Check list of the bryophytes of Réunion Island (France)

A systematic, literature-based compilation of bryophytes of Réunion Island has been made, with the additional examination of herbarium specimens. The list of 148 genera and 404 species and infraspecific taxa of mosses and 87 genera and 241 species and infraspecific taxa of hepatics and hornworts are here reported, including four mosses reported as new to Réunion

Estimation of transition probabilities of credit ratings for several companies

This paper attempts to estimate the transition probabilities of credit ratings for a number of companies whose ratings have a dependence structure. Binary codes are used to represent the index of a company together with its ratings in the present and next quarters. We initially fit the data on the vector of binary codes with a multivariate power-normal distribution. We next compute the multivariate conditional distribution for the binary codes of rating in the next quarter when the index of the company and binary codes of the company in the present quarter are given. From the conditional distribution, we compute the transition probabilities of the company’s credit ratings in two consecutive quarters. The resulting transition probabilities tally fairly well with the maximum likelihood estimates for the time-independent transition probabilities

Developing long-term monitoring of natural areas for a Unesco world heritage site: study case of la Reunion

La Réunion island, in the Mascarenes, has been recognized as a World Heritage site for its Piton, Cirques and Remparts since 2010. The site, coinciding with the core zone of La Réunion National Park, represents 100000 ha, equivalent to 40 % of the island. These dramatic landscapes of rugged terrain, impressive escarpments, forested gorges are dominated by three cliff-rimmed cirques and two volcanoes ― a dormant massif forming the highest peak, Piton des Neiges (3069 m), and in the eastern part of the island lies the very active volcano, the Piton de la Fournaise (2632 m). The island harbours a wide variety of natural habitats (tropical montane cloud forests, subalpine shrublands, lowland forests, dry forest…), now all remnant in the Mascarene archipelago, that host high levels of endemism for both flora and fauna. Thereby, La Réunion is the most significant contributor towards conservation of terrestrial biodiversity in the Mascarene islands. The Divines project (FEDER) aims at developing innovative methods for characterizing and monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the long term for conservation managers to ensure the protection of this world heritage site. In this poster, a description of the goals, actions and preliminary results of the DIVINES project will be described from gene to ecosystem levels

Cancer Survival Experiences Retold Through Web Portal

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experience of cancer survivors while they are still a patient of cancer. Their reflections were documented in video form and published via a web portal entitled ‘Share’. Besides that, this paper also seeks to understand the impact of experience retold via the portal to media users who are generally the support group members. This research uses a qualitative approach which involved five cancer survivors for the actual interviews while two cancer survivors for pilot interviews. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with empathetic listening approach in order to collect the cancer survivor’s experience. Maslow’s Theory of Motivation is adopted as a conceptual framework for guiding the research particularly in framing the interview questions that focuses on exploring the physiological, safety, love and belonging needs of cancer survivors which is the first three levels discussed in Maslow’s theory. A survey is disseminated to the support group to understand their perception towards the Share’s portal. The results informed that the cancer survivors needs have been identified accordingly to the first three levels of Maslow’s theory. The cancer survivors’ needs were similar to each other when they were still patients. Their sharing intention was high, because they had reached a certain level of attitude compared to the time when they are healthy after experiencing a bigger challenge in their lives. As for the feedbacks from the support group majority of the feedbacks support the role of this portal to keep them connected and agreed on the importance to have such a portal to cater to their support group. This study enables the researcher to understand the experience sharing process and learning from the cancer survivors. Besides that, this study offers a better understanding of the needs of cancer patients. This study benefits the cancer support group in Malaysia because of the fundamental needs for the cancer support group to enable them to have a better knowledge, experiences, and advice sharing to new cancer patients. Such information offers the community a better understanding of the needs of cancer patients based on Maslow’s Theory of Needs. Maslow’s Theory is widely used in the healthcare and hospice study in the recent year

Characterizing and quantifying water content in 14 species of bryophytes present in azorean native vegetation

Bryophytes are an important component of plant diversity, may be found from sea level to mountaintops, and are particularly conspicuous on the Azores islands. These plants rely on environmental water, which acquires intercepting rain and dew (liquid water) and uses fog (water vapor), and transports both externally, by capillary forces, and internally, in different cells (specialized or not). This study characterizes and quantifies the ability of six liverworts and eight mosses to retain water, through different pathways, and to lose water by evaporation. Twelve replicates of each species were collected in Azorean native vegetation during the summer of 2016. The absolute water content (AWC) was obtained through measurements of specimens saturated, without free water, and completely dry. Most of the 14-target species showed an ectohydric behavior pattern retaining more than 60% of water through gametophyte surface. The AWC value ranged from 646% in Polytrichum commune to 5584% in Sphagnum subnitens. The water loss by direct evaporation showed, for most of species, an exponential decay curve along time. Understanding how much native bryophytes, acquire, store, and release water into the system contributes not only to the knowledge of native vegetation resilience but also to potential impacts on the availability and quality of water—a major ecosystem service performed by bryophytes.This research was funded by ERANET BIOME MOVECLIM Montane vegetation as listening posts for climate change of the regional government of the Azores, grant number M2.1.2/F/04/2011/NET, and M.C.M.C. was funded by the FUNDO REGIONAL PARA A CIÊNCIA E TECNOLOGIA (FRCT) of the regional government of the Azores, grant number M3.1.2/F/007/2012. R.G. is currently funded by FCT-UIDB/00329/2020-2024 (Thematic Line 1–integrated ecological assessment of environmental change on biodiversity) and Azores DRCT Pluriannual Funding (M1.1.A/FUNC.UI&D/010/2021-2024).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Probabilistic guided exploration for reinforcement learning in self-organizing neural networks

Exploration is essential in reinforcement learning, which expands the search space of potential solutions to a given problem for performance evaluations. Specifically, carefully designed exploration strategy may help the agent learn faster by taking the advantage of what it has learned previously. However, many reinforcement learning mechanisms still adopt simple exploration strategies, which select actions in a pure random manner among all the feasible actions. In this paper, we propose novel mechanisms to improve the existing knowledge-based exploration strategy based on a probabilistic guided approach to select actions. We conduct extensive experiments in a Minefield navigation simulator and the results show that our proposed probabilistic guided exploration approach significantly improves the convergence rate.NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore)Accepted versio

Bryophytes distribution along an altitudinal gradient of native forest in Pico island (Azores): preliminary results of epiphytic genera

MOVECLIM, Mid Course Meeting, 2-6 September 2013, Réunion (Mascarenes).The evergreen forests of the Azores offer a great variety of habitats for bryophytes, owing to the diversity of microhabitats and available substrata, and to the hyper-humid conditions they provide. Bryophytes play a vital role in such ecosystems (Homem & Gabriel, 2009). The understanding of species rarity is important in ecological and conservational research

Bryophyte diversity and climate change in the Azores: looking to the future to redesign the present

Jornadas "Ciência nos Açores – que futuro? Tema Ciências Naturais e Ambiente", Ponta Delgada, 7-8 de Junho de 2013.As alterações que o clima do planeta tem vindo a sofrer nas últimas décadas têm efeitos variados sobre a biodiversidade, alterando a distribuição das espécies e as interacções entre estas, afectando a jusante os serviços de ecossistemas e, consequentemente, o ser humano. Nos Açores, vários desses serviços são garantidos pelos briófitos. Para além das suas funções ecossistémicas, estes organismos respondem rapidamente a variações ambientais, sendo por isso indicados para detectar os efeitos biológicos das alterações climáticas. Este estudo procura determinar que impactos terão as alterações climáticas previstas pelo Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sobre a distribuição e composição específica e funcional da brioflora dos Açores e que novos dados podemos integrar no sistema de gestão de áreas protegidas do arquipélago. Para tal, pretende-se inventariar a diversidade específica e funcional de briófitos ao longo de gradientes altitudinais em várias ilhas dos Açores, relacionar os padrões de distribuição encontrados com uma série de factores ambientais e desenvolver, através de modelação bioclimática, previsões da distribuição futura destas espécies em resposta a diferentes cenários de alterações climáticas. Utilizando a brioflora açoriana, pretende-se assim ilustrar de que forma o estudo dos futuros efeitos das alterações climáticas sobre a biodiversidade pode servir como base para o desenvolvimento de estratégias de gestão e conservação da natureza a curto, médio e longo prazos. Ao fazê-lo, estaremos a contribuir para garantir a sustentabilidade do arquipélago, preservando a sua biodiversidade, os serviços dos ecossistemas e os benefícios e lucros por eles gerados em sectores como o do turismo, fortemente ligado à qualidade ambiental das ilhas.ABSTRACT: The changes the planet's climate has undergone in recent decades have numerous effects on biodiversity, altering the distribution of species and the interactions between them, affecting the ecosystem services they provide and, consequently, human beings. In the Azores, many of these services are guaranteed by bryophytes. Besides, these organisms respond quickly to environmental changes, being thus very suitable for exploring the biological effects of climate change. This project aims to determine what will the impacts of climate change, as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on the distribution, taxonomic and functional composition of native forest bryophytes be and which new data can we integrate in the archipelago’s protected areas management system. In order to do that, we will sample the taxonomic and functional diversity of bryophytes along altitudinal gradients in several islands of the Azores in a stratified way, and relate the emerging distribution patterns with a number of environmental factors. Then, using bioclimatic modeling, we will predict the future distribution of these species in response to different climate change scenarios. By means of the Azorean bryophytes, we aim to illustrate how the study of future climate change effects on biodiversity can serve as a foundation for the development of short to long-term nature management and conservation strategies. In doing so, we will help to ensure the sustainability of the archipelago, preserving its biodiversity, ecosystem services and the benefits and profits generated by them in sectors such as tourism, strongly linked to the environmental quality of the islands.Governo dos Açores; Fundo Regional para a Ciência