Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Impact of Soil Layer Depth Specification on the Observability of Modeled Soil Moisture and Brightness Temperature

The utility of hydrologic land surface models (LSMs) can be enhanced by using information from observational platforms, but mismatches between the two are common. This study assesses the degree to which model agreement with observations is affected by two mechanisms in particular: 1) physical incongruities between the support volumes being characterized and 2) inadequate or inconsistent parameterizations of physical processes. The Noah and Noah-MP LSMs by default characterize surface soil moisture (SSM) in the top 10 cm of the soil column. This depth is notably different from the 5-cm (or less) sensing depth of L-band radiometers such as NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite mission. These depth inconsistencies are examined by using thinner model layers in the Noah and Noah-MP LSMs and comparing resultant simulations to in situ and SMAP soil moisture. In addition, a forward radiative transfer model (RTM) is used to facilitate direct comparisons of LSM-based and SMAP-based L-band Tb retrievals. Agreement between models and observations is quantified using Kolmogorov–Smirnov distance values, calculated from empirical cumulative distribution functions of SSM and Tb time series. Results show that agreement of SSM and Tb with observations depends primarily on systematic biases, and the sign of those biases depends on the particular subspace being analyzed (SSM or Tb). This study concludes that the role of increased soil layer discretization on simulated soil moisture and Tb is secondary to the influence of component parameterizations, the effects of which dominate systematic differences with observations.
Immunology of the gray short-tailed opossum during pregnancy and prenatal development

Vertebrate species that bear live young have overcome the evolutionary challenge of maintaining both a functional adaptive immune system and viviparous life cycle. In normal pregnancy, viviparous mothers are able sustain and nourish a fetus that is genetically half non-self without mounting an immunological attack. In 1953 Sir Peter Medawar brought attention to the “enigma of the fetal graft” and immunologists have been puzzling out the intricacies of fetal tolerance ever since. Although viviparity has evolved in all jawed vertebrate lineages aside from Aves, the vast majority of reproductive immunology research has been limited to eutherian mammals. There are insights to be gained by examining the reproductive immunology of other viviparous lineages. Marsupials, which share a common viviparous ancestor with eutherians, could be key in highlighting the most ancestral of mammalian characteristics.
Long-Term No-Tillage and Straw Retention Management Enhances Soil Bacterial Community Diversity and Soil Properties in Southern China

Conservation farming practices, such as no-tillage and crop residue retention, have been proposed as sustainable management practices. However, it remains unclear how different tillage practices and rice straw retention affect the soil bacterial community (SBC) and the soil C/N ratio in the long term. The objective of this study was to evaluate changes in SBC composition and abundance and soil properties (e.g., carbon (C), nitrogen (N)) and determine their relationship to the soil C/N ratio under long-term no-tillage and straw retention techniques. This study investigates the effect of a long-term field experiment begun in 2008 and continued until 2019 to measure the response of the SBC and soil properties and their relation to different tillage practices, including no-tillage (NT), no-tillage and straw mulching (NT-SM), conventional tillage (CT), conventional tillage and straw mulching (CT-SM), and conventional tillage and straw retention (CT-SR). Soil samples were collected at depths of 0–5 cm (A), 5–10 cm (B), and 10–20 cm (C) after rice harvesting in the early and late growing seasons in 2018–2019. The Illumina MiSeq sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology was used to analyze changes in SBC diversity in soil and determined the changes in the soil C/N ratio and their relationship with the SBC diversity. The results showed that the Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Chloroflexi were the dominant phyla in the soil and accounted for 61.26%, 59.39%, and 55.62% of the total bacteria in the A, B, and C soil layers, respectively. The NT treatment increased SBC diversity, the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and the proportion of Proteobacteria across the soil depths. Similarly, straw retention also significantly improved SBC diversity, soil organic C (SOC), total N (TN), soil C/N ratio, and the abundance of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria in the soil layers A and B. The NT-SM treatment increased the SOC, TN, and soil C/N ratio by 30%, 21%, and 6% in 2018 and by 33, 25% and 7% in 2019, respectively, across the seasons and layers compared to the CT treatment. The NT-SM treatment had the highest soil bacterial diversity index, and the CT-SR treatment had the highest soil bacterial abundance and number of OTUs. The redundancy analysis showed that Acidobacteria were highly positively correlated with the soil C/N ratio. The results demonstrate that conservation tillage practices, i.e., no-tillage and straw retention, increase the SBC diversity and soil C/N ratio, thereby enhancing soil organic C and total N and changing soil microbial ecology. As a result, sustainable crop production and profitable agro-ecosystems are ensured.
Arbitration of Accommodation in US Workplaces: Employee, Stakeholder and Human Resources Characteristics

This research examines how arbitrators consider accommodations for employees with physical and mental illnesses. Unlike other recent research on the subject, the authors specifically and purposely draw their sample from recent US arbitration cases—2015 to 2018, n&nbsp;=&nbsp;209. Additionally, using content analysis software, NVivo, the case characteristics were autocoded, and the case outcomes were manually coded. Using logistic regression, the following model was developed to predict the odds of case outcomes: disability, injury, discrimination, retaliation, absence and reinstatement. The Cox and Snell and Nagelkerke analysis indicates that our model accounts for approximately 15.6 to 21.5 per cent of the variance, with 33.3 per cent of the individual and split arbitration cases outcomes and 91.2 per cent for organisation arbitration cases correctly predicted. The model predicts 71.2 per cent of the cases.
Neural mechanisms underlying the precision of visual working memory

The neural mechanisms associated with the limited capacity of working memory has long been studied, but it is still unclear how the brain maintains the fidelity of representations in working memory. Here, an orientation recall task for estimating the precision of visual working memory was performed both inside and outside an fMRI scanner. Results showed that the trial-by-trial recall error (in radians) was correlated with delay period activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC) during working memory maintenance, regardless of the memory load. Moreover, delay activity in LOC also correlated with the individual participant’s precision of working memory from a separate behavioral experiment held two weeks prior. Furthermore, a region within the prefrontal cortex, the inferior frontal junction (IFJ), exhibited greater functional connectivity with LOC when the working memory load increased. Together, our findings provide unique evidence that the LOC supports visual working memory precision, while communication between the IFJ and LOC varys with visual working memory load.
Effect of Incubation Time During Sperm Sexing Process on Sperm Quality of Pasundan Bull

The research was conducted to evaluate the effect of incubation time on viability, plasma membrane integrity, abnormality, and DNA integrity of sexed Pasundan’s bulls sperm. The sperm sexing used 5% and 10% concentrations of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA). A completely randomized design with three treatments and six replications was used in this study. The data were analyzed using variance analysis followed by Duncan’s multiple distance test. Parameter evaluated were sperm longevity, plasma membrane integrity (PMI), abnormality, and DNA integrity of sexed Pasundan bulls sperm. Results showed that incubation time gave significant effect (P<0.05) on the longevity of sperm, but not on the PMI of Pasundan bulls sexed sperm. The incubation time of 45 minutes gave the highest value of longevity sperm on the upper layer (4.33 days) and the lower layer (4.17 days). Furthermore, the abnormality of sperm X in the upper layer was 4.00%-4.20% and the lower layer was 4.10%- 4.40%. Meanwhile, the DNA integrity of an upper layer was 98.16%-98.66%, and the lower layer was 97.83%-98.58%. It is concluded that 45 minutes of incubation time significantly affected the longevity of sperm, but not plasma membrane integrity, abnormality, and DNA integrity of Pasundan bulls sexed sperm.
Growth of Fagus sylvatica L. and Picea abies (L.) Karst. Seedlings Grown in Hiko Containers in the First Year after Planting

In forest management in Poland, there are no standards for the quality and suitability for planting seedlings produced in nursery containers; therefore, research contributing to the development of such guidelines is important. We investigated the growth reaction of European beech and Norway spruce seedlings growing in container technology one year after planting on an experimental forest plantation. The seedlings used in the study were three experimental variants grown in a container nursery differing in fertilization. Two heights of seedlings were measured, i.e., after the first growing season on the experimental plantation and the initial (obtained in the forest nursery), and the annual (AHI, cm) and relative height increments (RHI, %) were calculated. The regression of the RHI of seedlings to their initial height was calculated, and the equations obtained were used to determine the optimal range of seedling height at the stage of nursery growth at which they will achieve the maximum increment in the first year of growth on the plantation. The change from foliar fertilization to a mixed one affected beech and spruce seedling parameters; however, it did not affect the diversity of their survival on the experimental plantation. Higher seedlings planted on the experimental plantation were characterized by a smaller RHI. The optimal range for the height of seedlings obtained at the nursery stage of growing, which determined the maximum value of the AHI after the first year of growth after planting, was 18–36 cm for beech and 14–25 cm for spruce.
Retail Investors’ Trading and Stock Market Liquidity

Abstract The paper investigates the relation between retail investors’ participation in trading and aggregate stock market liquidity. The findings show a positive and significant relation between retail investors’ trading and stock market liquidity. Examination of the determinants of retail investors’ trading reveals that, on average, retail investors with more diversified trading activity tend to trade when liquidity is higher, the frequency of their arrival to the market is not affected by the level of liquidity, and retail investors are willing to trade at a lower liquidity level as sellers than as buyers. Moreover, retail investors’ trading does not create price noise at the aggregate market level. Overall, the evidence suggests that retail investors contribute to market quality.
Quantifying ecological and social drivers of ecological surprise

Author(s): Filbee-Dexter, K; Symons, CC; Jones, K; Haig, HA; Pittman, J; Alexander, SM; Burke, MJ | Abstract: © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology © 2018 British Ecological Society A key challenge facing ecologists and ecosystem managers is understanding what drives unexpected shifts in ecosystems and limits the effectiveness of human interventions. Research that integrates and analyses data from natural and social systems can provide important insight for unravelling the complexity of these dynamics. It is, therefore, a critical step towards the development of evidence-based, whole-system management approaches. To examine our ability to influence ecosystems that are behaving in unexpected ways, we explore three prominent cases of “ecological surprise. ” We captured the social-ecological systems (SES) using key variables and interactions from Ostrom’s SES framework, which integrates broader ecosystem processes (e.g. climate, connectivity), management variables (e.g. quotas, restrictions, monitoring), resource use behaviours (e.g. harvesting) and the resource unit (e.g. trees, fish, clean water) being managed. Structural equation modelling revealed that management interventions often influenced resource use behaviours (e.g. rules and limits strongly affected harvest or pollution), but they did not have a significant effect on the abundance of the managed resource. Instead, most resource variability was related to ecological processes and feedbacks operating at broader spatial or temporal scales than management interventions, which locked the resource system into the degraded state. Synthesis and applications. Mismatch between the influence of management systems and ecosystem processes can limit the effectiveness of human interventions during periods of ecological surprise. Management strategies should shift from a conventional focus on removal or addition of a single resource towards solutions that influence the broader ecosystem. Operationalizing Ostrom’s framework to quantitatively analyse social-ecological systems using structural equation models shows promise for testing solutions to navigate these events.
Thermoregulation in a North Temperate Population of Midland Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta marginata): Temporal Patterns and Intersexual Differences

The regulation of body temperature (Tb) is important for energy acquisition in ectotherms but may be challenging and costly. We studied the thermal biology of a north temperate population of Midland Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta marginata) in a small pond in central Michigan. Cycling of mean daily body temperature (Tb) began as early as March and continued through October. The thermoregulatory setpoint range was 25–31°C, and turtles largely maintained Tb near or within the Tset range throughout the day between May and September. Mean hourly Tb was slightly (+0.5°C) higher on sunny days when compared to cloudy days. Turtles had relatively low investment in thermoregulation during the fall months potentially as an energy conservation measure prior to hibernation. Thermal exploitation values (Ex) indicated that our turtles spent as much, or more, time within the Tset range than individuals in other north temperate Painted Turtle populations and other reptile species studied to date, which was most likely due to the relatively high thermal quality of our aquatic environment. We did not find differences between males and females in terms of thermal exploitation, which suggests little or no differences in thermal energy needs that might be associated with potential energetic allocations to reproductive activities (e.g., ovarian development or mate location in males).
Drama as physical role-play: actions and outcomes for life science lessons in South Africa

Abstract Two volunteer BEd student teachers in their fourth year of a BEd degree at a metropolitan university in the Western Cape of South Africa designed and taught lessons to two classes of the same age and ability in grade 7 (ages 12–13), using drama role-plays (intervention) and more conventional non-drama methods (control). Lessons were observed and video-audio recorded to identify episodes critical to successful learning. Learners (pupils) in both sets of classes were tested in associated content using tests designed by the student teachers. In both cases test outcomes were in favour of drama lessons (F = .56 and .55) but were not necessarily linked to the number of positive teaching episodes. Lack of interaction between student teachers and their learners, insufficient structure to the role-plays or a tendency to over-contextualise scenarios did not seem to have hindered conceptual understanding. Findings suggest a more nuanced and progressive programme of training in using drama for teaching science would be beneficial and that subject knowledge for planning activities must be particularly sound.
THE ECOLOGY OF CARRION COMMUNITIES IN MARITIME-TERRESTRIAL HABITATS: AN INSULAR STUDY OF GULL, SEAL, AND RODENT DECOMPOSITION ON THE ISLES OF SHOALS (NEW HAMPSHIRE)

During 1979-1982 I investigated aspects of the ecology of Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) and Great Blackbacked Gull (Larus marinus), Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), and rodent (Rattus norwegicus, Cricetus aurata, Mus musculus) carrion communities on the Isles of Shoals, a group of nine small islands located 10 km SW of Portsmouth, New Hampshire (42(DEGREES)59'N, 70(DEGREES)37'W). Carcasses passed through a series of predictable decompositional stages (fresh, bloat, active, advanced, and dry) defined by characteristics of carrion appearance and faunal associates. Of the numerous species of invertebrates collected from coastal carrion, few played a major role in decomposition. Blow fly larvae and dermestid beetles were the primary carrion consumers. Spiders, ants, and staphylinid and histerid beetles were the major predators. The importance of carrion frequenting insects in the decomposition of vertebrate carrion located in habitats with strong maritime influences was indicated. Carrion community members were divided into 5 tropic guilds: (i) Necrophages, (ii) Necrophiles, (iii) Predators, (iv) Necrophages/Predators, (v) Parasites. Necrophages partition carrion spatially, temporally, and by extent of desiccation. Predators selected prey by location, size, and life stage. Carcasses located in "less exposed" areas characteristically supported a greater variety of species and decomposed at a slower rate. Seasonal variations in carrion abundance, availability to necrophagous arthropods, and community composition were evident on the Isles of Shoals. Small carcasses supported statistically fewer anthropod species than large; and carrion located at greater distances from source of colonists were also less species rich. The successional process, characteristics of early and late colonists, and the effects of carrion size and distance from source of colonists suggest a process of colonization and community development consistent with geographical and less ephemeral biological island systems.
The optimal TTC dose and its chemical reduction level during soil dehydrogenase activity assay

Abs t rac t . 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) is a dye largely used for determination of microbiological activity in soil samples by dehydro genase assay. TTC is colourless in the oxidised form and red when reduced, due to formation of the product 1,3,5-triphenyl formazan (TPF). In this study, different doses of TTC ranging from 0.2 to 3 . 0% were added to six different soil types with the aim to verify the effect of chemical TTC reduction a d to optimise the substrate dose in order to prevent a toxic effect on microorganisms. Regarding th e technical simplicity and cost-effectiveness, the TTC assay is commonly recommended as an efficient m ethod for determination of soil biological activity, provided that an appropriate concentratio n is applied, depending on the soil type. The lowes t TTC levels of 0.2 and 0.5% are recommended for Albi c Luvisol and Eutric Fluvisol, respectively, and the highest (2%) for Brunic Arenosol and Haplic Luv isol soils. It has also been demonstrated that DHA has biological origin in more than 90%, whilst chem ical TTC reduction accounts for less than 10%, and therefore does not interfere with the correctne ss of the results obtained.
Preliminary Study on the Assessment of the Marginal Fit of Three-Dimensional Methacrylate Oligomer Phosphine Oxide Provisional Fixed Dental Prostheses Made by Digital Light Processing

This article aimed to assess the marginal fit of methacrylate-oligomer-phosphine-oxide curable-resin provisional-fixed dental prostheses made by digital-light-processing (DLP) three-dimensional (3D) printing. A stainless-steel master model with two abutments was scanned, and five three-unit provisional bridges were designed and printed in VITA shade A3.5 curable resin in 50 μm-thick layers. The marginal fit of each abutment was measured at six points using a profile projector. A descriptive data analysis of the fit measurements was performed by descriptive and explorative processes with the SPSS software. The curable-resin provisional restorations made by DLP 3D printing reached values of 46.37 μm (SD: 29.58 μm), which were considered clinically acceptable, with values similar to polyethylene-methacrylate and polyether-ether-ketone provisional restorations.
Evaluation of the protective efficacy of Salmonella Gallinarum 9R strain vaccine against Salmonella strains isolated from cases suspected of salmonellosis outbreaks in poultry farms in central Ethiopia

Salmonellosis is one of the most important bacterial diseases of poultry causing heavy economic losses. Though it can be prevented through vaccination, regular monitoring of the protective efficacy of the vaccine against field outbreaks is essential since antigenically dissimilar serovars may evolve compromising the efficacy of the vaccine. This study was, therefore, carried out to evaluate the protective efficacy of the currently used attenuated Salmonella Gallinarum 9R strain vaccine against experimental challenge with field isolates of Salmonella strains obtained from disease outbreaks. Three Salmonella serovars viz Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella Pullorum and Salmonella Enteritidis isolated and identified (phenotypically and molecularly) from outbreaks suspected of salmonellosis were used for the challenge experiment. A total of 90 chickens randomly divided into 2 categories (vaccinated and non-vaccinated control) each comprising 45 birds were used for protective efficacy study. Each of these categories were further subdivided and randomly assigned into 3 groups each comprising 15 birds for challenge with each of the three field Salmonella serovars. Chickens were vaccinated subcutaneously with live attenuated Salmonella Gallinarum 9R vaccine containing 2x107 CFU per dose. Each group in both vaccinated and non vaccinated category were challenged with the three field serovars (one strain per group) through oral administration of 1 ml of bacterial suspension containing 5×107organisms. Post challenge follow-up showed no mortality in all vaccinated groups challenged with each of the three serovars while a mortality of 53.3% ( N =8), 13.3% ( N =2) and 0% was observed in S. Gallinarum, S. Pullorum and S. Enteritidis challenged nonvaccinated groups, respectively. None of the challenge Salmonella strains were recovered from liver and spleen of the vaccinated birds two weeks after challenge. In conclusion, the currently used attenuated S. Gallinarum 9R strain vaccine against fowl typhoid can effectively confer protection not only against field strains of Salmonella Gallinarum, but also cross-protection to S. Pullorum and S. Enteritidis involved in causing poultry salmonellosis outbreaks in Ethiopia. Keywords: Central Ethiopia; Poultry; Salmonellosis; Vaccine efficacy