Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Weeds and Weed Management on Arable Land: An Ecological Approach

Classification of plants based on traits of ecological significance annual and perennial crops weed commodities looked upon as early stages in secondary vegetation succession weeds with diverse life forms in various types of crop germination, emergence and establishment of crop and weed plants competition in plant stands of short duration weed flora and weed plant adaption to environment and competitive conditions measurements of competition and competitiveness in plant stands of short duration soil tillage effects on weeds chemical weed control as an element in the cropping system special management measures knowledge of importance for understanding the occurrence and rational management of weeds. (Part contents)
NARCCAP Model Skill and Bias for the Southeast United States

This paper investigates dynamically downscaled regional climate model (RCM) output from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) for two sub-regions of the Southeast United States. A suite of four statistical measures were used to assess model skill and biases were presented in hindcasting daily minimum and maximum temperature and mean precipitation during a historical reference period, 1970-1999. Most models demonstrated high skill for temperature during the historical period. Two outliers included two RCMs run using the Geophysical Fluids Dynamics Lab (GFDL) model as their lateral boundary conditions; these models suffered from a cold maximum temperature bias. Improvement with GFDL-based projections of maximum temperature was noted from May through November when they ran with observed seasurface conditions (GFDL-timeslice), particularly for the east sub-region. Precipitation skill proved mixed-relatively high when measured using a probability density function overlap measurement or the index of agreement, but relatively low when measured with root-mean square error or mean absolute error, because several models overestimated the frequency of extreme precipitation events.
Large scale spatial modelling of soil organic carbon dynamics

Under the Kyoto Protocol, participating nations are required to reduce National CO₂emissions according to their 'reduction commitment' or 'quantified emissions limitation', over the first commitment period, 2008-2012. One way in which nations could achieve this would be by increasing soil carbon storage through different management practices. Most former estimates of regional scale C sequestration potential have made use of either linear regressions based on long-term experimental data, whilst some have used dynamic soil organic matter (SOM) models linked to spatial databases. Few studies have compared these two methods, and none have compared regressions with two different SOM models. This thesis presents a case study investigation of the potential of different land management practices to sequester carbon in soil in arable land, and preliminary estimates of other potential C savings. Two dynamic SOM models were chosen for this study, RothC (a soil process model) and CENTURY (a general ecosystem model). RothC and CENTURY are the two most widely used and validated SOM models world-wide. Methods were developed to enhance use and comparability of the models in a predictive mode. These methods included a) estimation of the IOM pool for RothC, b) estimation of C inputs to soil, c) investigation of pool size distributions in CENTURY, and d) creation of a program to allow use of C inputs derived from CENTURY with the RothC model. This thesis has also investigated the importance of errors in C inputs to soil for predictive SOM modelling, and performed sensitivity analyses to investigate how errors in setting the size refractory SOM pools might affect predictions of SOC. RothC and CENTURY were compared at the site scale using datasets from seven European long-term experiments, in order to a) verify their ability to predict SOC changes under changes in land use and management relevant to studies of C sequestration potential, b) evaluate model performance under European climatic conditions, and c) compare the performance of the two models. Finally, a Geographic Information System (GIS) containing soil, land use and climate layers, was assembled for a case study region in Central Hungary. GIS interfaces were developed for the RothC and CENTURY models, thus linking them to spatial datasets at the regional level. This allowed a comparison of estimates of the C sequestration potential of different land management practices obtained using the two models and using regression-based estimates. Although estimates obtained by the different approaches were of the same order of magnitude, differences were observed. Encouragingly, some of the land management scenarios studied here showed sufficient C mitigation potential to meet Hungarian CO₂reduction commitments.
Discovery of Kilohertz Quasi-periodic Oscillations in the Z Source GX 5–1

We discovered two simultaneous kHz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the bright low-mass X-ray binary and Z source GX 5-1 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. In the X-ray color-color and hardness-intensity diagram a clear Z track is traced out, which shifted between observations. The frequencies of the two kHz QPOs increased from ~215 and ~500 Hz on the left part of the horizontal branch to ~700 and ~ 890 Hz, respectively, on the upper part of the normal branch. With increasing frequency the FWHM and rms amplitude (8.6-60 keV) of the higher frequency kHz QPO decreased from 300 to 30 Hz, and from 6.6% to 2.4%, respectively. The FWHM and amplitude of the lower frequency kHz QPO (50-100 Hz and 3%-4% rms) did not correlate with the position of the source on the Z track. The kHz QPO separation was consistent with being constant at 298±11 Hz. Simultaneously with the kHz QPOs horizontal branch oscillations were detected with frequencies between 18 and 56 Hz.
Parametrization of ternary nucleation rates for H2SO4‐NH3‐H2O vapors

[1] A parametrization of nucleation rates for H2O-H2SO4-NH3 vapors in atmospheric conditions is developed. The parametrization is based on nucleation rates obtained from a self-consistent model of ternary nucleation, including state-of-art thermodynamics, H2O-H2SO4 hydration model, and rigorous treatment of nucleation kinetics. The parametrized nucleation rates are shown to be within one order of magnitude from those given by the full model with enhanced accuracy at higher nucleation rates. Parametrizations for particle numbers and radius of the critical nucleus are given as a function of nucleation rate and temperature. The parametrizations are valid for temperatures 240–300 K, relative humidities 5–95%, sulfuric acid concentrations 104–109 molecules cm−3, ammonia mixing ratios 0.1–100 ppt, and nucleation rates 10−5–106 cm−3 s−1.
Biological in situ reinforcement of sand in near-shore areas

BioGrout is the process by which bacteria control the precipitation of calcium carbonate while consuming supplied reagents. By controlling the amount of reagents, the amount of calcium carbonate and thus the strength of the reinforced sand body can be engineered. The main advantage of BioGrout is that soil (or sand) can be strengthened, without interfering with the hydraulics of the treated soil and without excavation or replacement. The result is a stiffer sand layer with a higher bearing capacity, higher resistance against erosion and higher resistance against shear forces. The higher strength enables can protect under water slopes against liquefaction and breaching but can also protect dunes or river bends against erosion, reduce costs for wave protection measures (stone protection) etc.
INCREASED BASEFLOW IN IOWA OVER THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY 1

ABSTRACT: Historical trends in annual discharge characteristics were evaluated for 11 gauging stations located throughout Iowa. Discharge records from nine eight‐digit hydrologic unit code (HUC‐8) watersheds were examined for the period 1940 to 2000, whereas data for two larger river systems (Cedar and Des Moines Rivers) were examined for a longer period of record (1903 to 2000). In nearly all watersheds evaluated, annual base flow, annual minimum flow, and the annual base flow percentage significantly increased over time. Some rivers also exhibited increasing trends in total annual discharge, whereas only the Maquoketa River had significantly decreased annual maximum flows. Regression of stream discharge versus precipitation indicated that more precipitation is being routed into streams as base flow than as storm flow in the second half of the 20th Century. Reasons for the observed stream flow trends are hypothesized to include improved conservation practices, greater artificial drainage, increasing row crop production, and channel incision. Each of these reasons is consistent with the observed trends, and all are likely responsible to some degree in most watersheds.
Investigation of tropical rain cells with ERS SAR imagery and ground-based weather radar

ERS-1/2 SAR images acquired over ocean areas showing radar signatures of four different kinds of tropical rain cells, ordinary storm cells, supercell storms, multicell storms, and squall lines, are presented. One ERS-2 SAR image showing radar signature of a squall line south of Singapore is compared with simultaneously acquired ground-based weather radar data. Matching of features in the SAR and weather radar data helped locating the gust front and the area of updraft convergence, and suggested an explanation of the mottled structure associated with the rain band. It is also shown that the area of heavy rain (> 50 mm/hr) is associated with a reduction of backscattered radar power, which is likely due to attenuation by rain drops in the atmosphere.
Silvicultural guide for northern white-cedar (eastern white cedar)

Northern white-cedar (eastern white cedar; Thuja occidentalis L.) is an important tree species in the northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, occurring both in pure stands and as a minor species in mixed stands of hardwoods or other softwoods. Yet practitioners have little and often contradictory information about cedar ecology and silviculture. In response to this information need, a group of university and government researchers in the United States and Canada embarked on more than a decade of collaborative research; this guide is a compilation of the knowledge generated by that effort. It includes an overview of the commodity and non-commodity values of cedar, silvics of cedar and companion species, descriptions of the cedar resource in the northeastern United States, Quebec, and Ontario, and silvicultural guidelines based on previously published literature and new studies of cedar regeneration, growth, mortality, site relationships, and responses to treatment. With generally slow growth and little to no ingrowth on most inventory plots in the region, silvicultural prescriptions that explicitly address cedar are warranted. Recommendations include retaining and releasing cedar in managed stands, as well as establishing and protecting advance cedar regeneration and residual trees during harvesting. Partial cutting (e.g., the selection or irregular shelterwood method) is suggested for regenerating stands with a component of cedar, though browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmermann) may infl uence treatment outcomes and must be considered. Once established, cedar responds well to release and will benefi t from competition control and thinning. In mixed-species stands, within-stand fl exibility of treatment is critical for maintaining cedar when other, more dominant species are driving silvicultural prescriptions at the stand level; a " micro-stand " approach in which pockets of cedar are identifi ed and managed is suggested. Top left: Cones on cedar foliage. Photo by Sabrina Morissette, used with permission. The participation of government employees in the preparation of this document does not imply its content represents government policy on cedar management.
North Pacific sea surface temperatures: Past variations inferred from tree rings

March–August sea surface temperatures (SST) are reconstructed for the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) from 1750–1983 based on tree‐ring data from coastal and south‐central Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Some of the trends resemble those documented in other northern instrumental and proxy records, including cooler SSTs in the early and middle 1800s, during the Little Ice Age. There is overall warming in this century, including a positive trend from the mid‐1970s to 1980s, following cooler 1960s–1970s. The twentieth century warming exceeds maxima in the reconstructed SSTs back to AD 1750 and is consistent with other evidence for unusual Northern Hemisphere warming. Changes over the period of recorded North Pacific SST have been linked to a pattern of variability known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Maps comparing the reconstruction to the North Pacific SST field and other analyses suggest that it may reflect variations related to the PDO over several centuries.
Understanding global trends in the use of wheat diversity and international flows of wheat genetic resources

This paper discusses the centers of origin and diversity for bread wheat; sketches historical patterns in the sources and use of wheat genetic resources in modern plant breeding; identifies and compares indicators of genetic diversity used by social and biological scientists; reviews the relationship of wheat genetic diversity to yield stability and vulnerability to disease; develops a profile of the structure of genetic variation in wheat in the developing world today; and investigates how scientific plant breeding has influenced the structure of genetic variation among the major bread wheats grown in developing countries. Modern plant breeding appears to have contributed to genetic variation in several ways. The number of different landraces in pedigrees has steadily increased over the past 30 years, and the geographical origins of the landraces have broadened. The pedigree complexity of the more successful cultivars planted in the developing world has grown over time. Yield stability, both in terms of the performance of individual lines and in terms of regional yields, on farms, appears to have increased in the past decades. The diversity that confers resistance to the wheat rusts has also increased. Diversity over space and time varies among regions of the developing world. Spatial diversity, measured as the percentage area sown to leading modern cultivars, is lowest in West Asia and highest in Mexico/Guatemala. Temporal diversity is highest in Mexico/Guatemala, lowest in North Africa, and also fairly low in South Asia. However, both spatial and temporal diversity are fairly high for many developing countries compared to some of the major industrialized producers, such as Canada. Latent diversity, calculated from pedigree analysis, is fairly high across the developing world and does not appear lower than in the major industrialized wheat producers. Genetic distance measures calculated from genealogies demonstrate the comparative diversity among the top 10 bread wheats grown in West Asia and the marked similarity of wheats grown in Mexico/Guatemala and Canada. Numerous socioeconomic factors, which future research must examine more closely, have shaped the structure of genetic variation in farmers fields. These factors are related to the adoption and diffusion of new varieties and include pricing policies for seed and associated inputs, and the structure of the seed multiplication and distribution system.
Neighborhood preferences of house buyers: the case of klang valley, malaysia

This paper attempts to examine the impacts of neighborhood types, as defined by a gated-guarded neighborhood with landscape compound and a freehold tenure neighborhood on residential property values in Klang Valley, Malaysia. A weighted least squares method together with a heteroscedasticity consistent covariance matrix estimator is used to estimate the coefficients of structural, locational, and neighborhood attributes of dwellings on house prices. Results show the gated-guarded neighborhood with landscape compound could increase residential property values by 18.1%. Additionally, the positive perception of a freehold property in the neighborhood could induce a price premium of 23.7%. It is reasonable to believe that neighborhood types play a role in determining residential property values. In order to meet the increasingly affluent and discerning house buyers, developers instead of just offering dream homes in prime locations, they should provide intangible benefits in the neighborhood that just as sought after by today’s house buyers, such as a sense of security in the landscape compound, a feeling of harmony with one’s surroundings, and an infrastructure which supports the lifestyle of house buyers.
Comment on “Catastrophic ice shelf breakup as the source of Heinrich event icebergs” by C. L. Hulbe et al.

] Hulbe et al. [2004] argue that the original binge-purge model of their coauthor MacAyeal [1993a, 1993b]is not appropriate for Heinrich events but that a new ice-shelf-collapse mechanism may work. We believe that thenew collapse mechanism disagrees with important dataand that MacAyeal’s original model remains viable afterappropriate modifications. We have enjoyed a fascinatingdiscussion with Hulbe et al. on this topic, which isstimulating our thinking and research, and we presentsome of the arguments here for a wider audience. [
Cross-Platform Comparison of Microarray-Based Multiple-Class Prediction

High-throughput microarray technology has been widely applied in biological and medical decision-making research during the past decade. However, the diversity of platforms has made it a challenge to re-use and/or integrate datasets generated in different experiments or labs for constructing array-based diagnostic models. Using large toxicogenomics datasets generated using both Affymetrix and Agilent microarray platforms, we carried out a benchmark evaluation of cross-platform consistency in multiple-class prediction using three widely-used machine learning algorithms. After an initial assessment of model performance on different platforms, we evaluated whether predictive signature features selected in one platform could be directly used to train a model in the other platform and whether predictive models trained using data from one platform could predict datasets profiled using the other platform with comparable performance. Our results established that it is possible to successfully apply multiple-class prediction models across different commercial microarray platforms, offering a number of important benefits such as accelerating the possible translation of biomarkers identified with microarrays to clinically-validated assays. However, this investigation focuses on a technical platform comparison and is actually only the beginning of exploring cross-platform consistency. Further studies are needed to confirm the feasibility of microarray-based cross-platform prediction, especially using independent datasets.
Goniometric direction finding for low-latitude whistlers and their propagation mechanism

In order to study the propagation mechanism of low-latitude whistlers, their ionospheric exit points have been determined by a triangulation of the goniometer-polarimeter systems at the two stations of Kagoshima (geomagnetic coordinates 20°24′N, 197°53′E; L=1.22) and Ohgata (22°06′N, 199°51′E; L=1.25), supplemented by the routine observation at Sakushima (24°08′N, 203°19′E; L=1.28). Detailed analyses were made for January 23, 1978, when the whistler activity was most enhanced during one month’s measurement. The difference in temporal variations of the occurrence rate at the three stations and the temporal variation of the single-valued dispersion enabled us to subdivide the daytime whistlers into three characteristic time intervals and the nighttime ones into two intervals. The characteristics during the whole intervals were found to be satisfactorily accounted for in terms of ducted propagation. The azimuth measurements have indicated that there is present a discontinuity in the characteristics between each two intervals, indicative of the different duct group for different time intervals; in other words, indicative of the identity and persistency of ducts for each period. Then we obtained the ‘apparent lifetime’ of ducts of 1–2 hours. During the last interval for the daytime whistlers, a few ducts were found to be aligned on a certain latitude, which showed a temporal movement, or first increased and then decreased. The simultaneous presence of a few ducts at the same latitude is also seen at night.
Revised ocean backscatter models at C and Ku band under high-wind conditions

A series of airborne scatterometer experiments designed to collect C and Ku band ocean backscatter data in regions of high ocean surface winds has recently been completed. More than 100 hours of data were collected using the University of Massachusetts C and Ku band scatterometers, CSCAT and KUSCAT. These instruments measure the full azimuthal normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of a common surface area of the ocean simultaneously at four incidence angles. Our results demonstrate limitations of the current empirical models, C band geophysical model function 4 (CMOD4), SeaSat scatterometer 2 (SASS 2), and NASA scatterometer 1 (NSCAT) 1, that relate ocean backscatter to the near-surface wind at high wind speeds. The discussion focuses on winds in excess of 15 m s−1 in clear atmospheric conditions. The scatterometer data are collocated with measurements from ocean data buoys and Global Positioning System dropsondes, and a Fourier analysis is performed as a function of wind regime. A three-term Fourier series is fit to the backscatter data, and a revised set of coefficients is tabulated. These revised models, CMOD4HW and KUSCAT 1, are the basis for a discussion of the NRCS at high wind speeds. Our scatterometer data show a clear overprediction of the derived NRCS response to high winds based on the CMOD4, SASS 2, and NSCAT 1 models. Furthermore, saturation of the NRCS response begins to occur above 15 m s−1. Sensitivity of the upwind and crosswind response is discussed with implications toward high wind speed retrieval.
Multiple Line Outage Detection for Power Systems Under Multi-Parameter Uncertainty

Multiple line outage detection (MLOD) under multi-parameter uncertainty is of vital importance for safe operation in power systems. Considering the dynamical process of the power system as line outage occurs, a novel observer-based MLOD algorithm is proposed in this brief. A frequency regulation strategy is raised to maintain desired consensus state. A general external observer network is subsequently constructed to synchronize with the observed network. MLOD is achieved despite of the multi-parameter uncertainty with the designed algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed algorithm.
Contextualising Urban Livelihoods: Street Vending in India

Street vendors – and the mode of production and consumption that their livelihood constitutes and represents - are ubiquitous in every city across the world today precisely because the problem of production has not truly been solved. Street vending – a phenomenon as ancient as urban settlement itself – represents in many ways the modest (and less belligerently confrontational) fore-runner to the occupy movements that grip our cities today. As India ushers in an era of foreign investment in retail trade, a critical examination of the context of street vending in India enables an appreciation of deeper theoretical issues concerning culture, citizenship, commodification, consumption, public space, social movements, and constitutional fairness. While this essay focuses on an admittedly eclectic range of themes and categories of analysis, the hope is that the reader is nonetheless left with a sense of what is at stake in ongoing discussions on market reforms and urban street vending in India. Please note, this essay was first published online on Azim Premji University's Law, Governance and Development Initiative (LGDI) blog.