Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Upland and Lowland Soil Resources of the Ancient Maya at Tikal, Guatemala

Debate over agricultural methods and productivity during the Preclassic and Classic Maya period (1000 BCE to 900 CE) focuses on the agronomic utility of both upland and lowland soil resources of the karst topography characteristic of northern Guatemala and much of the Yucatan peninsula. In settings where direct evidence of agriculture is sparse, stable carbon (C) isotope evidence from soil organic matter (SOM) provides information on past vegetation changes related to ancient maize agriculture. Areas of ancient sustained maize cultivation can be identified in an ecosystem dominated by C forest vegetation because of the unique C photosynthetic pathway of maize. The decomposition of plant materials with divergent photosynthetic mechanisms (C versus C) results in SOM with correspondingly distinct stable C isotope ratios (δC). Such differences are preserved and detectable within the refractory humin fraction of the SOM. This study analyzes the physical and chemical soil properties including stable C isotopes of soils collected from upland and lowland locations near Tikal, Guatemala. Toeslope soils contained strong isotopic evidence of C vegetation likely the result of ancient maize agriculture, while the evidence from shallow soils of the summit and backslopes was less conclusive. In both upland and lowland contexts, however, the stronger evidence of ancient vegetation shifts associated with maize agriculture was found in the deeper fine-textured soils in the footslopes and toeslopes. Examination of soils on toeslopes revealed evidence of deposition from erosional processes upslope that may have been related to the spread of agriculture to less productive soils over time.
Scale Dependence of Radar-Rainfall Rates—An Assessment Based on Raindrop Spectra

Abstract Scale differences may introduce a bias when comparing, merging, or assimilating rainfall measurements because the dynamic range of values representing the underlying physical process strongly depends on the resolution of the data. The present study addresses this issue from the perspective of how well coarser-resolution radar-rainfall observations may be used for evaluation of hydrologic point processes occurring at the land surface, such as rainfall erosion, infiltration, ponding, and runoff. Conceptual and quantitative analyses reveal that scale differences may yield substantial biases. Even for perfect measurements, the overall bias is composed of two contributing factors: one related to a reduction of dynamic range of rain rates and the other related to a dependence of the relationship between observed radar reflectivity factor and retrieved rainfall rate on the scale of observation. The effects of scale differences are evaluated empirically from a perspective of averaging in time based on ra.
Ferns and Lycophytes in Two Areas of Ecotone between Seasonal Semideciduous Forest and Mixed Ombrophilous Forest in Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil

The aim of the present study was to present the wealth, ecological characteristics and the floristic similarity of ferns and lycophytes from two forest areas of the municipality of Campo Mour? o, PR, Brazil. The vegetation of the municipality is characterized mainly by an ecotone between the Seasonal Semideciduous Forest and Mixed Ombrophilous Forest. We recorded 56 species, distributed in 31 genera and 16 families. The most representative families were Pteridaceae (14) and Polypodiaceae (11) and the wealthier genre was Thelypteris (6). The terricolous species were predominant (72%) and the preferential environments were riparian vegetation and forest interior (70%). The flora of Campo Mour? o was more similar to the studies conducted in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and the cophenetic correlation coefficient (r = 0.9058) showed a consistent adjust. In the principal components analysis (PCA) the variance explained by the two principal components was 72.99%. The wealth found in this study corresponds to approximately 11.4% of the flora of ferns and lycophytes of Parana. Future contributions are needed to increase the knowledge about the flora of ferns and lycophytes in areas of ecotone, mainly in the region of Campo Mour? o, where the studies are scarce.
Developing a sediment budget for a small drainage basin in Australia

A sediment budget was developed for the 1.7 km2 Maluna Creek drainage basin located in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia, for the period 1971-86. the impact of viticulture, which commenced at Maluna in 1971, was studied using erosion plots, with caesium-137 as an indicator of both soil erosion and sedimentation. Two methods were used to estimate vineyard soil losses from caesium-137 measurements. Sediment output from the catchment was measured for three years, and extrapolated from readings taken at a nearby long-term stream flow gauging station for the remaining 13 years. Relative amounts of soil loss from forest (60 per cent basin area), grazing land (30 per cent) and vineyards (10 per cent) were calculated. Soil losses by rain splash detachment were ten times greater from bare/cultivated sufaces than from the forest. Erosion plots of area 2 m2 showed no significant differences in soil loss between forest and grassland but, under bare soil, losses were 100 times greater. the 137Cs method was employed to calculate net soil loss from all vineyard blocks using both a previously established calibration curve and a proportional model. the latter method gave estimates of soil loss which were 3-9 times greater than by the calibration curve, and indicated that average soil losses from the vineyard were equivalent to 62 t ha−1 y−1 (1971-86). It was estimated that the forest contributed 1-8 per cent, the grazing land 1.6 per cent, and the vineyard 96.6 per cent of the total soil loss during that period. Sediment storages within the fluvial system adjacent to the vineyard ws 9460 t for the period, whereas sediment output was equivalent to 215 t km−1 y−1. Independent measurements of soil erosion, storage, and output showed that 56 per cent of the eroded sediment remained in the catchment, and 34 per cent was transported out by Maluna Creek. the budget was able to be balanced to within 10 per cent.
Is the high-elevation region of Devon Ice Cap thickening?

Abstract Devon Ice Cap, Nunavut, Canada, has been losing mass since at least 1960. Laser-altimetry surveys, however, suggest that the high-elevation region (>1200 m) of the ice cap thickened between 1995 and 2000, perhaps because of anomalously high accumulation rates during this period. We derive an independent estimate of thickness change in this region by comparing ∼40 year mean annual net accumulation rates to mean specific outflow rates for 11 drainage basins. The area-averaged rate of thickness change across the whole region is within error of zero (0.01 ± 0.12 m w.e. a−1), but two drainage basins in the northwest are thickening significantly, and two basins in the south are thinning significantly. The laser-altimetry observations are biased towards the drainage basins where we find thickening. Recent changes in the rate of accumulation or the rate of firnification cannot explain the observed thickening, but decreased ice outflow, due to the penetration of Neoglacial cooling to, and subsequent stiffening of, the basal ice, may provide an explanation. Thinning in the south may result from increased ice outflow from basins in which fast flow and basal sliding extend above 1200 m.
Analytical Performance Evaluation of Hematology Analyzer Using Various TEa Sources and Sigma Metrics

Introduction: In clinical laboratory, the performance of the hematology analyzer should be checked routinely to ensure the desired quality. Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess the analytical performance of hematology analyzer using sigma metrics. Methods: The study included all daily internal quality control (IQC) data of hematology analyzer prospectively from August to October 2022. Data was collected using record formats by trained laboratory professionals. The sigma values of each CBC parameter were calculated using the formula: Sigma = (TEa – Bias) / CV. The TEa data were adopted from five different guidelines to calculate sigma value of the laboratory based on different specification. The bias of all complete blood count (CBC) parameters was calculated from the laboratory mean of the daily IQC data and the target value of the manufacturer in the insert kit. A coefficient of variations was also calculated using IQC data. Results: The current study found that sigma value of the analyzer varied based on source of TEa. Except HCT out 5 parameters included based on CLIA guideline, except MCV, MCHC, RDW, MPV and Basophil out of 15 parameters included based on EFLM 2022 minimum guideline, except Hb and PLT out of 9 parameters included based on SOTA guideline other parameters meets minimum specification (<3 sigma value). On the other hand, all parameters included in Rilibak and Standards of Spanish guideline achieved minimum specification (>3 sigma value). Conclusion: Sigma values of the CBC parameters have significantly varied depends on the TEa sources. So, it is recommended laboratory to use alternative sigma value based on its preference. Additionally, it is suggested that the laboratory to design local Westgard rules for each parameter based on sigma value.
Rates of cave and landform development in the Yorkshire Dales from speleothem age data

Uranium-series ages have been obtained for 87 speleothems collected from nine major cave systems in the Craven district of northern England. Large systems such as Ease Gill Caverns, the West Kingsdale caves, and Gaping Gill-Ingleborough Cave, which contain relict high-level tunnels, are found to be older than 350,000 years (the limit of the 230Th/234U dating method). There is little evidence to indicate a significant enlargement of these passages since this time. Estimates of the age of Victoria Cave from 234U/238U isotopic ratios suggest that the cave has been fully relict for more than 500,000 years. Ages of in situ speleothems immediately adjacent to local base level cave streams show that mean maximum downcutting rates in limestone channels are about 2 to 5 cm 1000 yr. These rates are significantly lower than those obtained from direct measurements on limestone bedrock in stream channels but are comparable to areal denudation rates based on solute budgets. Using the present elevation of caves with respect to adjacent valley floor levels, mean maximum valley entrenchment rates are found to range between 5 cm/ky and < 20cm/ky, which corresponds to 6 m to < 24 m of lowering per glacial/interglacial cycle. These rates suggest that upper beds of the limestone were incised to form the Yorkshire Dales between 1 and 2 million years ago. The results indicate that the erosional effects of individual glaciations are not as severe as previously proposed in the literature.
Global analysis of empirical relations between annual climate and seasonality of NDVI

This paper describes the use of satellite data to calibrate a new climate vegetation greenness relation for global change studies. We examined statistical relations between annual climate indexes (temperature, precipitation, and surface radiation) and seasonal attributes of the AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series for the mid-1980s in order to refine our understanding of intra-annual patterns and global controls on natural vegetation dynamics. Multiple linear regression results using global 1 gridded data sets suggest that three climate indexes: degree days (growing/chilling), annual precipitation total, and an annual moisture index together can account to 70-80% of the geographical variation in the NDVI seasonal extremes (maximum and minimum values) for the calibration year 1984. Inclusion of the same annual climate index values from the previous year explains no substantial additional portion of the global scale variation in NDVI seasonal extremes. The monthly timing of NDVI e.
Reconstruction of Semantic Relationships from Their Projections in Biomolecular Domain

The extraction of nested, semantically rich relationships of biological entities has recently gained popularity in the biomedical text mining community. To move toward this objective, a method is proposed for reconstructing original semantic relationship graphs from projections, where each node and edge is mapped to the representative of its equivalence class, by determining the relationship argument combinations that represent real relationships. It generalises the limited postprocessing step of the method of Bjorne et al. (2010) and hence extends this extraction method to arbitrarily deep relationships with unrestricted primary argument combinations. The viability of the method is shown by successfully extracting nested relationships in BioInfer and the corpus of the BioNLP'09 Shared Task on Event Extraction. The reported results, to the best of our knowledge, are the first for the nested relationships in BioInfer on a task in which only named entities are given.
Ice crystals grown from vapor onto an orientated substrate: application to snow depth-hoar development and gas inclusions in lake ice

Abstract A laboratory experiment was conducted in which new ice crystals were nucleated from the vapor phase onto large existing ice crystals obtained from Antarctic lake ice. Flat, smooth ice-crystal surfaces were prepared, with c axes oriented either vertically or horizontally. When these were subjected to a supersaturated vapor environment, multiple individual crystals nucleated onto the substrates adopting the same crystallographic orientation as the parent. A dominant grain-growth scenario for kinetic-growth metamorphism in snow, which in some ways is analogous to the oriented morphologies in lake ice, is hypothesized. In the lake-ice-growth scenario, optimally oriented crystals will grow at the expense of those less preferentially positioned.The proposed dominant grain-growth theory for snow is in agreement with the observed decrease in the number of grains and the proximal similarity of crystal habit in kinetic-growth metamorphism in snow. Similarly, kinetic crystal growth on the interior of gas inclusions in Antarctic lake ice will also acquire the crystallographic orientation of the substrate ice. These small-faceted interior crystals significantly influence light scattering and penetration in the lake-ice cover.
Technological Innovations and Market Power: A Study of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Technological innovations are positively associated with firms’ market performance. This study aims to examine the impact of product and process innovation on the market power of 168 Indian pharmaceutical firms during 2000–2013. We generate product and process patent stock to capture firm-level innovation activities. Findings of this study suggest that both product and process innovation positively influence firms’ market power. Results also reveal that MNEs enjoy more market power in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Further, this study also highlights that there is a differential impact of firms’ product group on market power. This study concludes that patenting is a positive source of firm performance in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
Market power: competition among measures*

Over the years, industrial organization theorists and game theorists have struggled to develop models that would predict a unique oligopoly equilibrium outcome, or even to limit the range of outcomes deemed consistent with rational behavior. While those efforts have immensely enriched our understanding of the possibilities for strategic behavior among firms, they have spectacularly (and informatively! ) failed to attain their original goal. Oligopoly equilibrium concepts such as Cournot, Bertrand, Stackelberg, stable cartels, limit pricing, contestable markets, open-loop and closed-loop dynamic equilibria, consistent conjectures, and dynamic enforcement mechanisms such as trigger strategies, stick-and-carrot, optimal punishment, or Rotemberg-Saloner sustainable collusion all predict different outcomes, based on differing assumptions. Even the static Nash assumption of zero reaction (zero “conjecture”) yields different predictions depending on whether firms choose price or quantity, and either model relies on an assumption of simultaneous choice in a static game which has been challenged by the endogenous role choice literature and by dynamic models. The notion of “consistent conjectures,” originally thought to hold promise for predicting a unique rational outcome, was subsequently shown to predict virtually any outcome depending on functional forms, parameter values, and so on. The grand lesson from these increasingly sophisticated theoretical tours-de-force is that firm conduct is, after all, an empirical question that cannot be reliably answered by theory alone. This fact is already tacitly acknowledged in the antitrust policies adopted by many countries. Unsurprisingly, therefore, a vast empirical literature of market power has developed to inform researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike. But any such study requires some quantifiable measure of market power, and the choice of available measures has also proliferated substantially. A valid measure of market power (or firm conduct, or competition) must first of all reflect some aspect that is relevant to economic welfare considerations. Why do policymakers care about market power and seek to suppress it? Quite simply because, from an economic perspective, market power results in higher prices and lower quantities, thus reducing consumer welfare and total welfare compared to what is attainable in a hypothetical perfectly competitive outcome.1 While considerations of politics, special interests, and other dimensions may at times intrude into the reality of policy deliberations or enforcement, prices and quantities are the traditional kernel of an economist’s attention to market power. Within this focus, a good empirical measure of market power must incorporate observable data in a manner that is robustly related to prices or quantities, and moreover must be able to compare observed data against the hypothetical competitive benchmark. For example, what is the “right” price or output level? Is a given price high or low? The theoretical competitive benchmark identifies an item’s marginal cost of production as the
Micromorphology and electron microprobe analysis of phosphorus and potassium forms of an Indian Black Earth (IBE) Anthrosol from Western Amazonia

The Indian black earth (IBE) anthrosols (Terra Preta) overlying deep weathered kaolinitic soils of Western Amazonia represent one of the most interesting features of the Amazon Basin, with broad implications to human ecology. We studied one IBE site, in particular the chemical composition and forms of phosphate and potassium, micropedological attributes, and their ecological implications. In the IBE anthrosol, high levels of available P were due to the presence of comminuted fish and animal bone apatite. Flakes of 2 : 1 layer silicates rich in K occurred in pottery remains in the IBE, indicating that they were manufactured from neighbouring 'Varzea' soils. Amazon 'Varzea' environs were the only source of the soil material for pottery, since K-rich 2 : 1 minerals are not present in Terra Firme kaolinitic sediments. High available and total P contents of IBE were related to abundant, very small particles (5–60 μm) of Ca-P and Al-P forms, resolved by s.e. m. /EDS at very high magnification. These features originated in animal bones and fish spines that have chemically altered in the soil environment. Earthworm and other biological channels exhibited high Al/P contents, due to apatite ingestion, comminution, and alteration. In transitional horizons, abundant secondary Al/P was present in biological channels, indicating intense biological activity down to 1.5 m. In deeper B horizons, apatite fragments are rare. Charcoal residues of incompletely combusted wood are widespread down to the B horizon. No spatial or concentration relationships exist between P and total free-iron in the soil.
The Guará Campaign: A series of rocket‐radar investigations of the Earth's upper atmosphere at the magnetic equator

The Guará Campaign consisted of a series of sounding rockets that were launched from August‐October, 1994 at a new launch facility at Alcântara, Brazil, which is within one degree of the Earth's magnetic equator. The campaign consisted of focused scientific experiments designed to investigate the electrodynamics and irregularities in the equatorial ionosphere and mesosphere and to study their relationship with neutral upper atmosphere motions. In all, 13 large sounding rockets and 20 small meteorological rockets were launched as part of four different experiment groups designed to investigate: (1) the daytime equatorial electrojet, (2) very high altitude Spread‐F processes, (3) sunset electrodynamics, and (4) middle atmosphere‐thermosphere coupling at the equator. All of the experiments utilized ground‐based scientific instruments including a VHF backscatter radar interferometer, magnetometers, ionosondes, and scintillation receivers. The project was a joint undertaking of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States and the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias (INPE) of Brazil. The project was named the Guará Campaign after a beautiful species of bird that is native to the equatorial region of Brazil.
Air‐water gas exchange of mercury in the Bay Saint François wetlands: Observation and model parameterization

[1] Total gaseous mercury (TGM) air-water flux measurements were taken using a dynamic flux chamber (DFC) coupled with a gaseous mercury (Hg) analyzer at the Bay St. Francois (BSF) wetlands (Quebec, Canada) in summer 2003. The measured TGM fluxes over water exhibited a consistent diurnal pattern, with maximum emissions during daytime and minimum fluxes occurring at night. Pearson correlation analysis showed that solar radiation was the most influential environmental parameter in TGM air-water exchange. Significant correlations were also found between TGM fluxes and 1 hour time-lagged water temperature, indicating the enhancement of fluxes by bacterial activities or chemical reactions. The concentrations of dissolved gaseous mercury (DGM) in water were measured during the 2003 sampling period and indicated that DGM was always supersaturated, which implied that the water body acted primarily as a source of mercury to the atmosphere. Several empirical models of mercury air-water gas exchange were developed and evaluated. Compared to the published models, these proposed models were capable of producing good results, leading to a better agreement between the measured and modeled fluxes (improvements by 48–98%). Among these empirical models, the ones linking TGM fluxes with net radiation were superior because of their strong predictive capability. Two preferred models were selected for air-water TGM flux estimation from Lake St. Pierre's surrounding wetlands. These two models yield a mean emission of 0.19–0.24 kg mercury during May–September each year from 1999 to 2003.