Hypothetical reasoning with well founded semantics

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Climate change in Central and South America: Recent trends, future projections, and impacts on regional agriculture

This report investigates the climate of two target regions of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS): Central and South America (CA and SA, respectively). The report assesses the implications of climate change for agriculture, with a particular focus on those aspects of climate change that will have greatest impact on the crops currently grown in each region. The study investigated the ability of General Circulation Models (GCMs) and downscaled climate change scenarios to reproduce already observed climates, to establish the reliability of future climate projections, as well as projections of how associated crops might grow under future conditions

A systematic literature review on the semi-automatic configuration of extended product lines

Product line engineering has become essential in mass customisation given its ability to reduce production costs and time to market, and to improve product quality and customer satisfaction. In product line literature, mass customisation is known as product configuration. Currently, there are multiple heterogeneous contributions in the product line configuration domain. However, a secondary study that shows an overview of the progress, trends, and gaps faced by researchers in this domain is still missing. In this context, we provide a comprehensive systematic literature review to discover which approaches exist to support the configuration process of extended product lines and how these approaches perform in practice. Extend product lines consider non-functional properties in the product line modelling. We compare and classify a total of 66 primary studies from 2000 to 2016. Mainly, we give an in-depth view of techniques used by each work, how these techniques are evaluated and their main shortcomings. As main results, our review identified (i) the need to improve the quality of the evaluation of existing approaches, (ii) a lack of hybrid solutions to support multiple configuration constraints, and (iii) a need to improve scalability and performance conditions

New Records Of Bird Species From Ilha Grande, State Of Rio De Janeiro, Southeastern Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)We add 32 new records of species to the existing checklist of birds of the coastal island of Ilha Grande, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Notably, seven of these species are endemic to the Atlantic Forest. Sporophila falcirostris is globally Vulnerable and Haematopus palliatus is Near Threatened in Brazil. We also report the second record of Agelaioides badius from Rio de Janeiro state. We also compare our species list with lists of birds of Ilhabela and Anchieta islands. While some of the newly recorded species are probably non-resident to Ilha Grande or represent range expansions, most species occur in Rio de Janeiro throughout the year. Thus, our records may be a consequence of the surveying new sites on the island but also recent colonization. Our study increases the number of bird species known to occur on Ilha Grande from 222 to 254, which is one-third of the species reported from Rio de Janeiro state. We recorded 13 species threatened by extinction at regional, national or global levels. © 2016 Check List and Authors.126CNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico305798/2014-6, FAPERJ, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de JaneiroE-26/102.837868/2012, FAPERJ, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de JaneiroUERJ, Universidade do Estado do Rio de JaneiroConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Variability of earthworm's functional traits in eastern Amazon is more species-dependent than environment-dependent

Understanding the causes of variability in functional traits is an important question in earthworm ecology. While interspecific variation in anatomical dimensions for the same trait is well accepted, the role of environmental filters, soil degradation, and environmental stress in affecting the variability of functional traits is not well understood. In this study, we sought to determine the relative importance of environmental factors and earthworm species taxonomy on the variability in functional traits within species (intraspecific variability). We focused on eight functional traits including body mass, body length, body diameter, gizzard, gizzard thickness, septum thickness, typhlosole, and gut organic matter. We sampled earthworms of 11 different species in various regions of the eastern Amazon to determine the general responses of different species' characteristics when exposed to various ecosystem and soil conditions. Our results suggest that the functional traits of earthworms are influenced in different ways by environmental conditions. One set of traits, including body mass, body length, and body diameter, was more constant and independent of environmental variability, while another set, including gizzard diameter and length, gizzard muscle thickness, septum thickness, typhlosole, and intestinal organic matter, was more sensitive. The most affected by different environmental variables was septum thickness. We also examined which environmental factors are most important for trait variability. Our study highlights the importance of considering both environmental factors and taxonomic classification when studying the variability of functional traits within earthworm species. Overall, our results suggest that taxonomic classification alone is a good guide for estimating the major functional traits of earthworms in the Brazilian Amazon, but local conditions can their variability is which is essential for informing conservation efforts and maintaining ecosystem function

Analysis of overall utilization of sugarcane biomass and waste from the production of sugar and ethanol for cogeneration in a Brazilian sugarcane mill

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.This work presents thermodynamic, thermoeconomic and economic analyses of biomass gasification systems integration in a sugar-ethanol factory. Four configurations, combining the actual cogeneration plant with straw and stillage gasification systems, are considered. Case 1 represents a steam plant of a modern conventional power plant (base case), with a steam boiler of high-pressure and high-temperature, as well as an extraction-condensation steam turbine, being all mechanical driving electrified. In the other cases, gasification systems are associated to the actual plant using the energy from a gas turbine and a heat recovery steam generator to complete a combined cycle. In Case 2, the incorporation of a system for biodigestion of stillage is experimented. In Case 3, the incorporation of the sugar-cane straw gasification in the current plant is considered and Case 4 considers the gasification of straw and stillage.cf201

Recent developments on the South American monsoon system

This paper reviews recent progress made in our understanding of the functioning and variability of the South American Monsoon System (SAMS) on time scales varying from synoptic to long-term variability and climate change. The SAMS contains one of the most prominent summertime climate patterns in South America, featuring a strong seasonal variability in a region lying between the Amazon and the La Plata Basin. Much of the recent progress is derived from complementary international programs, such as the Monsoon Experiment South America (MESA), as well as from ongoing international programs such as the Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in the Amazon Basin (LBA) and the La Plata Basin (LPB) Regional Hydroclimate Project, which includes the CLARIS LPB Europe-South America Network for Climate Change Assessment and Impact Studies in La Plata Basin Project. The latter assesses atmosphere-land surface interactions, the role of land use changes and aerosols from biomass burning considered as sources of variability and change in the SAMS functioning, characteristics and behaviour. The SAMS region is particularly susceptible to variations of climate due to the importance of hydroelectricity generation and the agricultural base of local economies. Also addressed in this report are projections of climate change and extremes, which are important for impact and vulnerability assessments. This discussion includes the need to identify and understand important processes that control the monsoonal climate, how these processes may vary and change, and how they may interact with key societal sectors, including water resource management, hydroelectric generation, agriculture, and agribusiness. This paper reports on the major contributions of MESA to the knowledge of characteristics, functioning and variability of the SAMS, and is based on recent studies and publications, and can be considered as an update of a previous review by C. S. Vera et al. (2006a). © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society.Fil:Berbery, E.H. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Vera, C.S. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Saulo, A.C. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina

The leading particle effect from light quark fragmentation in charm hadroproduction

The asymmetry of $D^-$ and $D^+$ meson production in $\pi^-N$ scattering observed by the E791 experiment is a typical phenomenon known as the leading particle effect in charm hadroproducton. We show that the phenomenon can be explained by the effect of light quark fragmentation into charmed hadrons (LQF). Meanwhile, the size of the LQF effect is estimated from data of the E791 experiment. A comparison is made with the estimate of the LQF effect from prompt like-sign dimuon rate in neutrino experiments. The influence of the LQF effect on the measurement of nucleon strange distribution asymmetry from charged current charm production processes is briefly discussed.Comment: 6 latex pages, 1 figure, to appear in EPJ

Polaron formation for a non-local electron-phonon coupling: A variational wave-function study

We introduce a variational wave-function to study the polaron formation when the electronic transfer integral depends on the relative displacement between nearest-neighbor sites giving rise to a non-local electron-phonon coupling with optical phonon modes. We analyze the ground state properties such as the energy, the electron-lattice correlation function, the phonon number and the spectral weight. Variational results are found in good agreement with analytic weak-coupling perturbative calculations and exact numerical diagonalization of small clusters. We determine the polaronic phase diagram and we find that the tendency towards strong localization is hindered from the pathological sign change of the effective next-nearest-neighbor hopping.Comment: 11 page