Effects of land-use types and the exotic species,Hypochaeris radicata,on plant diversity in human-transformed landscapes of the biosphere reserve,Jeju Island,Korea

Land-use and plant invasion influence biodiversity.Understanding the effects of land-use types and invasive plants on the ecosystem is crucial for better management and the development of strategic plans for increasing biodiversity in Jeju Island,Korea,a designated Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Education,Scientific,and Cultural Organization.The effect of the most dominant invasive exotic species,Hypochaeris radicata,on the four land-use types of Jeju Island was investigated.Plant composition,soil characteristics,and plant diversity among four land-use types(cropland,green space,neglected land,and residential)were compared.Among the land-use types,croplands had the most diverse plant composition and the highest richness in exotic and native plant species.Croplands,such as tangerine orchards,which are widely distributed throughout Jeju Island,showed the highest plant diversity because of medium intensity disturbance caused by weed removal.The relative cover of H.radicata did not differ between land-use types.However,H.radicata invasion was negatively related with plant species richness,making this invasive species a threat to the biodiversity of native herbs present in land-use areas.H.radicata adapts to areas with a broad range of soil properties and a variety of land-use types.Therefore,it is crucial to monitor land-use types and patterns of plant invasion to guide the implementation of consistent management and conservation strategies for maintaining ecosystem integrity of the transformed habitat in Jeju Island.

No effect of invasive tree species on aboveground biomass increments of oaks and pines in temperate forests

Prunus serotina and Robinia pseudoacacia are the most widespread invasive trees in Central Europe.In addition,according to climate models,decreased growth of many economically and ecologically important native trees will likely be observed in the future.We aimed to assess the impact of these two neophytes,which differ in the biomass range and nitrogen-fixing abilities observed in Central European conditions,on the relative aboveground biomass increments of native oaks Qucrcus robur and Q.petraea and Scots pine Pinus sylvestris.We aimed to increase our understanding of the relationship between facilitation and competition between woody alien species and overstory native trees.We established 72 circular plots(0.05 ha)in two different forest habitat types and stands varying in age in western Poland.We chose plots with different abundances of the studied neophytes to determine how effects scaled along the quantitative invasion gradient.Furthermore,we collected growth cores of the studied native species,and we calculated aboveground biomass increments at the tree and stand levels.Then,we used generalized linear mixed-effects models to assess the impact of invasive species abundances on relative aboveground biomass increments of native tree species.We did not find a biologically or statistically significant impact of invasive R.pseudoacacia or P.serotina on the relative aboveground,biomass increments of native oaks and pines along the quantitative gradient of invader biomass or on the proportion of total stand biomass accounted for by invaders.The neophytes did not act as native tree growth stimulators but also did not compete with them for resources,which would escalate the negative impact of climate change on pines and oaks.The neophytes should not significantly modify the carbon sequestration capacity of the native species.Our work combines elements of the per capita effect of invasion with research on mixed forest management.

Prospects and limitations of soil amendment and irrigation techniques for the water-saving public urban greenery and ephemeral weed management in the sandy soils of the United Arab Emirates

Public urban greenery greatly contributes to the residential and tourist value of cities in the Gulf Region,but due to the hyper-arid climatic conditions,the cost of irrigation and plant maintenance is very high.Existing strategies to reduce the monetary and ecological costs involve the cultivation of native xerophytic plantations,and/or the use of soil improvers to increase water-and nutrient-holding capacity of the sandy soils.Various soil improvers based on mineral,organic,or synthetic materials have entered the United Arab Emirates(UAE)market in recent years,but there is considerable uncertainty about how they should best be used in combination with ornamental plant stands involving xerophytic native plants.The present study investigated the effect of soil amendment and deep pipe irrigation on perennial ornamental plant stands involving native plants(Tephrosia appolinea(Gel.)Link in combination with Aerva javanica(Burm.f.)Juss.ex Schult.)and native-exotic plants(T.appolinea in combination with Ruelia simplex C.Wright)either or not topsoil and subsoil amendment with bentonite and hydrophobic sand under the irrigation water supply of less than 50%of reference evapotranspiration(ET0).After one year of cultivation,T.appolinea and A.javanica(native vs.native)produced high biomass and exhibited high water use efficiency(WUE)as compared with T.appolinea and R.simplex(native vs.exotic)combination given that no significant differences were found under the soil amendment treatments.All stands thrived under irrigation water supply far below what is usually supplied to exotic ornamental stands in public parks of the Al Ain City,the UAE.However,subsoil amendment in combination with deep pipe irrigation reduced the occurrence of weeds and increased the overall plant rooting depth.Our results suggest that subsoil amendment and irrigation up to 60-80 cm depth can potentially control ephemeral weed infestation,which is a great challenge in various plant production systems of the Gulf Region.The results of the present study suggest that the impact of soil amendment on the WUE of exotic plants is marginal and might not be economically justified.Replacing exotic with native ornamental plant species seems to have a far greater water-saving potential than the amendment of the soil,while weeds can be suppressed in the absence of topsoil moisture.

Investigation of multinucleon transfer processes in the Langevin equation model

Multinucleon transfer in low-energy heavy-ion collisions is increasingly considered a promising approach for generating exotic nuclei.Understanding the complex mechanisms involved in multinucleon transfer processes presents significant challenges for the theoretical investigation of nuclear reactions.A Langevin equation model was developed and employed to investigate multinucleon transfer processes.The^(40)Ar+^(232)Th reaction was simulated,and the calculated Wilczyński plot was used to verify the model.Additionally,to study the dynamics of multinucleon transfer reactions,the^(136)Xe+^(238)U and^(136)Xe+^(209)Bi reactions were simulated,and the corresponding TKE-mass and angular distributions were computed to analyze the energy dissipation and scattering angles.This investigation enhances our understanding of the dynamics involved in multinucleon transfer processes.

Isotopic dependence of the yield ratios of light fragments from different projectiles and their unified neutron skin thicknesses

The yield ratios of neutron-proton(R(n/p))and^(3)H-^(3)He(R(^(3)H∕^(3)He))with reduced rapidity from 0 to 0.5 were simulated at 50 MeV/u even-even ^(36−56)Ca+^(40)Ca,even-even ^(48−78)Ni+^(58)Ni,and ^(100−139)Sn(every third isotopes)+112 Sn for full reduced impact parameters using the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics(IQMD)model.The neutron and proton density distributions and root-mean-square radii of the reaction systems were obtained using the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock model,which was used for the phase space initialization of the projectile and target in IQMD.We defined the unified neutron skin thickness asΔRnp=<r^(2)>^(1∕2) n−<r^(2)>^(1∕2)p,which was negative for neutron-deficient nuclei.The unifiedΔRnp values for nuclei with the same relative neutron excess from different isotopic chains were nearly equal,except for extreme neutron-rich isotopes,which is a type of scaling behavior.The yield ratios of the three isotopic chain-induced reactions,which depended on the reduced impact parameter and unified neutron skin thickness,were studied.The results showed that both R(n/p)and R(^(3)H∕^(3)He)decreased with a reduced impact parameter for extreme neutron-deficient isotopes;however,they increased with reduced impact parameters for extreme neutron-rich isotopes,and increased with theΔRnp of the projectiles for all reduced impact parameters.In addition,a scaling phenomenon was observed betweenΔR np and the yield ratios in peripheral colli-sions from different isotopic chain projectiles(except for extreme neutron-rich isotopes).Thus,R(n/p)and R(^(3)H∕^(3)He)from peripheral collisions were suggested as experimental probes for extracting the neutron or proton skin thicknesses of non-extreme neutron-rich nuclei from different isotopic chains.

“撒旦的诱惑”:英国浪漫主义文学中的共同体审美

受所处时代影响,英国浪漫主义文学或多或少地被染上了殖民主义色彩。殖民、旅行、流散、文学创作、审美与道德批判之间存在着强大的、难以割裂的且有时不易被人察觉的逻辑关系。以黑奴和“东方猎奇”为主题的英国浪漫主义文学创作形塑了英国人的审美旨趣,界定了英国民族国家共同体“美”与“崇高”的精神内核。该精神内核具有令人着迷的说服力。然而,究其本质,该精神内核不过是以特定审美和道德原则为依托、以构建新时期英国殖民强国为目的的“撒旦的诱惑”。

Thin-Shell Wormholes Admitting Conformal Motions in Spacetimes of Embedding Class One

This paper discusses the feasibility of thin-shell wormholes in spacetimes of embedding class one admitting a one-parameter group of conformal motions. It is shown that the surface energy density σis positive, while the surface pressure is negative, resulting in , thereby signaling a violation of the null energy condition, a necessary condition for holding a wormhole open. For a Morris-Thorne wormhole, matter that violates the null energy condition is referred to as “exotic”. For the thin-shell wormholes in this paper, however, the violation has a physical explanation since it is a direct consequence of the embedding theory in conjunction with the assumption of conformal symmetry. These properties avoid the need to hypothesize the existence of the highly problematical exotic matter.

A Brief Tour on Exotic Control Objectives in Robotics

Formulation of control objectives is a key issue in automatic control systems design. Although at first sight the desired goal （control objective） of a control system seems to be a trivial and obvious matter, for effectiveness of some high level robotic tasks, unusual exotic control objectives may be required. This paper presents a review of some exotic control objectives useful in robotics, such as velocity field control objective and range control objective. The paper also proposes a novel confinement control objective. The usefulness of these exotic control objectives may appear in safe robot-human interaction and self-protection of robots against collisions.

Differences in leaf functional traits between exotic and native Compositae plant species

This study aims to determine the differences in leaf functional traits and phenotypic plasticity of leaf functional traits between exotic and native Compositae plant species. Leaf width of exotic plants was significantly lower than that of native species. Leaf length, specific leaf area(SLA), single-leaf wet and dry weights, leaf moisture, and leaf thickness of exotic plants were also lower than those of native species but not significantly. The leaf shape index of exotic plants was higher than that of native species but not significantly. This implies that the relatively low leaf construction cost for exotic plants may play an important role in the success of their invasions. The higher leaf shape index and lower leaf width of exotic plants can enhance the efficiency of resource capture(especially sunlight capture) via adjustments to leaf shape and size, thereby increasing the survival of exotic plants. The plasticity indices of single-leaf wet weight and leaf thickness of exotic plants were significantly lower than those of native species. The lower phenotypic plasticity of single-leaf wet weight and leaf thickness of exotic plants may be the result of a cost to plasticity. That is, if the plasticity is too high, the fitness of plant species might be reduced sharply under unfavorable environments. Thus, lower plasticity of leaf functional traits may compensate for the negative impact of adverse environments and stabilize leaf construction costs for exotic plants. Moreover, reduced phenotypic plasticity might be one of the key competitive strategies by which exotic plants successfully invade new habitats. Overall, exotic plants did not always exhibit higher values of leaf functional traits or increased phenotypic plasticity of leaf functional traits compared with native species.

Spatial dynamic patterns of saltmarsh vegetation in southern Hangzhou Bay:Exotic and native species

A saltmarsh has developed rapidly on the mudflat of Andong Shoal,in southern Hangzhou Bay,over the last decade since embankment.The saltmarsh vegetation changes are driven by both sediment dynamic conditions and the competition between the exotic species Spartina alterniflora(S.alterniflora) and the native species Scirpus mariqueter(S.mariqueter).This study attempted to investigate large-scale spatial variations in the exotic and native species,by analyzing and interpreting a time series(2016-2018) of high-resolution(less than 1 m) remote sensing images.The total area of the saltmarsh increased at a rate of 1.07 km^2/year,due to the accretion of the whole tidal flat.The spatial patterns revealed a new bimodal pattern for S.alterniflora invasion.S.alterniflora expanded over the upper to middle saltmarsh at a rate of1.68 km2/year.However,the S.alterniflora patches at the seaward edge expanded at a negative rate of-0.005 km^2/year,indicating a different pattern in competition:S.alterniflora had more advantages in the upper saltmarsh,while S.mariqueter had more advantages in the pioneer zone with low elevation.Consequently,S.alterniflora mainly established new habitats by invading S.mariqueter in the middle saltmarsh,but S.mariqueter occupied the bare mudflat for tradeoff.Our results aindicated that the interspecific competition result between S.alterniflora and S.mariqueter depended on elevation,and low elevation might create a favorable environment for S.mariqueter to win the competition with exotic species.This finding could be applied to future invasive species control and saltmarsh management.

Genome-wide prediction for hybrids between parents with distinguished difference on exotic introgressions in Brassica napus

Extensive exotic introgression could significantly enlarge the genetic distance of hybrid parental populations to promote strong heterosis.The goal of this study was to investigate whether genome-wide prediction can support pre-breeding in populations with exotic introgressions.We evaluated seed yield,seed yield related traits and seed quality traits of 363 hybrids of Brassica napus (AACC) derived from two parental populations divergent on massive exotic introgression of related species in three environments.The hybrids presented strong heterosis on seed yield,which was much higher than other investigated traits.Five genomic best linear unbiased prediction models considering the exotic introgression and different marker effects (additive,dominance,and epistatic effects) were constructed to test the prediction ability for different traits of the hybrids.The analysis showed that the trait complexity,exotic introgression,genetic relationship between the training set and testing set,training set size,and environments affected the prediction ability.The models with best prediction ability for different traits varied.However,relatively high prediction ability (e.g.,0.728 for seed yield) was also observed when the simplest models were used,excluding the effects of the special exotic introgression and epistasis effect by5-fold cross validation,which would simplify the prediction for the trait with complex architecture for hybrids with exotic introgression.The results provide novel insights and strategies for genome-wide prediction of hybrids between genetically distinct parent groups with exotic introgressions.

A Two-Dimensional Brans—Dicke Star Model with Exotic Matter and Dark Energy

A two-dimensional Brans-Dicke star model with exotic matter and dark energy is studied in this paper,the field equation and balance equation are derived at finite temperature,the analytic solutions of these equations canbe used to calculate the mass of star.In addition,we find that star's mass has a minimum when matter state parameterγ→0.

The Occurrence of an Exotic Bisexual Artemia Species, Artemia franciscana, in Two Coastal Salterns of Shandong Province, China

The alien halophilous Artemia species, Artemia franciscana, was found in Chengkou Saltern and Yangkou Saltern of Shandong Province, P.R. China. Although the indigenous parthenogenetic Artemia is detectable, the exotic species is dominant in both salterns. The cross-breeding tests between the exotic A. franciscana and 5 bisexual Artemia species were conducted. The results of hybridization and morphological observations on the exotic A. franciscana are briefly presented in this short communication.

Exotic interactions between solitons of the （2＋1）-dimensional asymmetric Nizhnik-Novikov-Veselov system

Starting from the extended tanh-function method （ETM） based on the mapping method, the variable separation solutions of the （2＋1）-dimensional asymmetric Nizhnik Novikov Veselov （ANNV） system are derived. By further study, we find that these variable separation solutions are seemingly independent of but actually dependent on each other. Based on the variable separation solution and by choosing appropriate functions, some novel and interesting interactions between special solitons, such as bell-like compacton, peakon-like compacton and compacton-like semifoldon, are investigated.

Exotic and invasive species compromise the seed bank and seed rain dynamics in forests undergoing restoration at urban regions

The control of exotic and invasive species in areas undergoing recovery is a challenge for ecological restoration and this problem may be even greater in urbanized areas. This study evaluated the seed bank and seed rain of a 5-year-old riparian forest located at the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte in southeast Brazil, and verified changes over time in the abundance and species richness and whether planted species already were providing propagules to the site. At the forest, fifteen parcels of 100 m2 were distributed randomly and soil samples were collected thrice (October 2011, March 2012 and July 2012) to evaluate the seed bank. Seed traps were installed in nine parcels to collect propagules over 1 year. Propagules were segregated and germinate at greenhouse. Species richness and abundance were estimated, and variance and similarity were quantified. In total, 86 species were recorded in the seed banks, 41.9% natives and 33.7% exotics, with the predominance of herbs (87.2%) and only 7% of trees. Species classified as weeds amounted to 52.3%. In the seed rain 642 seedlings germinated but they belonged to only 10 species, half of them were exotics. Regarding life forms, half of the species were arboreal and dominated the samples, highlighting the exotic species Melia azedarach. The species richness of the seed bank did not differ by season, unlike the seed rain which varied significantly by month. Seed bank and seed rain species had a very low floristic similarity with the list of planted species, suggesting that few planted trees had dispersed or were stocking propagules. Many non-planted species were recorded, mostly exotics and/or invasive that were probably derived from the surrounding urban matrix. These might interrupt the successional dynamics of the restoration forest and compromise the restoration process in the medium and long-terms. Our results highlight: (1) the importance of monitoring areas undergoing restoration; (2) that restoration methods and management actions directed to control exotic and invasive species are particularly important for sites in urban regions; and (3) the relevance of conserving forest fragments as sources of propagules for nearby areas.

Study on Production of Exotic 0^＋ Meson D＇^＊aj（2317） in Decays of ψ（4415）

The newly observed D^＊aj family containing D^＊aj（2317）, Daj（2460）, and Daj（2632） attracts great interests. Determining their structures may be an important task for both theorists and experimentalists. In this work we use a non-relativistic model （the harmonic oscillator model） to evaluate the production rate of D^＊aj （2317） from the decays of ψ（4415）. For a comparison, we a/so employ the widely adopted heavy quark effective theory to repeat the calculation. We lind that the rate is sizable and may be observed at BES III and CLEO, if it is a p-wave excited state of Da（1968）. Unfortunately, the other two members of the family cannot be observed through decays of charmonia, because of the constraints from the final state phase space.

Public Key Cryptosystem Based on Two Sided Action of Different Exotic Semirings

The idempotent semirings Rmax and Rmin play a crucial role in several areas of mathematics and their applications such as discrete mathematics, algebraic geometry, computer science, computer languages, linguistic problems, optimization theory, discrete event systems, fuzzy logics. In this paper we consider the expansion of the semirings Rmax and Rmin with residuals and describe how to use these expended semirings in public key cryptography.

SHRIMP Age of Exotic Zircons in the Mengyin Kimberlite,Shandong,and Their Formation

Due to various courses of formation of zircons from kimbedites, different kinds of zircons can provide useful information about the mantle and the crystallization of kimberlites. We chose 9 typical ones out of 33 zircons from the Shengli- 1 kimberlite pipe in Mengyin County, Shandong Province to study their ages and formation by means of SHRIMP, CL, Raman spectroscopy, etc. The result shows that the ^207Pb/^206Pb ages of many zircons vary from 2567±13 Ma to 2636±42 Ma, which are close to the age of Archaean granitoid （2457.3±47 Ma） in the study area. The contents of U and Th in the samples are higher than those of zircons crystallized in kimbedite and vary from 89 to 398 ppm as well as from 10 to 283 ppm. Color zones are obvious in these samples under the CL. The inclusions are composed of feldspar, quartz, apatite, etc. The above results show that the zircon samples came from the crust of the earth, which means that the kimberlite magmas are contaminated by crustal substances. The position where a great deal of volatile escapes and even explodes during rapid rise of magmas is located at the boundary of the ancient basement and the Precambrian stratum.

Tree species diversity, richness, and similarity between exotic and indigenous forests in the cloud forests of Eastern Arc Mountains, Taita Hills, Kenya

Biodiversity assessment for tree species was conducted in three forest fragments ofthe Taita Hills, southeastern Kenya to compare species diversity between and within three exotic forest plantations of pine, eucalyptus, cypress and the indigenous forests. The study sites were： Ngangao （120 ha）, Chawia （86 ha）, and Mbololo （185 ha）. A Y-plot design was used to sample 32 plots comprising of 65 subplots. At each subplot, all juvenile trees of 5 cm and above in diameter at breast height （DBH） were enumerated and recorded by species. Tree regeneration （seedlings and saplings） was tallied by species. The Shannon-Weiner Index was used to calculate species diversity and evenness. The derived Shannon’s indices were further converted into effective numbers to show the magnitude of differences in species biodiversities. To evaluate dif-ferences in species diversities, a one way ANOVA was conducted and to separate the means, Tukey＇s HSD and Duncan’s tests were used for even and uneven number of samples respectively. Jaccard’s similarity index was used to assess species similarities. There were more than 58 species whose stem densities varied between 10 and 2 000 trees per hectare.There were significant differences in species diversities between forest types and sites; the indigenous forests showed higher diversities than the exotic forests. Similarly, Chawia sites had higher species diversity than both Ngangao and Mbololo. Chawia also had a higher number of regen-erated species than the two other sites, including species such as Xymalos monospora, Rapanea melanophloeos, and Syzygium guineense, which are associated with low levels of disturbance. These findings indicate that the indigenous forest is more diverse in species as would be expected in the tropics. The high species diversity in Chawia could be accounted for by the higher levels of disturbance it underwent, unlike the two other sites. The regeneration of species associated with low levels of disturbance found in the exotic plots of Chawia show the likelihood of presence of long-term soil seed banks. The low regeneration in the exotics plots observed in Ngangao and Mbololo are likely due to the absence of seed banks since some of the plantations were established on bare land （in Ngango）, or the inherent physiology （allelopathy） of some of species repelling the regeneration of others.

Aerodynamic Characteristics of Projectile with Exotic Wraparound Wings Configuration

A projectile with exotic wraparound wings( WAW) configuration is designed to improve the finstabilized projectile shooting quality. Two fin-stabilized projectiles with the same body with and without exotic WAW configuration are simulated numerically by applying the Roe scheme. The shear-stress transport turbulence models and the lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel implicit method are used to solve 3D Reynoldsaveraged Navier—Stokes equations. The differences in aerodynamic coefficients and aerodynamic characteristics of the projectiles when the Mach number varies from 0. 35 to 0. 95 are obtained,and the cause of these differences is analyzed. The calculation results indicate that the lift-to-drag ratio of the projectile significantly increases,the rolling moment decreases,and the position of the pressure center of the projectile shows relatively small changes when the exotic WAW configuration is used. Therefore,this projectile can obviously reduce rolling effect,enlarge range and improve flying stability.