the Kh values. Ninety‐eight PTs using the new approach were conducted at eight sites in four tributaries of the Platte River, east‐central Nebraska, USA. The Kh values were compared with the nondirectional hydraulic conductivity values (Kg) determined from 12 empirical grain‐size analysis methods. The grain‐size analysis methods used the same sediment samples as Kh tests. Only two methods, the Terzaghi and Shepherd methods, yielded Kg values close to the Kh values. Although the Sauerbrei method produced a value relatively closer to Kh than other nine grain‐size analysis methods, the values from this method were not as reliable as the methods of Terzaghi and Shepherd due to the inconsistent fluctuation of the average estimates at each of the test sites. The Zunker, Zamarin, Hazen, Beyer, and Kozeny methods overestimated Kh, while the Slichter, US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), Harleman, and Alyamani and Sen methods underestimated Kh. Any of these specific grain‐size methods might yield good estimates of streambed Kh at some sites, but give poor estimates at other sites, indicating that the relationship between Kg and Kh is significantly site dependent in our study. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AMSR-E/MPI AND MODIS LAI/NDVI

This paper describes in brief the development of the MPI (Microwave Polarization Index) technology and makes a derivation for MPI according to the radiance transfer equation. Thes collected MODIS LAI/NDVI matching to AMSR-E MPI by using the longitude/latitude as the control condition. The analysis indicates that there exists an exponent relationship between MPI and LAI/NDVI. The better the relationship, the lower the frequency. This paper also deals with the microwave polarization index in the application field.
Effets de la conduite zootechnique sur les performances de deux élevages bovins laitiers en zone semi-aride au Maroc

Cette etude a vise la caracterisation des performances de deux elevages bovins laitiers dans une zone d'agriculture pluviale au Maroc. Les resultats ont revele un âge moyen au premier velage affecte par la race (30,0 et 34,8 mois pour la Montbeliarde et la prim'Holstein) et par l'annee de naissance. En revanche, l'intervalle moyen entre velages des femelles non reformees n'etait pas affecte par la race (388 et 394 jours pour la Montbeliarde et la prim'Holstein). La fecondite etait contrastee : 71,0 et 43,3 % de (.)
COASTAL EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AS INTERPRETED FROM BENTHIC FORAMINIFERA, OSTRACODES, AND POLLEN

Three paleoecological studies were conducted on five lagoons and marshes in San Diego County in 1973–1975 and initial results were published in 1976. This paper integrates the earlier results with new palynological evidence, microfossil, and sedimentological data to provide a regional perspective of lagoon, salt-marsh, and climate changes in southern California over the past 8000 years. Foraminiferal species are illustrated and a revised taxonomy is presented. Ostracodes in the surface samples and boreholes of this region are illustrated for the first time. Surface sample data show the relation between microfossil faunal assemblages, modern salinity, tidal exchange, water depth, and salt-marsh elevation in open lagoons at Tijuana estuary, San Diego and Mission bays, and Agua Hedionda, and for hypersaline-to-brackish marshes in the Los Penasquitos wetlands. Drillhole lithofacies in Los Penasquitos, Tijuana, and Mission Bay marshes were dated with seven radiocarbon ages in addition to those published in 1976. The microfossil surface sample data were used to interpret the drillhole records, showing the paleoecological evolution of the wetlands and the variation within and between lagoons located less than 40 km apart. Abundances of planktonic and other nearshore foraminifera show that Los Penasquitos lagoon was much more open in the mid-Holocene compared to today. Palynological data provide the first documentation of mangrove migration as far north as San Diego in the mid-Holocene, which implies warmer winters and wetter summers at that time. Palynostratigraphic data also permit refined timing of recent changes (past 300 years) in lagoonal environments based on use of historical dates for introduced plant species.
Voices from the field: Expert reflections on mild cognitive impairment

This special issue of Dementia is entitled ‘Voices from the Field: Expert Reflections on Mild Cognitive Impairment’. It consists of a nine interviews with some of the leading scientists, researchers and thinkers who have worked on Mild Cognitive Impairment, better known by its acronym ‘MCI’, within a constellation of issues ranging from its classification, diagnosis, aetiology, intervention, therapeutics, risks and ethics. We, Kevin R Peters (Department of Psychology) and Stephen Katz (Department of Sociology), are faculty members of Trent University in Peterborough, Canada. We conducted these interviews during 2012–13 as part of our ongoing project, ‘Perceptions and Realities of Mild Cognitive Impairment: Diagnosis and Treatment of Older Individuals’, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We found that the experts, whom we interviewed, in their candid, informative and generous reflections on MCI and their work in the dementia field, produced as many questions as they did answers, especially regarding the validity of MCI as a disease category. Our discussions together expressed both the care and caution required to conceptualize the importance of MCI as a focal point for understanding predementia stages in relation to brain ageing. Today, as chronological age becomes less relevant as an age marker, other standards are emerging by which to segment the life course, and memory loss has become certainly one of them. Thus, cognitive health has joined physical health as a key indicator of successful ageing. In this context MCI has become an increasingly significant entity, yet there is still much uncertainty and lack of consensus about what it actually means. The common meaning amongst most neurologists, gerontologists, psychogeriatricians, care-workers and dementia researchers is that Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a category that indicates a measurable degree of cognitive impairment that does not meet the diagnostic criteria for dementia (e.g. Alzheimer disease or AD). Individuals with MCI are therefore not cognitively normal, but they are not demented either; they are somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum of cognitive function. It is precisely this inbetween space, which this special issue of Dementia explores. MCI has been used in both
Dynamical Paleoclimatology of Mars

We investigated the dynamical paleoclimatology of Mars with a focus on three areas: large scale dynamics, atmospheric collapse, and controls on precipitation and aridity of a warm, wet Mars. We explored the changes, and lack of changes, in the large scale circulation over a range of atmospheric masses. We present the results here, with an emphasis on the response of the winds and the meridional transport. The conditions for continuous condensation of the CO2 atmospheres in the polar regions, often called 'atmospheric collapse', were explored by simulating the Martian atmosphere over a wide range of obliquities for a wide range of atmospheric thicknesses. As expected, atmospheric collapse occurs at low obliquities, but surprisingly, collapse occurs for high obliquities (up to 40◦) for moderate atmospheric thicknesses (100's of millibars up to 1000 millibars). Using the MarsWRF model, we show that a competition between atmospheric heating feedbacks, including the greenhouse feedback and the heat transport feedback, and the condensation temperature feedback determines whether atmosphere collapse occurs. Finally, we explored the precipitation and aridity of a warm, wet Mars with an active hydrological system. Even an extremely wet climate with a northern hemisphere ocean produces an extremely dry, desert climate in the southern hemisphere, with an equatorial band of rain and run off. Cross-equatorial flows deliver moist air from the northern ocean into the southern region, but topography and the distribution of land versus ocean limit the extent of the rainfall.
Measurement of benthic nutrient fluxes in mediterranean shellfish farms - a methodological approach

Benthic chambers were used to investigate fluctuations in nutrient fluxes and oxygen changes when comparing two benthic biota. Muddy sediments located under mussel-cultivation ropes were compared with a station outside the mussels' influence. Biodeposition from the mussels results in a drastic increase in the nutrient fluxes. A standard procedure is established in order to give reliable comparisons between stations and seasons: as a rule it should include six-hour periods of incubation with sampling intervals of two hours and at least four benthic chambers - preferably six - at each station.
Decadal winter drought in Southwest China since the late 1990s and its atmospheric teleconnection

The extreme drought in Southwest China (SWC) during the winter 2009/2010 brought catastrophic losses to the state and people. In this article, evidence has been presented that this drought event was not a single one but part of a decade‐long drying period after 2000. Based on observed data from meteorological stations, we identified two distinct modes of winter precipitation in SWC: one is spatially in‐phase change pattern and the other is east–west dipole pattern, both of which experienced a sharp decadal decrease since the late 1990s. The two modes are closely linked to two atmospheric circulation patterns induced by Arctic Oscillation (AO) and El Niño, respectively. The sustained precipitation deficit in SWC after 2000 was associated with the anomalous atmospheric circulation patterns mainly caused by the decadal transition of AO towards its negative phases and frequent El Niño, especially the central Pacific El Niño. The model experiments forced by sea surface temperature anomaly patterns in the North Atlantic (NA) and tropical Pacific (TP), respectively, could robustly reproduce precipitation anomaly in SWC and large‐scale circulation pattern. The NA SST could excite a series of quasi‐stationary wave trains, which propagate eastward to the south of the Himalayas, similar to the AO‐related teleconnection. The SWC is just beneath the anti‐cyclonic circulation anomaly with dry conditions. In the TP experiment, the simulated ascending motion locates over the central Pacific, while the anomalous descending branch of the western Walker cell appears over the SWC, being not conducive to the formation of precipitation.