Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Farmers' perception of land‐cover changes in NE Iceland

Land degradation is considered to be a major environmental problem by scientific and political institutions in Iceland. In past years, land degradation problems related to sheep and horse grazing have gradually come to the fore in public discussion of environmental questions. However, land degradation is often evaluated in different ways by different groups of people. This has led to a lack of consensus regarding rates and severity of land degradation. Therefore, it is important to study differences in environmental perception, and how these differences can be dealt with in the context of sustainable management. This paper aims to highlight farmers' perception of land degradation in Iceland, as perceptions of the environment determine the basis for human activities related to the land. A total of 100 farmers in NE Iceland were questioned and interviewed for their opinions on land degradation, its history, causes and severity. The results indicate that farmers consider land degradation to be a slow process, and not a catastrophic phenomenon. The understanding of the general ecological processes by the users affects their practices and concern for their environment. This feeds back on the land-use system and ultimately causes changes in land-cover. Therefore, if we are to increase our understanding of the processes that lead to land-cover changes we have to integrate the perceptions of land users and technical experts. In this way we may improve conservation practices and land-resource management policies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Organic matter kept Al toxicity low in a subtropical no-tillage soil under long-term (21-year) legume-based crop systems and N fertilisation

Nitrogen-fixing crops and N fertilisation increase soil acidification, but few studies have attempted to evaluate the capacity of soil organic matter to alleviate the Al toxicity in acid no-tilled soils. This study was carried out in a 21-year-old experiment aiming to evaluate the effect of crop systems [fallow/maize (Zea mays L.), F/M; oat (Avena strigosa Schreb)/maize, O/M; oat + vetch (Vigna sativa L.)/maize, O+V/M; lablab (Dolichos lablab) + maize, L+M; and pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) + maize, P+M] and mineral N fertilisation (0 and 149 kg/ha.year) on chemical attributes and Al speciation in the 0–0.05 and 0.05–0.10 m layers of a no-tilled Paleudult of Southern Brazil. The original soil pH (5.8) decreased in all crop systems, declining 0.37–1.52 units in 21 years without re-liming. This decrease was larger in subsoil layers and, in general, was exacerbated by legume-based crop systems and by N fertilisation. The drop in soil pH increased Al content in solid phase (range 0.07–1.85 cmolc/kg) and in soil solution (range 0.01–0.06 mmol/L), and decreased base saturation on cation exchange capacity (range 12.5–61.2%). However, the Al3+ activity in the soil solution (1.03×10−7–9.3×10−8) was kept below threshold values of toxicity to maize roots, primarily due to the formation of organometallic complexes at low pH, which was estimated as up to 90% of the total Al in solution, but also due to the increased ionic strength in this no-till soil (0.0026–0.0104). Our results highlight that, although legume cover crops and N fertilisation can accelerate soil acidification, Al toxicity is offset by increased organic matter in no-till subtropical soils.
Ice-fabrics study in the upper 1500 m of the Dome C (East Antarctica) deep ice core

Abstract A study of c-axis orientations in the upper 1500m of the Dome C (East Antarctica) deep ice core has been carried out using an automatic ice-fabric analyzer (AIFA). Twenty-nine vertical and a few horizontal thin sections from different depths in the core have been analyzed. Several statistical parameters describing fabric strength and fabric shapes have been calculated from the c-axis orientation data. The fabric diagrams display a near-random c-axis orientation distribution in the uppermost parts of the ice sheet. A tendency of c-axis rotation towards a broad single-maximum fabric is observed in the lowest part of the studied interval. The fabric development at Dome C thus appears typical for ice-sheet summit and dome sites. The fabric development at Dome C is compared with the fabric evolution in the Dome F and GRIP ice cores, and data on crystal size obtained with image-analysis techniques are presented. Studies of misorientation angles between the c axes of neighbouring crystals reveal little evidence for polygonization, but microscopic observations show that sub-grain boundaries are present in half of the grains at any depth.
Exercise changes the intrahepatic immune cell profile and inhibits the progression of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in a mouse model

Background: NASH is an increasingly common cause of chronic liver disease and can progress to cirrhosis and HCC. Although exercise suppresses inflammation during acute hepatitis, its impact on the progression of chronic liver disease remains unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of exercise on disease progression and intrahepatic immune cell composition in a mouse model of NASH. Method: Mice were assigned to 4 groups: 2 control groups (normal diet) and 2 NASH groups (western diet and low-dose carbon tetrachloride injection). One of each group remained sedentary and one was exercised on a treadmill for 12 weeks (60 min/d, 5 times/wk). All mice were then analyzed for liver histomorphology, steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis; liver, adipose tissue, and skeletal muscle expression of genes related to metabolism and inflammation; and intrahepatic immune cell composition. Result: Compared with the normal diet mice, NASH mice exhibited enhanced liver steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis; upregulated expression of liver lipogenesis-related and inflammation-related genes; and increased frequencies of intrahepatic F4/80int CD11bhi bone marrow-derived macrophages and programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1)+ CD8+ T cells. Expression of inflammatory cytokines and the frequencies of bone marrow-derived macrophages and PD-1+ CD8+ T cells correlated positively with liver steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis. Exercise was shown to reduce NASH-induced hepatic steatosis, liver inflammation, and fibrosis; induce alterations in metabolism-related genes and inflammatory cytokines in the liver; and suppress accumulation of liver bone marrow-derived macrophages and PD-1+ CD8+ T cells. In addition, we showed that exercise induced increased expression of IL-15 in muscle and its deficiency exacerbated the pathology of NASH. Conclusions: Exercise alters the intrahepatic immune cell profile and protects against disease progression in a mouse model of NASH.
Emissions of Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide

Innovative management practices are required to increase the efficiency of N fertilizer usage and to reduce nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from agricultural soils. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the feasibility of using conservation tillage and N fertilizer placement depth to reduce N 2 O and CO 2 emissions associated with corn (Zea mays L.) production on clay loam soils in Eastern Canada. A 3-yr field study was established on a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-corn-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] rotation with each phase of the rotation present every year. Investigations were focused on the corn phase of the rotation. The tillage treatments following winter wheat included fall moldboard plow tillage (15 cm depth), fall zone-tillage (21 cm width, 15 cm depth), and no-tillage. The N placement treatments were "shallow" placement of sidedress N (2-cm depth) and "deep" placement of sidedress N (10-cm depth). Nitrous oxide emissions were measured 53 times and CO 2 emissions were measured 43 times over three growing seasons using field-based sampling chambers. There was a significant tillage and N placement interaction on N 2 O emissions. Averaged over all three tillage systems and site-years, N 2 O emissions from shallow N placement (2.83 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ) were 26% lower than deep N placement (3.83 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ). The N 2 O emissions were similar among the tillage treatments when N was placed in the soil at a shallow depth. However, when N was placed deeper in the soil (10 cm), the 3-yr average N 2 O emissions from zone-tillage (2.98 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ) were 20% lower than from no-tillage (3.71 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ) and 38% lower than those from moldboard plow tillage (4.81 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ). Tillage type and N placement depth did not affect CO 2 emissions (overall average = 5.80 Mg C ha -1 yr -1 ). Hence, zone-tillage and shallow N placement depth reduced N 2 O emissions without affecting CO 2 emissions.
Structure industrielle et croissance locale en République Populaire de Chine

Using panel data from a sample covering 30 industrial sectors in 29 Chinese provinces (excluding Tibet) over the 1988 to 1997 period, this paper highlights the relation between regional industrial structure and performance distribution in terms of growth. The influence of two types of variables is examined along with traditional production factors: industrial structure (degree of specialization, diversity in the industrial environment and plant size) and the level of initial regional development. Our findings show that the diversity of the industrial environment has a positive impact on local growth, while specialization has a negative one, in a stage of high development and of a widening of regional inequalities to the benefit of coastal regions. Nevertheless, different growth impulses appear according to the sectors under consideration and their location.
Spatial and temporal correlation between coda Q−1 and seismicity and its physical mechanism

From the analysis of local earthquake coda waves recorded by the Benioff short-period vertical seismograph at Riverside, California, we found a surprisingly large and systematic temporal variation in coda Q−1 in the southern California during the 55-year period from 1933 to 1987. Comparison of the coda Q−1 variation with the b value obtained for earthquakes with M≥3 occurred in the area within 180 km from Riverside (corresponding to the area for which Q−1 is estimated by the coda method), led to an extraordinary result that coda Q−1 correlates positively with b value with the correlation coefficient of 0.79. The significance of correlation cannot be rejected at the confidence level of 0.974. Since the data used for measuring Q−1 (namely, the coda part of seismograms) and the data used for measuring b (namely, the seismicity catalog) are totally independent, the observed correlation supports strongly the physical reality of temporal change in both coda Q−1 and b value. The correlation between coda Q−1 and b value has been reported for several other cases, but the correlation was positive in some cases and negative in others. Our current preferred model for explaining the observed correlation is the following. Aseismic creep is going on from time to time over various sizes of cracks in the ductile part and, in some cases, in the brittle part of lithosphere at and near the plate boundary. Creep activities tend to increase the crack density and coda Q−1 observed in the region. If the creek occurs over distributed cracks with a certain predominant scale length, spatial stress concentration may enhance seismicity for earthquakes with a similar size. If this characteristic size is in the lower part of the magnitude range for which the b value is estimated, the enhanced seismicity will increase b. On the other hand, if it is in the upper part of the magnitude range, it will decrease b. Thus we can explain the observed strong correlation between coda Q−1 and b value for both positive and negative cases. The existence of such a characteristic crack size in a seismic region has been supported by various observations on earthquake scaling.
Carbon Balance of Cassava-Based Ethanol Fuel in China

Abstract: Considering energy security and greenhouse gas emission, many governments are developing bio-liquid fuel industries. The Chinese Government advocates the development of a fuel ethanol industry with non-food crops such as cassava. However, scientists debate the carbon emission of these bio-liquid fuels. The focuses are the influence of soil carbon pool destruction and by-product utilization. This study built a carbon balance analysis model, and assessed carbon emission of cassava fuel ethanol across its life cycle. The results show that the carbon emission of cassava fuel ethanol per kilogram in its life cycle was 0.457 kg under new technical conditions and 0.647 kg under old technical conditions. Carbon emission mainly came from the use of nitrogen fertilizer (9% of total emissions), the destruction of the soil carbon pool (29%) and fossil energy inputs (50%). Taking gasoline as a reference, the carbon emission of cassava fuel ethanol was 90% of that of gasoline. This percentage would drop to 64% if soil carbon pool destruction was avoided. Therefore, in order to promote the development of cassava fuel ethanol in China, farms should apply fertilizer properly, grow cassava on marginal land, and not alter land use patterns of woodland, grassland and other environments. In addition, we should exploit efficient fuel ethanol conversion technologies and strengthen the use of by-products.
The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in Antarctica

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in Antarctica at ground level is nearly constant, according to measurements obtained in 1958 at Little America and from 1960 through 1963 at the South Pole. Discernible, however, is a small seasonal variation superimposed on a small yearly increase. The increase is very nearly the same as observed at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, by Pales and Keeling in 1965. It is attributable to the burning of fossil fuels, which is causing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to rise on a world-wide scale.
The petrology of the Tilting Harbour igneous complex, Fogo Island, Newfoundland

The Tilting Harbour complex, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, displays a mineralogical range from olivine-bearing pyroxenites to diorites. The engulfing granite is not genetically related to the complex. On field, petrographic and chemical evidence the complex can be divided into two distinct series. The older magma is of quartz tholeiite composition with an Mg/(Mg + Fe) ratio consistent with derivation directly from the mantle by melting under fairly low pressure (10 kbar (10 × 105 kPa)) under hydrous conditions. The second magma is of olivine tholeiite composition and produced magnetite-rich gabbros. It is not a primary melt from the mantle. Subsequent differentiation produced a range of liquids from olivine-normative to silica-rich, which is best explained by hornblende fractionation. Both magma series gave rise to websterite cumulates. However, the removal of pyroxene did not produce a significant change in residual liquid composition. The Ni content of the quartz-tholeiite magma is 75 ppm and suggests a pa.
Author response to reviewer comments

This paper describes and explores a new continuous-time stochastic cellular automaton model of hillslope evolution. The Grain Hill model provides a computational framework with which to study slope forms that arise from stochastic disturbance and rock weathering events. The model operates on a hexagonal lattice, with cell states representing fluid, rock, and grain aggregates that are either stationary or in a state of motion in one of the six cardinal lattice directions. :::: Cells ::::::::::: representing :::::::::: near-surface ::: soil ::::::: material ::::::: undergo ::::::::: stochastic :::::::::: disturbance :::::: events, :: in ::::: which ::::::: initially ::::::::: stationary ::::::: material :: is ::: put :::: into :::::: motion. :::: Net 5 ::::::::: downslope ::::::: transport :::::::: emerges :::: from ::: the :::::: greater ::::::::: likelihood ::: for :::::::: disturbed ::::::: material :: to ::::: move :::::::: downhill :::: than :: to ::::: move :::::: uphill. ::::: Cells :::::::::: representing :::: rock ::::::: undergo :::::::: stochastic ::::::::: weathering :::::: events :: in ::::: which ::: the :::: rock :: is :::::::: converted :::: into ::::::: regolith. The model can reproduce a range of common slope forms, from fully soil mantled to rocky or partially mantled, and from convex-upward to planar shapes. An optional additional state represents large blocks that cannot be displaced upward by disturbance events. With the addition of this state, the model captures the morphology of hogbacks, scarps, and similar features. In its simplest form, the model has 10 only three process parameters, which represent disturbance frequency, characteristic disturbance depth, and baselevel lowering rate, respectively. Incorporating physical weathering of rock adds one additional parameter, representing the characteristic rock weathering rate. These parameters are not arbitrary but rather have a direct link with corresponding parameters in continuum theory. Comparison between observed and modeled slope forms demonstrates that the model can reproduce both the shape and scale of real hillslope profiles. Model experiments highlight the importance of regolith cover fraction in governing both 15 the downslope mass transport rate and the rate of physical weathering. Equilibrium rocky hillslope profiles are possible even when the rate of baselevel lowering exceeds the nominal bare-rock weathering rate, because increases in both slope gradient and roughness can allow for rock weathering rates that are greater than the flat-surface maximum. Examples of transient relaxation of steep, rocky slopes predict the formation of a regolith-mantled pediment that migrates headward through time while maintaining a sharp slope break. 20
The Role of Organizational Factors in Realizing ERP Benefits

Abstract Today, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems are one the fastest growing segments of the business–software industry. They offer a single system linking all corporate operations, including planning, manufacturing, sales, vendor relations, inventory control, human resources, and accounting. Companies around the world spent billions of dollars and expended untold man-hours installing vast ERP systems.
A Review of the Amorphous Minerals

Mineralogists generally have neglected the study of naturally occurring amorphous substances. None of the modern mineralogical textbooks or treatises give an adequate treatment of the amorphous state or condition. Crystals are treated at great length, but the amorphous state is usually given only a paragraph or two. ' The reasons for this neglect on the part of mineralogists are apparent. Crystals, with their great variety of form and physical properties, offer a more attractive field for study. Crystalline material so greatly predominates over amorphous material in the earth's outer shell that it is regarded as typical of the solid state. In selecting material for chemical analysis crystals are selected as far as possible, for crystallization is Nature's great method of producing pure inorganic substances. While the mineralogist is primarily a crystallographer and while crystallography is left largely in the hands of the mineralogist, we need to be reminded that mineralogy and crystallography are by no means synonymous. Crystallography deals with crystals produced in the laboratory as well as with mineral crystals. Mineralogy deals with all homogeneous, naturally occurring, inorganic substances, whether crystalline or amorphous. The two fields overlap but do not coincide. In view of the recent advances in colloid chemistry, the mineralogist can no longer be excused for his neglect of the study of the amorphous state. Although the science of colloid chemistry has been developed largely by chemists, Breithaupt, one of the early mineralogists and perhaps the greatest of the old natural-history
The relationship between height to width ratios and the heat island intensity at 22:00 h for Singapore

The statistical relationship between urban canyon height-to-width (H/W) ratios and nocturnal heat island intensities for public housing estates in Singapore has been examined. Although a number of similar studies have been conducted for temperate cities, this is a first attempt at correlating H/W to heat island intensities for a tropical city. Heat island intensities were examined specifically at 22:00 h because a previous study of Singapore's heat island determined that the heat islands were well developed by that time. A total of 17 Housing Development Board (HDB) estates were studied and at least two vehicle traverses were conducted for each estate on nights with a few days of antecedent dry weather conditions. H/W ratios for each estate were tabulated by proportion of building length. The statistical analysis demonstrates that there is a positive relationship between the heat island intensities and the median H/W, such that ΔTu−r(max)=0.952 (median H/W)−0.021, statistically significant at α=0.05 with a p-value of 0.001 and a correlation coefficient of 0.53. Copyright © 1999 Royal Meteorological Society
Using in situ produced cosmogenic isotopes to estimate rates of landscape evolution: A review from the geomorphic perspective

The application of in-situ produced cosmogenic isotopes to problems in geomorphology has increased rapidly over the past decade. At least 57 papers and numerous abstracts have been published since the mid-1980s when the first mass-spectrometric measurements of terrestrially produced cosmogenic isotopes were made. Taken at face value, these studies provide quantitative information about rates of landscape evolution and landform age; however, the significance of calculated erosion rates and exposure ages depends strongly on the models used to interpret isotopic data, the validity of assumptions inherent to these models, and the geologic surroundings in which the samples were collected. This paper attempts to place cosmogenic isotope studies in a geomorphic context by reviewing fundamentals of the method and evaluating the validity of assumptions under which these data have been interpreted. At present, the establishment of high-precision, cosmogenically based glacial and alluvial chronologies is stymied by the evolution of geomorphic surfaces, the erosion of rock from sampled boulders, the potential for isotope inheritance from previous exposure, and the uncertainty of isotopic measurements. Uncertainties in isotope production rates and the observed variability of exposure ages on individual geomorphic surfaces limit the confidence with which cosmogenic ages can be correlated reliably with those obtained by other techniques. Estimation of erosion rates at single points on the landscape gives useful small-scale information. Extrapolation of these rates over longer time and larger spatial scales is less sure and most likely biased toward lower erosion rates by die inadvertent selection of resistant sample sites. However, because erosion rates are so poorly constrained at present, even estimates to within a factor of 2 may be of significant value to geomorphologists and tectonicists.