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Administrative justice concerns how government and public bodies treat people, the correctness of their decisions, the fairness of their procedures, and the opportunities people have to question and challenge decisions made about them. Our research has used a mixture of methods, including desk-based research identifying, collating and examining law and guidance applicable to Wales, alongside policy documents, previous research reports and statistical data. A central conclusion of our research is that public administration in Wales is seen as concerned with sustainability, well-being, equality and human rights, but less often as involving justice for individuals in their relationships with the state.

Genome-scale sequence data have invigorated the study of hybridization and introgression, particularly in animals. However, outside of a few notable cases, we lack systematic tests for introgression at a larger phylogenetic scale across entire clades. Here we leverage 155 genome assemblies, from 149 species, to generate a fossil-calibrated phylogeny and conduct multilocus tests for introgression across nine monophyletic radiations within the genus Drosophila. Using complementary phylogenomic approaches, we identify widespread introgression across the evolutionary history of Drosophila. Mapping gene-tree discordance onto the phylogeny revealed that both ancient and recent introgression has occurred across most of the nine clades that we examined. Our results provide the first evidence of introgression occurring across the evolutionary history of Drosophila and highlight the need to continue to study the evolutionary consequences of hybridization and introgression in this genus and across the Tree of Life.

This work is part of an experimental project aiming at understanding the kinetics of human gastric emptying. For this purpose magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of the stomach of healthy volunteers have been acquired using a state-of-art scanner with an adapted protocol. The challenge is to follow the stomach content (food) in the data. Frozen garden peas and petits pois have been chosen as experimental proof-of-concept as their shapes are well defined and are not altered in the early stages of digestion. The food recognition is performed as a binary classification implemented using a deep convolutional neural network (CNN). Input hyperparameters, here image size and number of epochs, were exhaustively evaluated to identify the combination of parameters that produces the best classification. The results have been analysed using interactive visualisation. We prove in this paper that advances in computer vision and machine learning can be deployed to automatically label the content of the stomach even when the amount of training data is low and the data imbalanced. Interactive visualisation helps identify the most effective combinations of hyperparameters to maximise accuracy, precision, recall and F1 score, leaving the end-user evaluate the possible trade-off between these metrics. Food recognition in MRI scans through neural network produced an accuracy of 0.97, precision of 0.91, recall of 0.86 and F1 score of 0.89, all close to 1., Computer Graphics and Visual Computing (CGVC), Visualisation and Machine Learning, 11, 18, Joshua Gardner, Shatha Al-Maliki, Évelyne Lutton, François Boué, and Franck P. Vidal, CCS Concepts: Applied computing --> Life and medical sciences; Computing methodologies --> Machine learning

A signal transmission technique termed subcarrier index-power modulated optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with dual superposition multiplexing (SIPM-OOFDM-DSPM) is proposed and investigated, for the first time, for IMDD PON transmission systems. Compared to previously published similar transmission techniques, SIPM-OOFDM-DSPM not only enables more information bits to be conveyed in the extra information-carrying dimension but also improves the power usage efficiency, performance flexibility and adaptability without increasing DSP and hardware complexity. Detailed numerical simulations of the proposed technique are undertaken to identify optimum transceiver parameters, based on which its performance characteristics are explored. It is shown that over the aforementioned transmission systems, SIPM-OOFDM-DSPM considerably enhances the signal transmission capacity and simultaneously decreases the power penalty, in comparison with other subcarrier-index power-based OOFDM techniques encoded using similar signal modulation formats.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T16:51:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-12-01 Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Brazil's large land base is important for global food security but its high dependency on inorganic phosphorus (P) fertilizer for crop production (2.2 Tg rising up to 4.6 Tg in 2050) is not a sustainable use of a critical and price-volatile resource. A new strategic analysis of current and future P demand/supply concluded that the nation's secondary P resources which are produced annually (e.g. livestock manures, sugarcane processing residues) could potentially provide up to 20% of crop P demand by 2050 with further investment in P recovery technologies. However, the much larger legacy stores of secondary P in the soil (30 Tg in 2016 worth over $40 billion and rising to 105 Tg by 2050) could provide a more important buffer against future P scarcity or sudden P price fluctuations, and enable a transition to more sustainable P input strategies that could reduce current annual P surpluses by 65%. In the longer-term, farming systems in Brazil should be redesigned to operate profitably but more sustainably under lower soil P fertility thresholds. School of Environment Natural Resources and Geography Bangor University, Thoday Building College of Agriculture 'Luiz de Queiroz' University of São Paulo - ESALQ-USP, Av. Pádua Dias, 11. CEP Federal University of Lavras - UFLA Campus Universitário, PO Box 3037 Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation Embrapa Soils, Rua Jardim Botânico, 1024 Santa Catarina State University UDESC., Av. Luís de Camões 2090 Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation Embrapa Cerrados. BR 020, Km 18 Planaltina. PO Box 08223 São Paulo State University FCA/UNESP. Rua José Barbosa de Barros 1780, CEP 186010-307 Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation Embrapa Soybean, PO Box 231 São Paulo State University FCAV/UNESP. Via de Acesso Prof, Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n. km 5 São Paulo State University FCA/UNESP. Rua José Barbosa de Barros 1780, CEP 186010-307 São Paulo State University FCAV/UNESP. Via de Acesso Prof, Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n. km 5

International audience; We report experimentally and theoretically a new state in which injection locking of the parallel polarization and simultaneous excitation of the orthogonal polarization in a single-transverse mode VCSEL are obtained. We find very simple analytical expressions for the power of both linear polarizations. A simple nonlinear dependence between the power of both linear polarizations and the frequency detuning is found. Also, the total power emitted by the VCSEL is constant and it is independent of the injected power and of the frequency detuning. The stability maps in the injected power-frequency detuning plane identifying this state are performed for different values of bias currents with good agreement between the experimental and calculated maps. Moreover, a simple analytical expression that describes the boundaries of these maps for negative and large frequency detunings provides a simple method to extract the linear dichroism of the laser. © 2017 IEEE.

The European native oyster (Ostrea edulis) is a threatened keystone species which historically created extensive, physically complex, biogenic habitats throughout European seas. Overfishing and direct habitat destruction, subsequently compounded by pollution, invasive species, disease, predation and climate change have resulted in the functional extinction of native oyster habitat across much of its former range. Although oyster reef habitat remains imperilled, active restoration efforts are rapidly gaining momentum. Identifying appropriate sites for habitat restoration is an essential first step in long-term project success. In this study, a three-round Delphi process was conducted to determine the most important factors to consider in site selection for European native oyster habitat restoration projects. Consensus was reached on a total of 65 factors as being important to consider in site selection for European native oyster habitat restoration projects. In addition to the abiotic factors typically included in habitat suitability models, socio-economic and logistical factors were found to be important. Determining the temporal and spatial variability of threats to native oyster habitat restoration and understanding the biotic factors present at a proposed restoration site also influence the potential for project scale-up and longevity. This list guides site selection by identifying: a shortlist of measurable factors which should be considered; the relevant data to collect; topics for discussion in participatory mapping processes; information of interest from the existing body of local ecological knowledge; and factors underpinning supportive and facilitating regulatory frameworks., This work was the product of the Site Selection Working Group within the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA). The NORA Secretariat are funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit) and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz) through the Federal Program for Biodiversity and the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research within the project PROCEED (FKZ 3517685013). PSEzE was supported by The Nature Conservancy, Global Ocean Team.

International audience; Polarization switching in a long-wavelength VCSEL under parallel optical injection is analyzed in a theoretical and experimental way. We report a novel state in which injection locking of the parallel polarization and excitation of the free-running orthogonal polarization of the VCSEL are simultaneously obtained.

International audience

International audience

International audience; SIPM-OOFDM having an extra subcarrier index-power information-bearing dimension is, for the first time, proposed and investigated, which, compared to conventional OOFDM, offers considerable signal transmission capacity improvement without degrading system power budget and dispersion/nonlinearity tolerances.

Selective logging prevails in tropical forests around the world, posing urgent questions about how to reconcile timber extraction with biodiversity conservation. Roads are those elements of selective logging that are most costly, most visible and they probably have the most far-reaching environmental impacts. While many studies have outlined road related threats to forest ecosystems, little is known about the persistence of logging roads in the forest landscape. This is especially important in Central Africa, where selective logging is the most important type of land use, both in terms of spatial extent and financial yield. In this thesis I analyze the temporal and spatial dynamics of logging road networks in a part of the Congo Basin and apply these findings to make suggestions for forest management. In five chapters I am approaching the subject from different angles and on different scales:In the introductory chapter, I compare the content and the orientation of scientific literature on logging roads in tropical forests. In general I identified two strains in the literature, one focusing specifically on road related impacts on forest ecosystems and the other giving technical advice in road planning, building and maintenance in order to improve efficiency and reduce impacts. A third, partially distinct direction of research is oriented on the characterization of the spatial distribution and coverage of forest road networks on larger scale to monitor forest exploitation and related degradation.The second chapter presents a methodology to identify roads in Central African forests based on remote sensing with LANDSAT images. In a time series approach, I used survival analysis to evaluate the temporal dynamics of secondary logging roads over the last 30 years and showed how road persistence differs depending on environmental variables such as geological substrates.The third chapter approaches the persistence of logging roads from a field based perspective. I carried out vegetation inventories on a chronosequence of roads abandoned between 1985 and 2015. The results showed that road tracks and edges are suitable habitats for commercial species regeneration with rapid changes in the environmental conditions occurring over time. During 30 years after abandonment about one third of the biomass lost for road building has re-captured in subsequent vegetation development.The fourth chapter analyses the extent of logging road networks in the overall forest landscape. I used the mathematically well-defined Empty Space Function as a novel way to calculate roadless space. I demonstrated how roadless space in intact forest landscapes (declared in 2000) has diminished in general but in particular in FSC-certified logging concessions. I recommend that forest management should make the preservation of large connected forest areas a top priority by effectively monitoring - and limiting - the occupation of space by roads that are accessible at the same time.The concluding chapter develops management suggestions to apply the findings. I showed that re-opening logging roads in subsequent harvests is rather the exception than the rule. Evaluating benefits, opportunities, costs and risks, I conclude that re-opening roads should be given a higher priority in forest management. Re-using logging roads can spare forests within the same area by avoiding new forest clearing in the vicinity and at a larger scale by sparing unlogged forests from new logging disturbance by intensifying operations on previously logged forests. As a vision for road management, I suggest to actively manage logging roads as transient elements in the landscape until they are reopened. Permanent access roads should only be built in the periphery of continuous forest blocks. As a perspective for further research, I discuss the trade-offs between the need of roads for development and the environmental impacts. As an example for this, I present evidence for the first major road corridor crossing the Congo Basin that is already under construction. To limit the impacts on the forest, large-scale conservation corridors have to be established, requiring supra-regional landscape planning.; Une fraction importante des forêts tropicales dans le monde est exploitée de manière sélective, générant des questions essentielles sur la manière dont il est possible de réconcilier l’extraction du bois et la conservation de la biodiversité. Les pistes forestières sont le facteur le plus coûteux, le plus visible et probablement celui qui a les impacts environnementaux les plus graves, de l’exploitation. Plusieurs études ont souligné les effets négatifs des pistes forestières sur les écosystèmes forestiers tropicaux, mais généralement sans traiter l’aspect de leur persistance dans les paysages boisés. Dans cette thèse, j’analyse les dynamiques spatiales et temporelles des réseaux de pistes d’exploitation dans une partie de l’Afrique centrale, et je prends les résultats en compte pour formuler des propositions dans le cadre des aménagements forestiers. Je traite ce sujet en cinq chapitres, en adoptant dans chacun d’eux des angles et des échelles différents.Dans le chapitre introductif, je présente la littérature scientifique qui a traité des pistes d’exploitation dans les forêts tropicales. D’une manière générale, j’ai identifié deux axes de recherche dans la littérature, l’un traitant uniquement de l’impact négatif des routes sur les forêts et l’autre focalisé sur des recommandations plutôt techniques pour une meilleure planification, une meilleure construction et un maintien plus efficace des routes dans le but d’en réduire les impacts. J’ai également identifié un troisième axe, plutôt orienté sur la caractérisation de la distribution spatiale des réseaux routiers sur une échelle plus large et utilisé ça comme indicateur de la dégradation des forêts tropicales.Dans le deuxième chapitre je présente la méthodologie, basée sur l’utilisation d’images satellitaires LANDSAT, qui m’a permis d’identifier les pistes d’exploitation, primaires et secondaires, en Afrique centrale. En utilisant une série chronologique d’images, j’ai réalisé une analyse de survie pour évaluer la dynamique temporelle des pistes secondaires pendant les 30 dernières années et j’ai montré que la persistance des pistes dépendait en partie de différents facteurs environnementaux, en particulier des substrats géologiques. Dans le troisième chapitre, j’analyse la persistance des pistes d’exploitation sur le terrain. Pour cela, j’ai réalisé des inventaires de végétation sur des pistes plus ou moins anciennement abandonnées (entre 1985 et 2015, donc depuis 30 ans, jusqu’à cette année). Les résultats montrent que la bande de roulement et le bord des pistes constituent des habitats particulièrement favorables pour la régénération des espèces commerciales, tout en étant soumis à des modifications rapides des conditions environnementales. Sur les pistes les plus anciennes, en 30 ans, un tiers de la biomasse perdue lors de la construction a été reconstituée du fait de leur ré-végétalisation.Dans le quatrième chapitre j’analyse l’extension du réseau des pistes, à l’échelle du paysage. J’ai utilisé pour cela une méthode originale, basée sur l’utilisation – pour la première fois en foresterie - de la formule dite « de l’espace vide » (empty space function). Cette formule résulte d’une extension aux deux dimensions d’une formule permettant d’analyser des processus ponctuels et présente l’avantage d’être mathématiquement bien définie. Appliquée au cas des pistes, elle permet de calculer la fragmentation des paysages. J’ai ainsi montré que la fragmentation des forêts dans les paysages définis comme « intacts » en 2000 (Intact Forest Landscapes ou IFL), a augmenté en général, et en particulier dans les concessions certifiées dans le cadre du FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). Je conclus en recommandant que l’aménagement forestier priorise la mise en réserve de la majeure partie de la concession forestière en assurant que les anciennes pistes restent inaccessibles.Le chapitre de conclusion présente, tirées de ces résultats, des propositions pour l’aménagement forestier. Je montre que sur des coups d’exploitation récurrents, les anciennes pistes ne sont pas ré-ouvertes régulièrement. Après avoir évalué les bénéfices, les opportunités, les coûts et les risques liés à l’ouverture des pistes, je conclue que la réouverture de ces pistes mérite une plus grande attention dans l’aménagement, et devrait être priorisée. La réouverture pourrait épargner des superficies forestières et limiter les impacts négatifs sur la faune, en particulier liés à la chasse. A plus grande échelle, cela permettrait d’épargner des forêts encore peu ou pas exploitées, grâce à une intensification de l’exploitation dans des zones déjà perturbées. En conclusion, je vois l’aménagement des réseaux de pistes dans les forêts tropicales comme une planification active d’éléments transitoires dans le paysage, rendu complètement inaccessible après l’exploitation jusqu’à leur réouverture.

A novel transmission technique known as subcarrier index-power modulated optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (SIPM-OOFDM) is proposed, for the first time, by introducing an extra subcarrier index-power information-bearing dimension into conventional OOFDM. Detailed numerical simulations are undertaken of SIPM-OOFDM performance characteristics to identify optimum SIPM-OOFDM transceiver parameters and also to explore corresponding maximum achievable transmission performances over passive optical network systems based on intensity-modulation and direct-detection. It is shown that, compared to conventional OOFDM, SIPM-OOFDM offers considerable signal transmission capacity improvement without increasing minimum required optical signal-to-noise ratios and degrading chromatic dispersion/nonlinearity tolerances.

International audience; In the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Projects on In-Vessel Melt Retention, a benchmark of CFD simulations, devoted to thermal-hydraulic behavior of the light metal layer involves several research organizations: KTH of Sweden, SSTC NRS of Ukraine, ÚJV Řež of Czech Republic and CEA of France. This work aims at better simulating the focusing effect phenomenon leading to a heat flux peak along the height of the light metal layer, which is formed above the oxide layer in a stratified corium pool configuration during a PWR severe accident. This is a known safety issue compromising the reactor vessel integrity. The final stage of this benchmark is the simulation of realistic prototypical light metal layer configuration in case of severe accident. The first benchmark step provides a solid foundation to the CFD schemes (physical models, meshes) by comparing the results of CFD simulations with thermal-hydraulic experimental data obtained using water as simulating fluid in a representative and quite laminar configuration. Then a similar but highly turbulent case, of higher height, is considered for more complex validation of the numerical simulation approach. Results with different turbulent models are compared. On the strength of this encouraging work, a simulation of the same height configuration but considering steel fluid and severe accident conditions is foreseen at the final stage of this benchmark.

International audience

International audience; BACKGROUND:Bats are amongst the natural reservoirs of many coronaviruses (CoVs) of which some can lead to severe infection in human. African bats are known to harbor a range of pathogens (e.g., Ebola and Marburg viruses) that can infect humans and cause disease outbreaks. A recent study in South Africa isolated a genetic variant closely related to MERS-CoV from an insectivorous bat. Though Madagascar is home to 44 bat species (41 insectivorous and 3 frugivorous) of which 34 are endemic, no data exists concerning the circulation of CoVs in the island's chiropteran fauna. Certain Malagasy bats can be frequently found in close contact with humans and frugivorous bats feed in the same trees where people collect and consume fruits and are hunted and consumed as bush meat. The purpose of our study is to detect and identify CoVs from frugivorous bats in Madagascar to evaluate the risk of human infection from infected bats.METHODS:Frugivorous bats belonging to three species were captured in four different regions of Madagascar. We analyzed fecal and throat swabs to detect the presence of virus through amplification of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene, which is highly conserved in all known coronaviruses. Phylogenetic analyses were performed from positive specimens.RESULTS:From 351 frugivorous bats, we detected 14 coronaviruses from two endemic bats species, of which 13 viruses were identified from Pteropus rufus and one from Eidolon dupreanum, giving an overall prevalence of 4.5%. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Malagasy strains belong to the genus Betacoronavirus but form three distinct clusters, which seem to represent previously undescribed genetic lineages.CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that CoVs circulate in frugivorous bats of Madagascar, demonstrating the needs to evaluate spillover risk to human populations especially for individuals that hunt and consume infected bats. Possible dispersal mechanisms as to how coronaviruses arrived on Madagascar are discussed.

Digital filter multiple access (DFMA) passive optical networks (PONs) are, for the first time to our knowledge, proposed and extensively investigated, where digital signal processing (DSP)-enabled, software-reconfigurable, digital orthogonal filtering is employed in each individual optical network unit (ONU) and the optical line terminal to enable all ONUs to dynamically share the transmission medium under the control of the centralized software-defined controller and the transceiver-embedded DSP controllers. The DFMA PONs fully support software-defined networking with the network control further extended to the physical layer. As digital filtering is the fundamental process at the heart of the proposed DFMA PONs, the filtering-induced tradeoffs among upstream transmission capacity, filter design flexibility, and filter DSP complexity are examined, based on which optimum filter design guidelines are identified for various application scenarios. Furthermore, the performance characteristics of the DFMA PONs are also numerically explored in terms of maximum achievable upstream transmission capacity, differential ONU launch power dynamic range, and ONU count-dependent minimum received optical power.

Meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals requires reconciling development with biodiversity conservation. Governments and lenders increasingly call for major industrial developments to offset unavoidable biodiversity loss but there are few robust evaluations of whether offset interventions ensure no net loss of biodiversity. We focus on the biodiversity offsets associated with the high-profile Ambatovy mine in Madagascar and evaluate their effectiveness at delivering no net loss of forest. As part of their efforts to mitigate biodiversity loss, Ambatovy compensate for forest clearance at the mine site by slowing deforestation driven by small-scale agriculture elsewhere. Using a range of methods, including extensive robustness checks exploring 116 alternative model specifications, we show that the offsets are on track to avert as much deforestation as was caused by the mine. This encouraging result shows that biodiversity offsetting can contribute towards mitigating environmental damage from a major industrial development, even within a weak state, but there remain important caveats with broad application. Our approach could serve as a template to facilitate other evaluations and so build a stronger evidence-base of the effectiveness of no net loss interventions.

The human voice carries speech as well as important nonlinguistic signals that influence our social interactions. Among these cues that impact our behavior and communication with other people is the perceived emotional state of the speaker. A theoretical framework for the neural processing stages of emotional prosody has suggested that auditory emotion is perceived in multiple steps (Schirmer and Kotz, 2006) involving low-level auditory analysis and integration of the acoustic information followed by higher-level cognition. Empirical evidence for this multistep processing chain, however, is still sparse. We examined this question using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a continuous carry-over design (Aguirre, 2007) to measure brain activity while volunteers listened to non-speech-affective vocalizations morphed on a continuum between anger and fear. Analyses dissociated neuronal adaptation effects induced by similarity in perceived emotional content between consecutive stimuli from those induced by their acoustic similarity. We found that bilateral voice-sensitive auditory regions as well as right amygdala coded the physical difference between consecutive stimuli. In contrast, activity in bilateral anterior insulae, medial superior frontal cortex, precuneus, and subcortical regions such as bilateral hippocampi depended predominantly on the perceptual difference between morphs. Our results suggest that the processing of vocal affect recognition is a multistep process involving largely distinct neural networks. Amygdala and auditory areas predominantly code emotion-related acoustic information while more anterior insular and prefrontal regions respond to the abstract, cognitive representation of vocal affec. © 2014 Bestelmeyer et al.

International audience; Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are important symbionts of many plant species, facilitating the acquisition of soil nutrients by roots. We hypothesized that AMF root colonization is strongly influenced by the composition of the soil microbiome. Here, we evaluated mycorrhizal colonization of two plants, the grass Urochloa brizantha (Brachiaria) and the legume Crotalaria juncea (Crotalaria). These were cultivated in the same soil but hosting eight distinct microbiomes: natural soil (i); soil exposed to heat treatments for 1 h at 50 oC (ii), 80 oC (iii), or 100 oC (iv); sterilized soil by autoclaving (AS) followed by re-inoculation of dilutions of the natural soil community at 10(-1) (v), 10(-3) (vi), and 10(-6) (vii); and AS without re-inoculation (viii). Microbial diversity (bacteria and fungi) was assessed through 16S rDNA and ITS1 metabarcoding, respectively, and the soil acid phosphatase activity (AP(ASE)) was measured. Sequencing results showed the formation of distinct microbial communities according to the soil manipulations, which also correlated with the decline of AP(ASE). Subsequently, seedlings of Brachiaria and Crotalaria were grown in those soils inoculated separately with three AMF (Acaulospora colombiana, Rhizophagus clarus, and Dentiscutata heterogama) which were compared to an AMF-free control treatment. Brachiaria showed higher colonization in natural soil when compared to the microbial community manipulations, regardless of the AMF species inoculated. In contrast, two mycorrhiza species were able to colonize Crotalaria under modified microbial communities at similar rates to natural soil. Furthermore, Brachiaria showed a possible inverse relationship between AP(ASE) and mycorrhization, but this trend was absent for Crotalaria. We conclude that mycorrhizal root colonization and soil acid phosphatase activity were associated with the structure of the soil microbiome, depending on the plant species evaluated.

Funding Information: This research has been partially funded by the following grants: RED2018-102615-T and PID2021-126884NB-I00 from the Spanish Government and H2019/HUM-5705 from the Comunidad de Madrid granted to JAD; an Australian Research Council grant awarded to MA (DP190103067); a Ramon y Cajal research program awarded to CB (RYC2018-026174-I); an Israel Science Foundation grant awarded to MBS (1083/17); Funding by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awarded to JC; a Specifický vysokoškolský výzkum grant awarded to JC and JJ (260555); a Specifický vysokoškolský výzkum grant awarded to MF (260481); a National Research Fund awarded to SYK (NRF-2019R1G1A1100192); University of Helsinki funds awarded to AL; a Horizon 2020 grant awarded to NTY (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017, 765556); an Academy of Finland grant awarded to HR (321460); an AcqVA Aurora Center of Excellence grant awarded to JR; an National Science Centre Poland grant awarded to ZW (2015/18/E/HS6/00428); a Spanish Government research grant awarded to MS (PGC2018-097970-B-I00); University of Montreal funds awarded to PR, and a Saint Petersburg State University grant awarded to NS (75288744, 121050600033-7); an award by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation to KA (CULTURE/AWARD-YR/0421B/0005). The authors would like to thank the following colleagues for their support with various tasks, including translation of the materials, and data collection, screening, and preprocessing: Yolanda Acedo, Andrea Balázs, Ariane Brucher, Lihi Catz, Candela Dindurra, Ewa Haman, Marie Anna Hamanová, Máté Hegedűs, Boyoung Lee, Pantelis Lioumis, Viktória Balla, Magda Łuniewska, Yijin Lin, Gábor Marics, Khadidja Meftah, Ksenija Mišić, Marisol Murujosa, Helena Oliveira, Fanni Patay, Edurne Petrirena, Shen Qinfang, Michał Remiszewski, Rebeca Sanchez, Dana Suri-Barot and Agata Wolna. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). The growing interdisciplinary research field of psycholinguistics is in constant need of new and up-to-date tools which will allow researchers to answer complex questions, but also expand on languages other than English, which dominates the field. One type of such tools are picture datasets which provide naming norms for everyday objects. However, existing databases tend to be small in terms of the number of items they include, and have also been normed in a limited number of languages, despite the recent boom in multilingualism research. In this paper we present the Multilingual Picture (Multipic) database, containing naming norms and familiarity scores for 500 coloured pictures, in thirty-two languages or language varieties from around the world. The data was validated with standard methods that have been used for existing picture datasets. This is the first dataset to provide naming norms, and translation equivalents, for such a variety of languages; as such, it will be of particular value to psycholinguists and other interested researchers. The dataset has been made freely available.

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T11:06:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-11-01 $\beta $ -Ga2O3 is one of the promising semiconductor materials that has been widely used in power electronics and ultraviolet (UV) detectors due to its wide bandgap and high sensitivity to UV light. Specifically, for the UV detection application, it has been reported that the photocurrent was in the scale of microamps ( $\mu \text{A}$ ), which normally requires sophisticated signal processing units. In this work, a novel approach based upon coupling of two Schottky diodes is reported, leads to a substantial increase in photocurrent (186 times) when benchmarked against a conventional planar UV photodiode. The detectivity and responsivity of the new device have also been significantly increased; the rectification ratio of this device was measured to be $1.7\times 10^{7}$ with ultralow dark current, when measured in the reverse bias. The results confirm that the approach of coupling two Schottky diodes has enormous potential for improving the optical performance of deep UV sensors. Departamento de Fisica UNESP - Sao Paulo State University Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre College of Engineering Swansea University School of Electronic Engineering Bangor University Departamento de Fisica UNESP - Sao Paulo State University

Drone-based remote sensing is a promising new technology that combines the benefits of ground-based and satellite-derived forest monitoring by collecting fine-scale data over relatively large areas in a cost-effective manner. Here, we explore the potential of the GatorEye drone-lidar system to monitor tropical forest succession by canopy structural attributes including canopy height, spatial heterogeneity, gap fraction, leaf area density (LAD) vertical distribution, canopy Shannon index (an index of LAD), leaf area index (LAI), and understory LAI. We focus on these variables? relationship to aboveground biomass (AGB) stocks and species diversity. In the Caribbean lowlands of northeastern Costa Rica, we analyze nine tropical forests stands (seven secondgrowth and two old-growth). Stands were relatively homogenous in terms of canopy height and spatial heterogeneity, but not in their gap fraction. Neither species density nor tree community Shannon diversity index was significantly correlated with the canopy Shannon index. Canopy height, LAI, and AGB did not show a clear pattern as a function of forest age. However, gap fraction and spatial heterogeneity increased with forest age, whereas understory LAI decreased with forest age. Canopy height was strongly correlated with AGB. The heterogeneous mosaic created by successional forest patches across human-managed tropical landscapes can now be better characterized. Drone-lidar systems offer the opportunity to improve assessment of forest recovery and develop general mechanistic carbon sequestration models that can be rapidly deployed to specific sites, an essential step for monitoring progress within the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-01T11:12:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 27015.pdf: 1386408 bytes, checksum: cce9ebab5fed640e715ad6387e973c5a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-12T02:46:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-07-15 A comparison of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) phototransistors prepared by spray and sputter coating process is presented. The work shows that spray coated layers provide significant advantages in sensor response over ZnO phototransistors made by physical vapour deposition and we show that spray deposited ZnO phototransistors can exhibit state-of-the-art performances for UV photodetectors. Topographic images of the samples surface shows that there is increase in surface roughness in spray coated samples indicating increasing grain sizes, which is considered the source of the greater sensor responsivity. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is also used to understand the root cause of the greater UV responsivity. It was observed that sprayed ZnO TFTs are more sensitive to UV radiation due to higher adsorption of oxygen level. Responsivity and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the sprayed and sputtered ZnO TFTs are also evaluated. School of Electronics Bangor University School of Technology and Sciences São Paulo State University (Unesp) Institute of Geosciences and Exact Sciences São Paulo State University (Unesp) Rio Claro Faculty of Science and Engineering University of Chester School of Technology and Sciences São Paulo State University (Unesp) Institute of Geosciences and Exact Sciences São Paulo State University (Unesp) Rio Claro

Theorists of law and of social policy distinguish between the efficacy and the impact of laws and legislation. Efficacy concerns the achievement of the effects intended by law-makers. Impact refers to the actual consequences. At times, the two diverge. Sometimes, it is only after a lengthy period that the impact is appreciated. The impact sometimes requires intervention by legislators or judges acting purposively in order to correct unforeseen or unfortunate consequences. The extent of judicial intervention is not always clear from the surviving records. This article argues that an awareness of the possibility of such occurrence is essential if legal history is to present the whole truth concerning legal developments. Teoretycy prawa i polityki społecznej rozróżniają pojęcia skuteczności oraz wpływu praw i prawodawstw. Skuteczność dotyczy osiągania celów zamierzonych przez prawodawcę. Wpływ odnosi się do rzeczywistych konsekwencji. Niekiedy obie kategorie różnią się od siebie. Bywa, że dopiero po upływie długiego czasu wpływ zostaje doceniony. Kiedy indziej wpływ wymaga interwencji ze strony ustawodawcy czy działających rozmyślnie sędziów, tak aby skorygować nieprzewidziane bądź nieszczęśliwe skutki rozwiązania prawnego. Rozmiar sędziowskich interwencji nie zawsze jest oczywisty na podstawie zachowanych dokumentów. W artykule dowodzi się, że świadomość możliwości wystąpienia takiego zjawiska jest niezbędna, jeśli historia prawa ma przedstawiać całą prawdę na temat jego rozwoju.

Organic carbon (C) plays an essential role in the denitrification process as it supplies energy for N2O, N2 and CO2 producing reactions. The objectives of this study were to: (i) rank the reactivity of different C compounds found in manures based on their availability for denitrification and (ii) explore C-quality in different C sources based on their capacity to promote denitrification. Evaluation of different C-sources in promoting denitrification was conducted based on the molar ratio of CO2 production to NO3− reduction after incubation. Results of the first experiment (a 12-day investigation) showed that glucose and glucosamine were highly reactive C compounds with all applied NO3− being exhausted by day 3, and glucosamine had significantly high amount of NH4+-N present at end of the experiment. The glucose and glucosamine treatments resulted in significantly greater cumulative CO2 production, compared to the other treatments. In the second experiment (a 9-day investigation), all NO3− had been depleted by day 6 and 9 from acetic acid and glucose, respectively, and the greatest cumulative CO2 production was from acetic acid. The CO2 appearance to NO3− molar ratios revealed that glucose and glucosamine were compounds with highly available C in the first experiment. In the second experiment, the pig slurry and acetic acid were found to be C-sources that promoted potential denitrification. The application of slurry to soil results in the promotion of denitrification and this depends on the availability of the C compounds it contains. Understanding the relationship between C availability and denitrification potential is useful for developing denitrification mitigation strategies for organic soil amendments.

International audience; Parametric estimation of a biased harmonic signal is a significant technical challenge for many engineering applications. Such a problem is particularly important for electric utility grid-connected power electronic converters. This paper utilizes a linear regression model of the signal to solve this interesting practical problem. A continuoustime dynamic regressor extension and mixing (DREM) based approach is then applied for parameter estimation. For practical implementation, continuous-time estimators are discretized using implicit and explicit Euler methods. We then prove that the implicit discretization can achieve fixed-time convergence for the unknown frequencies estimation. Thanks to the estimated frequencies, another DREM-based linear regression problem is solved for the parameter estimation purpose. The overall order of the proposed technique is the same as the number of unknown parameters, making the estimator suitable for real-time implementation in embedded devices. Theoretical results are validated through extensive comparative experimental studies.

International audience; Integrating renewable energy sources into an unbalanced distribution network requires fast and accurate extraction of fundamental frequency positive- and negative-sequence components from the unbalanced three-phase grid voltagesignals. For this purpose, various methods are already available in the literature. Out of them, delayed signal cancellation (DSC) is prevalent. Conventional DSC can separate the sequence components using a quarter-cycle delay. Fast DSC tools can achieve the same with less than a quarter-cycle delay. However, neither conventional nor fast DSCcan handle DC offset without requiring additional delayed signals. This article addresses this issue by proposing a mod-ified DSC to estimate the sequence components with DC offset rejection and having arbitrarily fast convergence speed,i.e., low memory requirement. Two equidistant delayed samples of the measured grid voltages/currents are required toimplement the proposed technique and can easily be applied in a phase-locked loop (PLL). Comparative experimen-tal results demonstrate the suitability of the proposed approach over other DSC methods.

International audience; The presence of strong imaging artefacts in microtomographic X-ray data makes the CAD modelling process difficult to carry out. As an alternative to traditional image segmentation techniques, we propose to register the CAD models by deploying a realistic X-ray simulation on GPU in an optimisation framework. A user study was also conducted to compare the measurements made manually by a cohort of volunteers and those produced with our framework. Our implementation relies on open source software only. We numerically modelled the real experiment, taking into account geometrical properties as well as beam hardening, impulse response of the detector, phase contrast, and photon noise. Parameters of the overall model are then optimised so that X-ray projections of the registered the CAD models match the projections from an actual experiment. It appeared that manual measurements can be variable and subject to bias whereas our framework produced more reliable results. The features seen in the real CT image, including artefacts, were accurately replicated in the CT image reconstructed from the simulated data after registration: (i) linear attenuation coefficients are comparable for all the materials, (ii) geometrical properties are accurately recovered, and (iii) simulated images reproduce observed experimental artefacts. We showed that the choice of objective function is crucial to produce high fidelity results. We also demonstrated how to automatically produce CAD models as an optimisation problem, producing a high cross-correlation between the experimental CT slice and the simulated CT slice. These results pave the way towards the use of fast realistic simulation for accurate CAD modelling in tomographic X-ray data

Global warming is affecting the population dynamics and trophic interactions across a wide range of ecosystems and habitats. Translating these real-time effects into their long-term consequences remains a challenge. The rapid and extreme warming period that occurred after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (7-12 thousand years ago) provides an opportunity to gain insights into the long-term responses of natural populations to periods with global warming. The effects of this post-LGM warming period have been assessed in many terrestrial taxa, whereas insights into the impacts of rapid global warming on marine taxa remain limited, especially for megafauna. In order to understand how large-scale climate fluctuations during the post-LGM affected baleen whales and their prey, we conducted an extensive, large-scale analysis of the long-term effects of the post-LGM warming on abundance and inter-ocean connectivity in eight baleen whale and seven prey (fish and invertebrates) species across the Southern and the North Atlantic Ocean; two ocean basins that differ in key oceanographic features. The analysis was based upon 7032 mitochondrial DNA sequences as well as genome-wide DNA sequence variation in 100 individuals. The estimated temporal changes in genetic diversity during the last 30,000 years indicated that most baleen whale populations underwent post-LGM expansions in both ocean basins. The increase in baleen whale abundance during the Holocene was associated with simultaneous changes in their prey and climate. Highly correlated, synchronized and exponential increases in abundance in both baleen whales and their prey in the Southern Ocean were indicative of a dramatic increase in ocean productivity. In contrast, the demographic fluctuations observed in baleen whales and their prey in the North Atlantic Ocean were subtle, varying across taxa and time. Perhaps most important was the observation that the ocean-wide expansions and decreases in abundance that were initiated by the post-LGM global warming, continued for millennia after global temperatures stabilized, reflecting persistent, long-lasting impacts of global warming on marine fauna.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:46:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-12-01 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Maranhão Alleviation of subsoil acidity with lime or gypsum increases carbon (C) accumulation in deep layers by stimulating root growth and C and nitrogen (N) inputs at depth. However, the effects of these amendments combined with N fertilization on soil CO2 emissions remain controversial. We evaluated the effects of superficial lime and gypsum application and N-fertilizer on C and N dynamics and microbial C use efficiency (MicCUE) in samples taken from the topsoil (0–10 cm) and subsoil (40–60 cm) of a no-till field experiment carried out in Brazil. We performed a short-term laboratory incubation with 14C-glucose and 14C-arginine to assess C and N mineralization dynamics. Liming increased topsoil pH but had no effect on subsoil acidity. A higher content of organic C, total N, and microbial biomass C and N were found in the topsoil. The addition of soil corrective (lime and gypsum) and N fertilizer had no effect on MicCUE of added 14C-glucose. However, the MicCUE of 14C-arginine was affected by the soil layer, and was higher in the subsoil. After the addition of arginine, net NH4+-N production was highest in the topsoil control, while net NO3−-N content was highest with lime + gypsum plus residual N in the same layer. We conclude that while lime and gypsum ameliorate soil acidity, they have minimal effect on C cycling through the microbial biomass, particularly in the subsoil. Department of Crop Science School of Agriculte São Paulo State University, Av. Universitária, 3780 School of Natural Sciences Bangor University Department of Crop Science School of Agriculte São Paulo State University, Av. Universitária, 3780 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás: 2015-10267001479 FAPESP: 2015/50305-8 FAPESP: 2017/00398-5 FAPESP: 2017/02517-1 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council: BB/N013201/1 Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Maranhão: RCUK-02771/16

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International audience; Runs of homozygosity (ROH) occur when offspring inherit haplotypes that are identical by descent from each parent. Length distributions of ROH are informative about population history; specifically, the probability of inbreeding mediated by mating system and/or population demography. Here, we investigated whether variation in killer whale (Orcinus orca) demographic history is reflected in genome-wide heterozygosity and ROH length distributions, using a global data set of 26 genomes representative of geographic and ecotypic variation in this species, and two F1 admixed individuals with Pacific-Atlantic parentage. We first reconstructed demographic history for each population as changes in effective population size through time using the pairwise sequential Markovian coalescent (PSMC) method. We found a subset of populations declined in effective population size during the Late Pleistocene, while others had more stable demography. Genomes inferred to have undergone ancestral declines in effective population size, were autozygous at hundreds of short ROH (1.5 Mb) were found in low latitude populations, and populations of known conservation concern. These include a Scottish killer whale, for which 37.8% of the autosomes were comprised of ROH >1.5 Mb in length. The fate of this population, in which only two adult males have been sighted in the past five years, and zero fecundity over the last two decades, may be inextricably linked to its demographic history and consequential inbreeding depression.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T16:53:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-01-01 Multimedia data, such as images and videos, has become very popular in people's daily life as a result of the widespread use of mobile devices. The ever-increasing amount of such data, along with the necessity for real-time retrieval, has lead to the development of new methods that can process them in a timely fashion with acceptable accuracy. In this paper, we study the performance of ReckNN, an unsupervised manifold learning algorithm based on the reciprocal neighbourhood and the authority of ranked lists. Most of the related work in this field do not fully investigate optimization strategies, an aspect that is becoming more important with the high availability of manycore machines. In order to address that issue, we fully investigate optimization opportunities in this article and make the following three main contributions. Firstly, we develop an efficient and scalable method for storing and accessing the distances between objects (e.g., video or image) based on dictionaries. Secondly, we employ memoization to speed up the computation of authority scores, leading to a significant performance gain even on single-core architectures. Lastly, we devise and implement several parallelization strategies and show that they are scalable on a 72-core Intel machine. The experimental results with MPEG-7, Corel5k and MediaEval benchmarks show that the optimized ReckNN delivers both efficiency and scalability, highlighting the importance of the proposed optimizations for manycore machines. Department of Statistics Applied Mathematics and Computing São Paulo State University – UNESP School of Computer Science Bangor University Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia Universidade Federal de São Paulo – UNIFESP Department of Statistics Applied Mathematics and Computing São Paulo State University – UNESP

Made available in DSpace on 2019-10-06T15:52:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-01-01 Illegal logging and trade of timber are major worldwide concerns, resulting in biodiversity and economic losses. Tropical tree species in the genus Cedrela, which have historically been heavily exploited, are still often illegally traded and there is an urgent need to develop tools to verify the origin of Cedrela products. A set of 351 SNP loci for Cedrela species from Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, French Guiana, Mexico, and Peru was developed using restriction associated DNA sequencing (RADSeq) and low coverage MiSeq genome sequencing, and adapted for MassARRAY genotyping. After screening of 94 individuals covering most of the distribution of Cedrela, a final set of 136 SNP loci which included 92 nuclear SNPs, 22 chloroplast markers (20 SNPs and 2 INDELs), and 22 mitochondrial markers (19 SNPs and 3 INDELs) was selected and tested for potential to verify Cedrela timber origin. Carrera de Ingeniería Forestal Laboratorio de Dendrocronología Facultad de Ciencias Agrícolas Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno, Km 9 carretera al Norte, El Vallecito Thünen Institute of Forest Genetics, Sieker Landstrasse 2 Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP), Av. José A. Quiñones km 2.5 Instituto Florestal de São Paulo, CP 1322 Faculdade de Engenharia Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) INRA UMR0745 EcoFoG AgroParisTech Cirad CNRS Université des Antilles Université de Guyane, Campus Agronomique, Avenue de France Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Edinburgh, Bush Estate Faculdade de Engenharia Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)

Scleractinian corals are engineers on coral reefs that provide both structural complexity as habitat and sustenance for other reef-associated organisms via the release of organic and inorganic matter. However, coral reefs are facing multiple pressures from climate change and other stressors, which can result in mass coral bleaching and mortality events. Mass mortality of corals results in enhanced release of organic matter, which can cause significant alterations to reef biochemical and recycling processes. There is little known about how long these nutrients are retained within the system, for instance, within the tissues of other benthic organisms. We investigated changes in nitrogen isotopic signatures (δ15N) of macroalgal tissues (a) ~ 1 year after a bleaching event in the Seychelles and (b) ~ 3 months after the peak of a bleaching event in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. In the Seychelles, there was a strong association between absolute loss in both total coral cover and branching coral cover and absolute increase in macroalgal δ15N between 2014 and 2017 (adjusted r2 = 0.79, p = 0.004 and adjusted r2 = 0.86, p = 0.002, respectively). In Mo’orea, a short-term transplant experiment found a significant increase in δ15N in Sargassum mangarevense after specimens were deployed on a reef with high coral mortality for ~ 3 weeks (p

International audience; Research on literacy has become universal and is essential for researchers of various disciplines, educators, and psychologists. For this article, we examined the most important methodological challenges that arise when conducting literacy research across languages, some of which have long been acknowledged in the relevant literature. Specifically, we focused on challenges related to research on word reading, spelling, passage comprehension, and writing, ranging from the target skills, constructs, and assessment issues to the matching of the samples and measurement and factorial invariance issues. We conclude that although theoretical and applied issues have been addressed in the literature, to date, this has happened only with limited relevance for reading and writing research across languages. The discussion provides some relevant evidence from a neuroscience perspective to promote useful insights and greater methodological rigor in literacy research across languages. L iteracy research across languages is essential for researchers of various disciplines, educators, and psychologists. However, for the broad range of research to be informative and useful, the data collected in various languages have to be comparable (see Verhoeven & Perfetti, 2017). This comparability hinges on diverse issues, such as the definition of constructs (e.g., Olive, 2012), the precision of assessment and research methods (e.g., Caravolas, Lervåg, Defior, Seidlová Málková, & Hulme, 2013), the measurement and factorial invariance of the predictor and outcome measures (e.g., Papadopoulos, Kendeou, & Spanoudis, 2012), or even challenges at the level and complexity of statistical analysis and deriving conclusions (e.g., Aro & Wimmer, 2003). In the present article, we review some of the most relevant methodological issues involved in literacy research across languages and provide guidelines for addressing these issues. Literacy relates to reading, spelling, reading comprehension, and text composition. In learning to read and write, students learn to encode language into their writing system and decode printed words to speech to derive meaning (see Alves, Limpo, & Joshi, 2020). Much of the history of literacy research on European alphabets, 1 to which we restricted ourselves for the present review, shows that the field has been driven by data acquired in cross-linguistic studies. Cross-linguistic research focuses on the development of these fundamental literacy skills in different languages, varying primarily in orthographic consistency. It also investigates various relations among fundamental components, or precursor skills, and between literacy skills themselves. Most of the cross-linguistic

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This study presents recent observations to quantify oceanic heat fluxes along the continental slope of the Eurasian part of the Arctic Ocean, in order to understand the dominant processes leading to the observed along‐track heat loss of the Arctic Boundary Current (ABC). We investigate the fate of warm Atlantic Water (AW) along the Arctic Ocean continental margin of the Siberian Seas based on 11 cross‐slope conductivity, temperature, depth transects and direct heat flux estimates from microstructure profiles obtained in summer 2018. The ABC loses on average O(108) J m−2 per 100 km during its propagation along the Siberian shelves, corresponding to an average heat flux of 47 W m−2 out of the AW layer. The measured vertical heat flux on the upper AW interface of on average 10 W m−2 in the deep basin, and 3.7 W m−2 above the continental slope is larger than previously reported values. Still, these heat fluxes explain less than 20% of the observed heat loss within the boundary current. Heat fluxes are significantly increased in the turbulent near‐bottom layer, where AW intersects the continental slope, and at the lee side of a topographic irregularity. This indicates that mixing with ambient colder water along the continental margins is an important contribution to AW heat loss. Furthermore, the cold halocline layer receives approximately the same amount of heat due to upward mixing from the AW, compared to heat input from the summer‐warmed surface layer above. This underlines the importance of both surface warming and increased vertical mixing in a future ice‐free Arctic Ocean in summer., Plain Language Summary: Warm water from the Atlantic Ocean enters the Arctic Ocean through the Barents Sea and the Fram Strait, between Greenland and Norway, and directly influences the formation of sea ice: When the Atlantic Water (AW) is located close to the ocean's surface, as is the case shortly after its inflow in the Barents Sea, sea ice melts and new sea ice formation is hindered. This is why the Barents Sea is often ice free, even in winter. Further along the pathway, in the Laptev and East Siberian Sea study region, the AW gradually cools and dives down to deeper layers. In order to quantify the cooling and to understand how and where it happens, we measured vertical profiles of temperature and heat fluxes along a 2,500 km long part of the AW pathway. Based on these measurements, we found that the heat loss mainly occurs by mixing of warm AW with ambient cold water above the continental slope, in particular in the highly energetic region near the sea floor., Key Points: The Atlantic Water (AW) transported in the Arctic Boundary Current loses O(108) J m−2 per 100 km during its translation along the Siberian shelves Heat fluxes are larger than previously reported values, but too small to account for this heat loss, indicating the importance of boundary mixing The heat input from the underlying AW layer to the cold halocline is of similar magnitude to the heat input from the warm surface layer above, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347, NSF | GEO | Division of Ocean Sciences http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000141

peer-reviewed Small-scale anaerobic digestion of wet organic wastes can make positive contributions to climate mitigation, energy security and nutrient cycling in agri-food systems. However, the environmental sustainability of small-scale anaerobic digestion is undermined where lack of capacity to utilize the biogas fuel results in biomethane venting to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Policy support for improved manure management in Bali, Indonesia, has resulted in the installation of small (6 m3 ) anaerobic digesters across 752 Bali cattle breeding units. These 752 remote rural digesters annually vent approximately 75 482 ± 37 741 m3 of biomethane into the atmosphere as a waste, owing to lack of practical means to convert this potential fuel into useful energy. Meanwhile, most of these cattle farms lack access to electricity. This paper describes the performance of a novel, compact and versatile “BioMiniGen” system that provides convenient electricity generation from small-scale biogas production. This innovative system comprises: (i) a simple biogas desulfurizing system; (ii) a two-stroke, single cylinder (63 cc) air-cooled engine; (iii) an electric generator; (iv) an optional CO2 removal unit. Lifecycle assessment indicated that bioelectricity generated by the BioMiniGen would have a smaller environmental footprint than Indonesian grid electricity across 11 impact categories, including a negative global warming burden owing to avoidance of biogas venting. Trade-offs included a larger abiotic depletion burden associated with manufacture of the generators. Over a five-year lifetime, each unit, costing US$500, could generate up to 5971 kWh of electricity and mitigate up to 65.1 Mg CO2 eq., with a greenhouse gas abatement value up to US$13023. Across Bali, up to 898 ± 449 MWh yr 1 bioelectricity could be generated, and 1.92 ± 0.96 Gg CO2 eq. saved. Further pilot trials are needed to ascertain realistic biogas yields from cleaned digesters managed for bioenergy generation alongside manure management. BioMiniGen technology could make an important contribution to energy security for the 1.4 billion people globally who lack access to electricity

International audience; Many systems in the natural and physical world often work in unison with similar other systems. This process of simultaneous operation is known as synchronization. In the past few decades, owing to this phenomenon's importance, extensive research efforts have been made. However, many of the existing results consider the systems are identical and/or linear time-invariant, while practical systems are often nonlinear and nonidentical for various reasons. This observation motivated several recent studies on the synchronization of nonidentical (i.e., heterogeneous) nonlinear systems. This paper summarizes some recent results on the synchronization of heterogeneous nonlinear systems, as developed in the thesis [1]. First, the results on the synchronization of a particular class of robustly stable nonlinear systems are presented. Then, these results are applied to an example model known as Brockett oscillator. Finally, using the Brockett oscillator as a common dynamics, output oscillatory synchronization results are given for heterogeneous nonlinear systems of relative degree 2 or higher. An application example of Brockett oscillator for power-grid synchronization is also presented. Some outlooks are provided regarding future research directions.

Unbounded dependencies of the kind that are found in wh-interrogatives, relative clauses, and other constructions have been a major focus of research in HPSG. They typically involve a gap of some kind and some distinctive higher structure, often involving a filler in a non-argument position with the properties of the gap. HPSG has developed detailed proposals about the bottom of the dependency, the middle, and the top. In the case of the top of the dependency, complex hierarchies of phrase types have been employed to handle the distinctive properties of the various unbounded dependency constructions. Analyses have also been developed for unbounded dependencies with a resumptive pronoun, the special properties of wh-interrogatives, extraposition phenomena, and filler-gap mismatches. &nbsp

International audience; Ongoing specialization of crop and livestock systems provides socioeconomic benefits to the farmer but has led to greater externalization of environmental costs when compared to mixed farming systems. Better integration of crop and livestock systems offers great potential to rebalance the economic and environmental trade-offs in both systems. The aims of this study were to analyze changes in farm structure and review and evaluate the potential for reintegrating specialized intensive crop and livestock systems, with specific emphasis on identifying the co-benefits and barriers to reintegration. Historically, animals were essential to recycle nutrients in the farming system but this became less important with the availability of synthetic fertilisers. Although mixed farm systems can be economically attractive, benefits of scale combined with socio-economic factors have resulted in on-farm and regional specialization with negative environmental impacts. Reintegration is therefore needed to reduce nutrient surpluses at farm, regional and national levels, and to improve soil quality in intensive cropping systems. Reintegration offers practical and cost-effective options to widen crop rotations and promotes the use of organic inputs and associated benefits, reducing dependency on synthetic fertilisers, biocides and manure processing costs. Circular agriculture goes beyond manure management and requires adaptation of both food production and consumption patterns, matching local capacity to produce with food demand. Consequently, feed transport, greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient surpluses and nutrient losses to the environment can be reduced. It is concluded that reintegration of specialized farms within a region can provide benefits to farmers but may also lead to further intensification of land use. New approaches within a food system context offer alternatives for reintegration, but require strong policy incentives which show clear, tangible and lasting benefits for farmers, the environment and the wider community.

Ceccherini et al.1 reported an abrupt increase in harvested forest—in terms of both biomass and area—in Europe from 2016, and suggested that this reflected expanding wood markets encouraged by the bioeconomy policies of the European Union (EU). They used Global Forest Watch2 and GlobBiomass3 data together with an analysis that sought to remove natural disturbances from forest losses, which overall resulted in estimates of 49% for the increase in harvested forest area and 69% for the increase in harvested forest biomass. We argue that the reported changes reflect analytical artefacts, with inconsistencies in the forest change time series, misattribution of natural disturbances as harvests, and a lack of causality with the suggested bioeconomy policy frameworks. There is an urgent need to re-examine available forest information that can accurately and reliably inform the ongoing policy discussions in the framework of the EU Green Deal, particularly the upcoming post-2020 EU Forest Strategy.

The English language version of this book chapter "Forest conservation in Madagascar: past, present, and future" is available on the EcoEvoRxiv preprint server https://ecoevorxiv.org/7p6rx/) .At this critical time for the future of Madagascar’s biodiversity, we first review the past: touching upon conservation from pre- to post-colonial periods before focusing on the period which most dramatically shaped the country’s current conservation-related institutions and policies (1984-2009). Next the present: we examine evidence for the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the main approaches to forest conservation on the island. We look in detail at how conservation has conceptualized the link between environment and development in Madagascar, the impact of measures by conservationists to transform rural livelihoods, and the effectiveness of protected areas, community-based natural resources management, and the environmental impact assessment legislation. Finally, we look to the future and consider how pressures on Madagascar’s biodiversity, and the conservation community’s responses, are evolving and need to evolve., A paraître dans le prochain livre The New Natural History of Madagascar, édité par S. M. Goodman, à publier par Princeton University PressA ce moment critique pour l’avenir de la biodiversité de Madagascar, nous révisons le passé en premier : abordant la conservation de la période précoloniale à la période postcoloniale avant de se concentrer sur la période ayant le plus dramatiquement formé les institutions de conservation actuelles et les politiques (1984-2009). Ensuite, le présent : nous examinons une preuve pour l’efficacité (ou sinon) des approches principales sur la conservation de la forêt sur une île. Nous voyons en détail comment la conservation a-t-elle conceptualisé le lien entre l’environnement et le développement à Madagascar, l’impact des mesures prises par les conservationnistes (écologistes) pour transformer les moyens d’existence ruraux, et l’efficacité des aires protégées, la gestion communautaire des ressources naturelles, et la législation sur l’étude d’impact environnemental. Enfin, nous regardons vers l’avenir et considérons comment les pressions sur la biodiversité de Madagascar, et les réponses de la communauté de conservation, évoluent et comment doivent-elles évoluer.

International audience; Fast and accurate frequency estimation of an unbalanced three-phase power system in the presence of measurement offset is a challenging task. A simple to implement and tune method is proposed in this work through a delay-based linearregression framework. Using two challenging scenarios, we verify the performance of our procedure in the presence of severe grid abnormalities, including voltage unbalance, harmonics, frequency jump, and DC offset. Comparative hardware-in-the-loop experimental results demonstrate the suitability of the proposed approach.

Description, Old genetic variants were key to the ability of bottlenose dolphins to repeatedly adapt to coastal waters across the world., Studying repeated adaptation can provide insights into the mechanisms allowing species to adapt to novel environments. Here, we investigate repeated evolution driven by habitat specialization in the common bottlenose dolphin. Parapatric pelagic and coastal ecotypes of common bottlenose dolphins have repeatedly formed across the oceans. Analyzing whole genomes of 57 individuals, we find that ecotype evolution involved a complex reticulated evolutionary history. We find parallel linked selection acted upon ancient alleles in geographically distant coastal populations, which were present as standing genetic variation in the pelagic populations. Candidate loci evolving under parallel linked selection were found in ancient tracts, suggesting recurrent bouts of selection through time. Therefore, despite the constraints of small effective population size and long generation time on the efficacy of selection, repeated adaptation in long-lived social species can be driven by a combination of ecological opportunities and selection acting on ancestral standing genetic variation.

International audience; The BRITICE-CHRONO Project has generated a suite of recently published radiocarbon ages from deglacial sequences offshore in the Celtic and Irish seas and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide and optically stimulated luminescence ages from adjacent onshore sites. All published data are integrated here with new geochronological data from Wales in a revised Bayesian analysis that enables reconstruction of ice retreat dynamics across the basin. Patterns and changes in the pace of deglaciation are conditioned more by topographic constraints and internal ice dynamics than by external controls. The data indicate a major but rapid and very short-lived extensive thin ice advance of the Irish Sea Ice Stream (ISIS) more than 300 km south of St George's Channel to a marine calving margin at the shelf break at 25.5 ka; this may have been preceded by extensive ice accumulation plugging the constriction of St George's Channel. The release event between 25 and 26 ka is interpreted to have stimulated fast ice streaming and diverted ice to the west in the northern Irish Sea into the main axis of the marine ISIS away from terrestrial ice terminating in the English Midlands, a process initiating ice stagnation and the formation of an extensive dead ice landscape in the Midlands.

International audience; Biomonitoring ecosystems is necessary in order to evaluate risks and to efficiently manage ecosystems and their associated services. Agrosystems are the target of multiple stressors that can affect many species through effects cascading along food webs. However, classic biomonitoring, focused on species diversity or indicator species, might be a poor predictor of the risk of such whole-ecosystem perturbations. Thanks to high-throughput sequencing methods, however, it might be possible to obtain sufficient information about entire ecological communities to infer the functioning of their associated interaction networks, and thus monitor more closely the risk of the collapse of entire food webs due to external stressors. In the course of the ‘next-generation biomonitoring’ project, we collectively sought to experiment with this idea of inferring ecological networks on the basis of metabarcoding information gathered on different systems. We here give an overview of issues and preliminary results associated with this endeavour and highlight the main difficulties that such next-generation biomonitoring is still facing. Going from sampling protocols up to methods for comparing inferred networks, through biomolecular, bioinformatic, and network inference, we review all steps of the process, with a view towards generality and transferability towards other systems. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd