First records of three Lepiota species (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) from Ukraine, with notes on a poorly known species, Lepiota subalba

New records of four species of the genus Lepiota (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) are reported from Ukraine. Three species, L. fuscovinacea, L. griseovirens, and L. roseolivida, are recorded in Ukraine for the first time, whereas a poorly known species, L. subalba, earlier known in Ukraine from a few records, is confirmed using molecular identification methods. All species reports are supplemented with original descriptions and drawings based on newly collected material, as well as data on general distribution, habitat, references to new collections and public databases. Original nucleotide sequence of the ITS region of ribosomal DNA obtained from our voucher specimen of L. subalba is provided.

Fund Matching between Fund-Raisers and Investors in Financing Platform with Consideration of Default Risk

We construct a stochastic model to study the fund matching between fund-raisers and investors in a financing platform. The raising time is assumed to be a random variable. Then, there is a successful transaction probability that the fund matching is realized. Meanwhile, the interest and the commission rate that the platform earns affect the value of the probability. The platform maximizes its revenue by adjusting the commission rate. We find that the optimal commission rate decreases in investment time. However, when the time interval between two adjacent investments obeys the general distribution, the optimal commission rate increases in the annual interest rate. Besides, we extend the model into a duopoly case in which two fund-raisers compete for customers in the same platform by deciding their own interest rate. Due to lacking competition, the optimal interest rate in the monopoly case is lower than that in the duopoly case. Because the interest rate is the cost for the fund-raiser, the expected profit of the fund-raiser in the monopoly is higher than the expected profit of each fund-raiser in the duopoly case but lower than the total expected profit of two fund-raisers. The platform should choose some small loans as far as possible. The loans with smaller amount are easier for the platform to complete fundraising. For those large loans, the platform should try to ask for higher interest rates or more sufficient time to raise funds.

New records of vascular plants in the West Altai

The article presents new data on the distribution in the territory of Western Altai of 20 species of vascular plants from the families Asteraceae, Betulaceae, Boraginaceae, Crassulaceae, Huperziaceae, Grossulariaceae, Lamiaceae, Onagraceae, Orchidaceae, Papaveraceae, Polygonaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Saxifragaceae и Violaceae. All of them were collected in the highlands of the Korgon Range within the Altai Territory. Of these, Potentilla crebridens is reported for the first time for the Altai Territory and Western Altai; for other species, new localities are indicated. For the first time for the Korgon Range within the Altai Territory, Saxifraga terektensis, Viola tigirekica are presented, and the exact location of Potentilla nivea is noted. New localities of rare and protected species were discovered: Callianthemum sajanense, Huperzia appressa, Pyrethrum alatavicum, Saussurea baicalensis, Scutellaria altaica. For each species, the general distribution, ecology data are given, for some species, notes on the difference and differentiation of them from the closest taxa are indicated. If necessary, the locations of the species previously registered in the Western Altai are indicated. For the species included in the “Red Data Book of the Altai Territory”, we provide an information on the approximate number of individuals in the found populations. Based on the analysis of herbarium material, we exclude Potentilla nervosa from the list of flora of the Altai Territory.

The Spatial and Temporal Evolution and Drivers of Habitat Quality in the Hung River Valley

The survival and sustainability of regional species is constrained by habitat quality. In recent decades, the intensification of human activities on a global scale has had a profound impact on regional ecosystems and poses a serious threat to regional sustainable development. Scientific measurement of the drivers of habitat quality can provide important support for the development of effective biodiversity conservation and sustainable land-use policies. Taking the Hung River Valley as an example, the InVEST model was used to assess the habitat quality of the study area in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 and to explore its spatial and temporal variation and distribution characteristics in combination with the spatial autocorrelation model, and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was used to explore the drivers of habitat quality change. The results show the following: (1) The overall habitat quality shows an increasing trend during 2000–2020, but the expansion of construction land in the central region plays a dominant role in the degradation of regional habitat quality. (2) The “Guide-Ledu” line is the dividing line of habitat quality in the Hung River Valley, with a general distribution of “south is good, north is bad” and “south is hot, north is cold”. (3) Natural factors such as slope and elevation basically shape the overall distribution pattern of habitat quality, while urbanisation factors such as population density, gross domestic product, and the night-time lighting index are generally negatively correlated with habitat quality. The results of the study can reveal the linkage between ecosystems and land-use change in the context of urbanisation.

“This article is interesting, however”: exploring the language use in the peer review comment of articles published in the BMJ

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal a symbol – “however” that authors are very interested in, but few research studies pay attention to the existing literature. The authors aim to further insight its function.Design/methodology/approachIn this research, the authors selected 3,329 valid comments on articles published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) from 2015 to 2020 as the research objects. The authors showed the length distribution of reviewers' comments. In what follows, the authors analyzed the general distribution of words in comments and reviewer comments’ position to understand reviewers' comments qualitatively in word dimension. Specially, the authors analyzed functions of “however” and “but”, words that authors are most concerned with. In addition, the authors also discussed some factors, which may be related to “however,” that reflect reviewers' praise through regression analysis.FindingsThe authors found that there are marked differences in the length of reviewers' comments under different review rounds. By mapping the reviewers' comments to different sections, the authors found that reviewers are deeply concerned to methods section. Adjectives and adverbs in comments written in different sections of the manuscripts also have different characteristics. The authors tried to interpret the turning function of “however” in scientific communication. Its frequency of use is related to reviewers' identities, specifically academic status. More precisely, junior researchers use “however” in praise more frequently than senior researchers do.Research limitations/implicationsThe linguistic feature and function of “however” and “but” in the reviewers' comments of the rejected manuscripts may be different from accepted papers and also worth exploring. Regrettably, the authors cannot obtain the peer review comments of rejected manuscripts. This point may limit the conclusion of the investigation of this article.Originality/valueOverall, the survey results revealed some language features of reviewers' comments, which could provide a basis of future endeavors for many reviewers in open peer review (OPR) field. Specially, the authors also put forward an interesting symbol to examine the review comments, “however”, for the first time.

The fingernail clams (Bivalvia: Veneroida: Sphaeriidae) of Morocco: Diversity, distribution and conservation status

In Morocco, many uncertainties surround the current diversity and distribution of the bivalve family Sphaeriidae. Such information, including taxonomy and conservation status, are vital for further studies to improve the knowledge of this family in Morocco and represents the first step towards the development of a national conservation plan for all freshwater bivalves. Between 2016 and 2019, several investigations were carried out to assess the diversity and distribution of Sphaeriidae in the different basins of Morocco, covering different types of habitat (lakes, springs, rivers and small ponds). The identification of specimens and their morpho-ecological features was based on morphological and morphometric analyses. The data on the general distribution of the collected species allowed the evaluation of their conservation status as well. The shell morphology and morphometric analyses revealed the existence of five species belonging to the genus Pisidium [P. casertanum (Poli, 1791), P. (cf.) personatum Malm, 1855, P. subtruncatum Malm, 1855, P. amnicum (O. F. Müller, 1774) and Pisidium sp.] and one species to the genus of Musculium [M. lacustre (O. F. Müller, 1774)]. Sphaeriidae were found in all Moroccan basins, except Bouregreg and Sakia El Hamra-Oued Eddahab Basins. The results showed that Sebou Basin was the species richest with the occurrence of the five species, while Loukkos and Sous-Massa Basins had the lowest-species richness with one species only. The conservation status of sphaeriids in Morocco was evaluated for the first time and resulted in P. (cf.) personatum and P. subtruncatum being proposed as Least Concern and Vulnerable, respectively, while the status of Regionally Extinct is suggested for both species P. amnicum and M. lacustre. First evaluation of the diversity and species richness of the family Sphaeriidae in Morocco with an assignment of an updated conservation status of the recorded species.

STECCHERINUM AURANTILAETUM (CORNER) BERNICCHIA ET GORJÓN (BASIDIOMYCOTA) IN THE FAR EAST OF RUSSIA

Steccherinum aurantilaetum is a predominantly East Asian polyporoid fungus from the Steccherinaceae. It was first discovered in the Krasnoarmeisky District of the Primorye and in the Khabarovsk Territory. Previously, it was known only in the «Kedrovaya Pad» Nature Reserve in the Primorye and in the «Bastak» Nature Reserve in the Jewish Autonomous Region (for the territory of Russia). An original description of the species based on Far Eastern material is given, and a map of the general distribution of S. aurantilaetum is presented for the first time.

A generalized distribution interpolated between the exponential and power law distributions and applied to the walking data of the pill bug (Armadillidium vulgare)

To determine whether the walking pattern of an organism is a Lévy walk or a Brownian walk, it has been compared whether the frequency distribution of linear step lengths follows a power law distribution or an exponential distribution. However, there are many cases where actual data cannot be classified into either of these categories. In this paper, we propose a general distribution that includes the power law and exponential distributions as special cases. This distribution has two parameters: One represents the exponent, similar to the power law and exponential distributions, and the other is a shape parameter representing the shape of the distribution. By introducing this distribution, an intermediate distribution model can be interpolated between the power law and exponential distributions. In this study, the proposed distribution was fitted to the frequency distribution of the step length calculated from the walking data of pill bugs. The autocorrelation coefficients were also calculated from the time-series data of the step length, and the relationship between the shape parameter and time dependency was investigated. The results showed that individuals whose step-length frequency distributions were closer to the power law distribution had stronger time dependence.

Site productivity indices for native forests in southeast Queensland

Site productivity, or site quality, describes the potential biomass growth and yield of vegetation at a given location. Land managers have devised indices for site productivity using attributes related to plant yields or growth rates, and these have great utility when available spatially in maps. The main factors determining site productivity include climate, soil and terrain characteristics. Here we analysed four productivity indices (two based on remote sensing only, two based on modelling and algorithms using spatial datasets). The tested indices were available over a 150,000 km2 area of southeast Queensland Australia, a region dominated by Eucalyptus and Acacia species. We were interested in comparing the indices regarding underlying drivers, effects on vegetation types and the general distribution of site productivity across our study region. Our methods included histograms of spatial attribute intersection, and multivariate linear regression. Remote sensing has clear advantages in capturing current conditions, which potential productivity algorithms cannot depict. On the other hand, maps with productivity algorithms provide large-scale robust information on biomass growth/yield that is sensitive to the main drivers of plant growth (e.g. climate, soil).

Analysis of Fingerprint Patterns among Central Indian Population- A Cross Sectional Study

Background: A person's identity means understanding positively who a given individual is. Human identification is a universal method focused predominantly on finger printing and based on scientific principles. Aims and objectives: To study of fingerprint patterns among Central Indian population. Material and Methods: This prospective study was carried out to determine the prevalence of the type of fingerprints in each finger and their gender distribution among 250 individuals of Central Indian origin comprising 125 males and 125 females. Results: The general distribution of fingerprint patterns in the present study is noted in the same order as defined in the literature. Largest loops (55.3%), moderate whorl (34.7%) and least arch (10.0%) respectively. It was found that loop (57.4 %) and arch (14.6 %) fingerprints were more prevalent in women than in men. In males (41.5 per cent), the Whorl fingerprint is more prevalent compared to females (28.0 per cent). Conclusion: The right hand shows typical fingerprints of the loop and whorl, and the arch fingerprint was more in the left hand.