Climate change amplifies plant invasion hotspots in Nepal

Aim Climate change has increased the risk of biological invasions, particularly by increasing the climatically suitable regions for invasive alien species. The distribution of many native and invasive species has been predicted to change under future climate. We performed species distribution modelling of invasive alien plants (IAPs) to identify hotspots under current and future climate scenarios in Nepal, a country ranked among the most vulnerable countries to biological invasions and climate change in the world. Location Nepal. Methods We predicted climatically suitable niches of 24 out of the total 26 reported IAPs in Nepal under current and future climate (2050 for RCP 6.0) using an ensemble of species distribution models. We also conducted hotspot analysis to highlight the geographic hotspots for IAPs in different climatic zones, land cover, ecoregions, physiography and federal states. Results Under future climate, climatically suitable regions for 75% of IAPs will expand in contrast to a contraction of the climatically suitable regions for the remaining 25% of the IAPs. A high proportion of the modelled suitable niches of IAPs occurred on agricultural lands followed by forests. In aggregation, both extent and intensity (invasion hotspots) of the climatically suitable regions for IAPs will increase in Nepal under future climate scenarios. The invasion hotspots will expand towards the high‐elevation mountainous regions. In these regions, land use is rapidly transforming due to the development of infrastructure and expansion of tourism and trade. Main conclusions Negative impacts on livelihood, biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as economic loss caused by IAPs in the future, may be amplified if preventive and control measures are not immediately initiated. Therefore, the management of IAPs in Nepal should account for the vulnerability of climate change‐induced biological invasions into new areas, primarily in the mountains

ARDL Modelling Approach to Testing the Financial Liberalisation Hypothesis

It is a stylised fact that financial “repression” retards economic growth. Hence, financial liberalisation is advocated to remove the stranglehold on the economy. Financial liberalisation policy argues that deregulation of interest rate would result into a higher real interest rate which would lead to increased savings, increased investment and achieve efficiency in financial resource allocation. Past studies have reported inconclusive results regarding the interest rate effects on savings and investment. This paper examines the financial liberalisation hypothesis by employing autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modelling approach on Nepalese data. Results show that the real interest rate affects both savings and investment positively

Fungi isolated from Miscanthus and sugarcane: biomass conversion, fungal enzymes, and hydrolysis of plant cell wall polymers.

BackgroundBiofuel use is one of many means of addressing global change caused by anthropogenic release of fossil fuel carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere. To make a meaningful reduction in fossil fuel use, bioethanol must be produced from the entire plant rather than only its starch or sugars. Enzymes produced by fungi constitute a significant percentage of the cost of bioethanol production from non-starch (i.e., lignocellulosic) components of energy crops and agricultural residues. We, and others, have reasoned that fungi that naturally deconstruct plant walls may provide the best enzymes for bioconversion of energy crops.ResultsPreviously, we have reported on the isolation of 106 fungi from decaying leaves of Miscanthus and sugarcane (Appl Environ Microbiol 77:5490-504, 2011). Here, we thoroughly analyze 30 of these fungi including those most often found on decaying leaves and stems of these plants, as well as four fungi chosen because they are well-studied for their plant cell wall deconstructing enzymes, for wood decay, or for genetic regulation of plant cell wall deconstruction. We extend our analysis to assess not only their ability over an 8-week period to bioconvert Miscanthus cell walls but also their ability to secrete total protein, to secrete enzymes with the activities of xylanases, exocellulases, endocellulases, and beta-glucosidases, and to remove specific parts of Miscanthus cell walls, that is, glucan, xylan, arabinan, and lignin.ConclusionThis study of fungi that bioconvert energy crops is significant because 30 fungi were studied, because the fungi were isolated from decaying energy grasses, because enzyme activity and removal of plant cell wall components were recorded in addition to biomass conversion, and because the study period was 2 months. Each of these factors make our study the most thorough to date, and we discovered fungi that are significantly superior on all counts to the most widely used, industrial bioconversion fungus, Trichoderma reesei. Many of the best fungi that we found are in taxonomic groups that have not been exploited for industrial bioconversion and the cultures are available from the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures in Utrecht, Netherlands, for all to use

Tied-Back Top-Down Wall to Support I-295 Ramp

Woodrow Wilson Replacement Bridge Project included widening the Washington Beltway (I-95/I-495) Outer Loop from three lanes to six-lanes. This required supporting two existing ramps that connect I-295 and MD 210 as well as the existing Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall that supports the ramps. The MSE is about 17-ft tall, about 570-ft long, and at the top of a slope. A tied-back soldier pile and lagging wall with cast-in-place facing was selected to support the MSE and the ramps. The new wall will be about 1,376-ft long and will be as high as 37-ft. The closest approach of the wall to the existing MSE is about 3-ft. Laboratory testing was supplemented with Dilatometer Test (DMT) and Cone Penetration Test (CPT) soundings. PYWall and PLAXIS were used to estimate wall deflections and bending moments in the soldier piles. This paper reviews the analysis techniques, describes the design and the construction methods, and the instrumentation used to monitor the wall and MSE movements. The results of the computer simulations were compared to the inclinometer results. As work progressed simulations were updated by modifying the soil parameters to obtain calculated results that are more nearly consistent with the instrumentation readings

Free charges versus excitons: photoluminescence investigation of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well nanorods and their planar counterparts

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) nanorods have demonstrated significantly improved optical and electronic properties compared to their planar counterparts. However, the exact nature of the processes whereby nanorod structures impact the optical properties of quantum wells is not well understood, even though a variety of mechanisms have been proposed. We performed nanoscale spatially resolved, steady-state, and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) experiments confirming that photoexcited electrons and holes are strongly bound by Coulomb interactions (i.e., excitons) in planar MQWs due to the large exciton binding energy in InGaN quantum wells. In contrast, free electron–hole recombination becomes the dominant mechanism in nanorods, which is ascribed to efficient exciton dissociation. The nanorod sidewall provides an effective pathway for exciton dissociation that significantly improves the optical performance of InGaN/GaN MQWs. We also confirm that surface treatment of nanorod sidewalls has an impact on exciton dissociation. Our results provide new insights into excitonic and charge carrier dynamics of quantum confined materials as well as the influence of surface states

Interpretation and reporting of process capability results: focus on improvement

A global financial services company followed a software-mediated process assessment (SMPA) approach based on ISO/IEC 15504, ISO/IEC 20000 and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). Using an action research approach, the Incident Management, Problem Management, and Change Management processes were assessed at two points in time during an ITSM process improvement project. This paper analyzes the results of the process assessments, highlights issues with the interpretation of the results, and offers an alternative method to report process capability results to motivate process improvement. The study found that by using the proportion of SMPA recommendations as a proxy measure for process improvement, the processes did improve yielding fewer recommendations in cycle 2 when compared to cycle 1 of the action research

Nitrate leaching from short-hydroperiod floodplain soils

Numerous studies have shown the importance of riparian zones to reduce nitrate (NO<sub>3</sub><sup>−</sup>) contamination coming from adjacent agricultural land. Much less is known about nitrogen (N) transformations and nitrate fluxes in riparian soils with short hydroperiods (1–3 days of inundation) and there is no study that could show whether these soils are a N sink or source. Within a restored section of the Thur River in NE Switzerland, we measured nitrate concentrations in soil solutions as an indicator of the net nitrate production. Samples were collected along a quasi-successional gradient from frequently inundated gravel bars to an alluvial forest, at three different depths (10, 50 and 100 cm) over a one-year period. Along this gradient we quantified N input (atmospheric deposition and sedimentation) and N output (leaching) to create a nitrogen balance and assess the risk of nitrate leaching from the unsaturated soil to the groundwater. Overall, the main factor explaining the differences in nitrate concentrations was the field capacity (FC). In subsoils with high FCs and VWC near FC, high nitrate concentrations were observed, often exceeding the Swiss and EU groundwater quality criterions of 400 and 800 μmol L<sup>−1</sup>, respectively. High sedimentation rates of river-derived nitrogen led to apparent N retention up to 200 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup> in the frequently inundated zones. By contrast, in the mature alluvial forest, nitrate leaching exceeded total N input most of the time. As a result of the large soil N pools, high amounts of nitrate were produced by nitrification and up to 94 kg N-NO<sub>3</sub><sup>−</sup> ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup> were leached into the groundwater. Thus, during flooding when water fluxes are high, nitrate from soils can contribute up to 11% to the total nitrate load in groundwater