Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lichens: A limit to peat growth?

The fruticose lichens Cladina stellaris and Cladina rangiferina, form thick mats that can cover large areas of northern peatlands (above c. 50° latitude), including the extensive peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland (HBL) in Canada, where lichens may cover up to 50% of the landscape. Despite the abundance of lichens in northern peatlands, our understanding of their role within peatland ecosystems, and peat accumulation in particular, is limited. We investigate the potential effect of these mat‐forming lichens on peat production and decomposition processes, using field data from an ombrogenous bog in the HBL and laboratory analyses. We hypothesize that (a) production in lichen‐shrub hummocks is less than in Sphagnum‐shrub hummocks; (b) the decay of lichen litter is faster than that of Sphagnum moss, so the mass litter input to the peat profile is reduced; and (c) faster decomposition of the underlying peat is stimulated by lichen leachates, resulting in greater mass loss. We found that thick lichen mats alter vegetation composition in peatlands, reducing Sphagnum cover and inhibiting the growth of small shrubs. Coupled with low lichen productivity that is constrained by moisture conditions, production for lichen‐shrub hummocks is significantly smaller than for Sphagnum‐shrub hummocks, confirming hypothesis (a). Our data also support hypothesis (b), with chemical analyses of lichen mats and leachates from lichen mats indicating faster decay of lichens compared to Sphagnum moss, and therefore reduced mass litter input to the peat profile in lichen‐dominated hummocks. Although we found no evidence to suggest leachates from lichens enhance decomposition processes in peatlands (hypothesis c), larger dry bulk densities for peat under lichen mats indicate a loss of structural integrity and potential collapse of the peat column. Synthesis. As production of new material added to the peat column is less in lichen‐dominated hummocks, local peat accumulation slows or ceases, representing a potential temporary limit to peat growth. Our results highlight the importance of lichens as a vegetation feedback in peatland development, with thick mats probably constraining or reducing hummock height relative to adjacent, lichen‐free hollows.
Using Costs and Health Benefits to Estimate the Priority of Air Pollution Control Action Plan: A Case Study in Taiwan

A comparative analysis was conducted between the costs and health benefits of the Air Pollution Control Action Plan (APCAP), which can be implemented in any country to improve air quality and human health. In this study, air quality modeling was used to simulate several scenarios and implement the Kriging method to describe the PM2.5 reduction concentration instantly. Then, health benefits were estimated using the environmental benefit mapping and analysis program (BenMAP) with results from the air quality modeling and Kriging method. To estimate the priority of APCAP, 14 pollution control measures that cover point, mobile, and area sources of air pollution in Taiwan were analyzed. The results indicate that the health benefits of the Taiwan APCAP (TAPCAP) are generally greater than the technical costs. Thus, the implementation of this strategy may result in net benefits. In addition, the benefit-to-control cost ratio for health for the 14 pollution control measures was calculated. The results provide evidence to prioritize the implementation of air quality policies with a higher benefit-cost ratio.
Coastal regionalization with self-organizing maps-Water quality variables applied to cluster formation

Human sewage disposal can interfere with water quality and thus diminish the ecosystem services provision, including Phytoplankton lifespan. Understanding the role played by sewage disposal in water quality can be useful not only for tourism planning but also for characterizing beaches based on water quality using secondary data and avoiding the costs of sampling and monitoring. The objectives of this paper were to understand the water quality behavior at several small bays in a coastal city of Brazil and to test the use of self-organizing maps in forming clusters similar to those derived from geomorphology and to understand how representative these maps were of the water quality of the whole city. According to our results, self-organizing maps showed similar behavior to geomorphological processes, confirm the hypothesis of cluster formation due to quality and also presented a new pattern of data variation related to seasonality that was not noticed before in the sampling. Keywords— Batheability, self-organizing maps, coastal management, water quality.
Between florivory and herbivory: inefficacy of decision‐making by generalist floriphilic katydids

1. Florivory, which is less studied but as equally widespread as herbivory, can have effects on plant and floral trait adaptations, individual fitness, and community interactions. However, there are still knowledge gaps in our understanding of florivory, including the role of neural constraints and diet specialisation of florivores in floral resource utilisation.
A Collision Resolution Protocol for Random Access in Massive MIMO

In 5G and beyond wireless scenarios, it is expected to support tremendous amount of communicating machines. With an exponential increase of machine-to-machine (M2M) system deployments, efficient approaches to massive access by a large number of devices are to be studied. In this paper, we propose a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) based grant-free random access (RA) with resolution of preamble collision for massive access. Based on the channel hardening and favorable propagation characteristics of massive MIMO, collided signals processed at the base station (BS) can be viewed as a variation of superposition modulation, and are to be recovered by successive interference cancellation (SIC) techniques. Besides, taking into consideration the effect of pass loss and fractional power control (FPC), analytic expressions of success probability of the proposed collision resolution with conjugate beamforming (CB) and zero-forcing beamforming (ZFB) are derived. With simulation results, we verify the analyses and show that the proposed protocol can resolve most preamble collisions.
Quasi-linear heat transport induced by ITG turbulence in the presence of impurities

The impurity effects on turbulent transport induced by ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence are numerically studied in tokamak plasmas, using a gyrokinetic quasi-linear model. The characteristics of the instability and heat fluxes in the presence of impurity ions are investigated for a broad parameter regime, including temperature and density gradients of main and impurity ions, concentration, charge and mass numbers of impurity ions, magnetic shear as well as wave vector spectrum. The heat fluxes are demonstrated to depend not only on the saturation amplitude of the instability but also on the phase shift between T˜s and v˜E×B. The peaking factor of temperature/density profile, defined as the ratio of major radius to gradient scale length when the total turbulent heat flux equals zero, is fitted with linear/quadratic functions. In addition, the contributions from diagonal and off-diagonal terms to heat fluxes are identified in detail, i.e. the main ion heat diffusion are proved to be dominated by off-diagonal (diagonal) terms for regions of weak (strong) ITG. In general, steep temperature gradients of main ions as well as hollow density profiles of impurity ions significantly enhance instability and heat fluxes. However, it is interesting to find that the effect of impurity ions with positive density gradient may transit from the enhancement to reduction of the quasi-linear heat flux of main ions in regions of steep ITG, corresponding to transport barriers (e.g. pedestal of H-mode and I-mode plasmas). Both strong and weak positive magnetic shear decrease heat transport.
MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LANDSLIDES IN EXTREME TOPOGRAPHY BY UAS-SfM: DATA ACQUISITION, 3D MODELS AND CHANGE DETECTION

Landslides are one major kind of natural disasters and geomorphological processes on Earth’s surface. Accurate geodetic observations are crucial for understanding morphological changes, providing a quantitative basis of further research in surface process and hazard management. In recent years, the development of UAVs and SfM technology enhance research to build high quality digital surface models of landforms with low budget and efficiency. In areas of extreme topography where landslides occur on steep slopes, however, it is required to specifically design the UAV-SfM workflow to keep the data quality. This study aims to use UAS-SfM workflow to develop a low-cost, efficient methodology to detect detailed morphological change of landslide morphology in extreme topography. The study focuses on examining results of different flight design and GCPs distribution geometry, which are important components in the workflow. In addition, we applied a mathematical model to compare point clouds to calculate volumetric change of the landslide with reduced distortion.
Binocular Integration Manifests as a Transient Spiking Increase Followed by Selective Suppression in Primary Visual Cortex

Research throughout the past decades revealed that neurons in primate primary visual cortex (V1) rapidly integrate the two eyes’ separate signals into a combined binocular response. The exact mechanisms giving underlying this binocular integration remain elusive. One open question is whether binocular integration occurs at a single stage of sensory processing or in a sequence of computational steps. To address this question, we examined the temporal dynamics of binocular integration across V1’s laminar microcircuit of awake behaving monkeys. We find that V1 processes binocular stimuli in a dynamic sequence that comprises at least two distinct phases: A transient phase, lasting 50-150ms from stimulus onset, in which neuronal population responses are significantly enhanced for binocular stimulation compared to monocular stimulation, followed by a sustained phase characterized by widespread suppression in which feature-specific computations emerge. In the sustained phase, incongruent binocular stimulation resulted in response reduction relative to monocular stimulation across the V1 population. By contrast, sustained responses for binocular congruent stimulation were either reduced or enhanced relative to monocular responses depending on the neurons’ selectivity for one or both eyes (i.e., ocularity). These results suggest that binocular integration in V1 occurs in at least two sequential steps, with an initial additive combination of the two eyes’ signals followed by the establishment of interocular concordance and discordance. Significance Statement Our two eyes provide two separate streams of visual information that are merged in the primary visual cortex (V1). Previous work showed that stimulating both eyes rather than one eye may either increase or decrease activity in V1, depending on the nature of the stimuli. Here we show that V1 binocular responses change over time, with an early phase of general excitation and followed by stimulus-dependent response suppression. These results provide important new insights into the neural machinery that supports the combination of the two eye’s perspectives into a single coherent view.
Profile Reflective Thinking Ability of Vocational High School

The aims of this research were to describe the reflective thinking abilities of the students in Grade XII of Vocational High School in Surakarta. This research used qualitative case study approarch. The data of research were tests and task based in interviews. Analysis of the results of written tests and interviews shows that the profile of reflective thinking ability in solving math problems on the content of derivative applications for step by step of the process of mathematization are (1) In solving problems of application of function derivatives at the stage of problem definition, almost all subjects can provide the main problem. (2) In the problem analysis stage, almost all subjects can provide the main problem, but only one subject adjusts the subject matter to the basic formula of flat build. (3) In the criterion stage of the solution, almost all subjects met this stage, even though the results of the evaluation experienced errors. (4) In the information analysis stage, only one subject does not need other information in solving the problem. (5) In the propose solutions stage, all subjects are able to take what I am solving to solve the problem. (6) In the select solution stage, there are some students who can reach this stage. (7) In the implement solution stage, only two subjects reach this stage until completion. (8) In the feedback analysis stage, only two subjects did the re-checking of the steps in solving the problem.
Snow Impurities in the Central Pyrenees: From Their Geochemical and Mineralogical Composition towards Their Impacts on Snow Albedo

The aim of this work is to understand aerosol transfers to the snowpack in the Spanish Pyrenees (Southern Europe) by determining their episodic mass-loading and composition, and to retrieve their regional impacts regarding optical properties and modification of snow melting. Regular aerosol monitoring has been performed during three consecutive years. Complementarily, short campaigns have been carried out to collect dust-rich snow samples. Atmospheric samples have been chemically characterized in terms of elemental composition and, in some cases, regarding their mineralogy. Snow albedo has been determined in different seasons along the campaign, and temporal variations of snow-depth from different observatories have been related to concentration of impurities in the snow surface. Our results noticed that aerosol flux in the Central Pyrenees during cold seasons (from November to May, up to 12–13 g m−2 of insoluble particles overall accumulated) is much higher than the observed during the warm period (from June to October, typically around 2.1–3.3 g m−2). Such high values observed during cold seasons were driven by the impact of severe African dust episodes. In absence of such extreme episodes, aerosol loadings in cold and warm season appeared comparable. Our study reveals that mineral dust particles from North Africa are a major driver of the aerosol loading in the snowpack in the southern side of the Central Pyrenees. Field data revealed that the heterogeneous spatial distribution of impurities on the snow surface led to differences close to 0.2 on the measured snow albedo within very short distances. Such impacts have clear implications for modelling distributed energy balance of snow and predicting snow melting from mountain headwaters.
Antifungal Effect of Phenyllactic Acid Produced by Lactobacillus casei Isolated from Button Mushroom

: Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) producing phenyllactic acid (PLA), which is known as antimicrobial compound, was isolated from button mushroom bed and the isolated LAB was identified to Lactobacillus casei by 16 rRNA gene sequence analysis. Cell-free supernatant (CFS) from L. casei was assessed for both the capability to produce the antimicrobial compound PLA and the antifungal activity against three fungal pathogens ( Rhizoctonia solani , Botrytis cinerea , and Collectotricum aculatum ). PLA concentration was investigated to be 3.23 mM in CFS when L. casei was grown in MRS broth containing 5 mM phenylpyruvic acid as precursor for 16 h. Antifungal activity demonstrated that all fungal pathogens were sensitive to 5% CFS (v/v) of L. casei with average growth inhibitions ranging from 34.58% to 65.15% ( p < 0.005), in which R. solani was the most sensitive to 65.15% and followed by C. aculatum , and B. cinerea . The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for commercial PLA was also investigated to show the same trend in the range of 0.35 mg mL-1 (2.11 mM) to 0.7 mg mL-1 (4.21 mM) at pH 4.0. The inhibition ability of CFS against the pathogens were not affected by the heating or protease treatment. However, pH modification in CFS to 6.5 resulted in an extreme reduction in their antifungal activity. These results may indicate that antifungal activities in CFS was caused by acidic compounds like PLA or organic acids rather than protein or peptide molecules.
Viability selection by invertebrate predators in the polyphenic black scavenger fly Sepsis thoracica

Males of the black scavenger fly Sepsis thoracica, which breeds in livestock dung, are either small and black or large and amber. In trying to understand the evolution of this rare phenomenon, we confronted flies of different sizes and colors with invertebrate predators in different backgrounds. We found that generally larger individuals survived better and that their coloration played a secondary role. Predation cannot be the primary cause of the male dimorphism.
A semi-compensatory choice model with probabilistic choice set: combining implicit choice set within probabilistic choice set formation

A recent paper by Rashedi and Nurul Habib (2020) formulates a semi-compensatory choice model, a term originally conceived by Williams and Ortúzar (1982), later studied by Kawamoto and Setti (1992) and more recently popularized by Cantillo and Ortúzar (2005). This class of models is a hybrid between purely compensatory (i.e. most random utility models, McFadden 1981) and non-compensatory choice models (i.e. those in the tradition of Tversky 1972 and Simon 1955, the latter recently made operational by GonzálezValdés and Ortúzar 2017). The idea of studying what kind of misspecification errors could arise when modellers wrongly assumed one class of behaviour when another was actually present, was firstly studied – and in great depth – in the seminal paper by Williams and Ortúzar (1982). They considered a large variety of potential sources of misspecification to the most popular discrete choice model by then, the MNL, including correlated andcross-correlatedalternatives, elimination-by-aspects, satisficing, hybrid compensatorynon-compensatory structures, and the existence of habit and hysteresis in choices. Compensatory random utility models are typically based on the assumption that individuals have pre-specified choice sets and that they compensate good and bad alternative attributes on thebasis of a single figureofmerit: theutility. These assumptionsmaybeunrealistic in many practical cases; for example, if there are thresholds of acceptance for certain attributes, whereby if an alternative has an attribute outside its threshold of acceptability, it is just not considered (i.e. as in the Elimination by Aspectsmodel of Tversky 1972). Cantillo and Ortúzar (2005) formulated a semi-compensatory two-stage discrete choice model incorporating randomly distributed thresholds for attribute acceptance. Their formulation allowed them to estimate the parameters of the thresholds’ probability distribution, which could be expressed as a function of both the socio-economic characteristics of the individuals and the conditions underwhich the choice process took place. They applied their model to real and simulated data, showing that if thresholds exist in the population, even the use of compensatory models as flexible as Mixed Logit (Train 2009) can lead to serious errors in model estimation (and, therefore, in the computation of marginal rates of substitution. such as the subjective value of time), and in model forecasts.
Solution Combustion Synthesis of Fe2O3-Based Catalyst for Ammonia Synthesis

Fe2O3-based catalysts were prepared by solution combustion synthesis (SCS) with metal nitrates (Fe, K, Al, Ca) as the precursors and glycine as the fuel. The activities of catalysts were evaluated in terms of ammonia synthesis reaction rate in a fixed bed reactor similar to the industrial reactors. The results indicate that the precursor of catalyst prepared by SCS is Fe2O3 which facilitates the high dispersion of promoters to provide high activity. The catalysts exhibit higher activity for ammonia synthesis than that of traditional catalysts, and the reaction rate reaches 138.5 mmol g−1 h−1. Fe2O3 prepared by SCS could be favorable precursor for ammonia synthesis catalyst. The present study provides a pathway to prepare catalyst for ammonia synthesis.
Stories in the agenda: a Narrative Policy Framework study

Abstract This study applies the “Narrative Policy Framework” (NPF) to the affirmative action policy process of the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPEL) and proposes theoretical intersection between the NPF and agenda setting literature, seeking to find out the role of policy narratives in policy processes. NPF is an empiric-oriented framework that posits that the policy-makers’ stories have generalizable components and are built and crafted in accordance to their ideas. These are policy narratives, and are at the center of the policy process. By analyzing formulation stages of public policy and referring to ideas and narratives, the NPF refers to the agenda setting literature and provides means for empirical research of agenda setting concepts. The study undertook analysis of regulatory outputs and semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that policy narratives have affected institutional regulatory outputs regarding UFPel’s affirmative action policies.
Effect of Heat Stress on Photosystem II, Antioxidant Activity and Micronutrient Concentration in Contrasting Cultivars of Greengram (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek)

Heat stress around flowering has negative effect on greengram (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) grain yield. The pot culture experiments were conducted to study the response of antioxidant system, photosystem II and micronutrient concentration to above-optimum temperature at flowering stage in two cultivars of greengram (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) cv. SAMRAT (heat tolerant) and VBN-2 (heat susceptible). The plants were grown under natural light and atmospheric conditions (33/22°C day/night) up to the first appearance of flower. Then, cohort of plants were: (a) exposed to natural environment (33/22°C day/night) for 13 days and were (b) exposed to controlled environment 33/22 to 45/30°C (day/night) for 13 days by gradually increasing 1°C per day in day/night temperature and then pots were shifted to natural environment for 5 days for recovery. The activity of antioxidant enzyme (SOD, CAT and APX) were increased significantly as the temperatures increased upto Original Research Article Alagupalamuthirsolai et al.; IJPSS, 32(11): 73-81, 2020; Article no.IJPSS. 60219 74 38/26°C in both cultivars and showed less reduction appropriately at 45/30°C in SAMRAT compared to VBN-2. It is possible that better tolerant to heat stress of SAMRAT was related to its ability to maintain higher levels of activity of antioxidant enzymes in all the temperature regimes. Quantum yield (Fv/Fm) showed significant reduction at 41/28°C in VBN-2 while at 45/30°C in SAMRAT indicating relative tolerance to heat stress. Micronutrient composition was not affected at 45/30°C except Cu content in leaves and Mn and Fe content in shoots. Upon heat stress treatment SAMRAT showed relatively less reduction of micronutrients like Cu, Mn and Fe content in leaves compared to VBN-2. The tolerant cultivar SAMRAT can serve as parents for breeding for heat stress tolerant variety.