Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
COMMUNITY- BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONS IN RUWANGWE WARD, NYANGA DISTRICT, ZIMBABWE: IMPLICATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

This research examined the effectiveness of community-based institutions in achieving sustainable natural resource management. Research was conducted in Ruwangwe Ward, Nyanga District, in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Province. A questionnaire survey and focus group discussions were used as complementary methods. Both the survey and focus group discussions indicated that rising population pressure on a diminishing land resource base was causing environmental degradation, resource depletion and resource scarcity in the ward. Research results also revealed intra-community, inter-community and community-state resource conflicts deriving partly from state interference in local level natural resource management and also from rising household and community level resource scarcity. Although research results showed the existence of community-based natural resource management institutions, these are largely weak and therefore ineffective. The major reasons being state intervention in local level natural resource management, unclear or non-existent institutional rules, and absence of monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. For local level institutions to be effective, the state must ensure tenure security and confer complete proprietorship over natural resources. In addition, the state should define the legal framework that will empower community-based natural resource management institutions, clearly define property rights and involve communities in participatory planning. Furthermore, government needs to commit adequate financial and technical assistance to build rural resource managerial capacity. Such measures will help achieve sustainable community-based natural resource management.
Hydraulic Balance of a Eucalyptus urophylla Plantation in Response to Periodic Drought in Low Subtropical China

A clear understanding of hydraulic regulation in cultivated plants is crucial for addressing challenges to forest water cycling due to climate changes in low subtropical China. Experiments were conducted to determine the hydrologic balance of a Eucalyptus urophylla plantation in response to periodic drought. Trees displayed lower stomatal conductance (GS) and leaf water potentials (ΨL) during the dry periods. A decrease of 22.4% was found for the maximum reference GS (GS at D = 1 kPa; GSref-max). Accordingly, specific hydraulic conductivity (ks) decreased by 45.3 – 65.6% from the wet to the dry season, depending on the tree size. Fairly stable leaf stomatal conductance (gs) with decreasing ΨL (ΨL < -1.6 MPa) contributed to the high water-use efficiency (WUE) of this Eucalyptus species. Additionally, the lower stomatal sensitivity (-m = 0.53) in the dry season might also be responsible for the high WUE, since we found an anisohydric behavior that was associated with photosynthetically active radiation (Q0). Larger trees were found to use water more efficiently than small trees, due to the higher sensitivity of ks to decreasing ΨL. This was also verified by the decreasing leaf carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) with increasing tree diameter. However, further studies are needed to determine the universality of these results for other Eucalyptus species in this region.
From Equity Premium Puzzle to Expectations Puzzle: A General Equilibrium Production Economy with Stochastic Habit Formation

This paper develops a general equilibrium model for a representative agent, production economy with stochastic internal habit formation. The model describes a scale-independent economy, with a unique stochastic investment opportunity set. Local correlation between the stochastic interest rate and time-varying market price of risk can be determined endogenously and leads to correct predictions on the sign and magnitude of several major empirical puzzles in both equity and bond markets. In the empirical part of the paper, we calibrate our model, simultaneously, to the equity premium puzzle, the risk-free rate puzzle, and the expectations puzzle, and show that the three puzzles are completely resolved under reasonable parameter values. Thus, we establish, conclusively, the inextricable link between the equity and bond markets, both theoretically and empirically. Our model subsumes the internal habit formation models of Sundaresan (1989) and Constantinides (1990), and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the external habit formation model of Campbell and Cochrane (1999).
Behavioral and Brain Functions

Background: Sleep problems are common in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This analysis aimed to evaluate the impact of lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) on sleep quality in adults with ADHD. Methods: This 4-week, phase 3, double-blind, forced-dose escalation study of adults aged 18 to 55 years with ADHD randomized participants to receive placebo (n = 62), or 30 (n = 119), 50 (n = 117), or 70 (n = 122) mg/d LDX, taken once a day in the morning. The self-rated Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was administered at baseline and at week 4 to assess sleep quality. The PSQI global score assesses 7 sleep components (subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medications, and daytime dysfunction) each scored from 0 (no difficulty) to 3 (severe difficulty). Results: The mean baseline PSQI global score was 5.8 for LDX and 6.3 for placebo (P = .19) indicating poor overall sleep quality. At endpoint, least squares (LS) mean change from baseline was -0.8 for LDX vs -0.5 for placebo (P = .33). The daytime functioning component showed significant improvement in LS mean change at endpoint for LDX compared with placebo (LDX -0.4 vs placebo 0.0, P = .0001). LS mean changes for the other 6 PSQI components did not significantly differ from placebo. Sleep-related treatment-emergent adverse events with an incidence ≥2% in the active treatment and placebo groups, respectively, were insomnia (19.3% and 4.8%), initial insomnia (5.0% and 3.2%), middle insomnia (3.6% and 0%), sleep disorder (0.6% and 3.2%), somnolence (0.3% and 3.2%), and fatigue (4.7% and 4.8%), and were generally mild or moderate in severity. Conclusion: For most subjects, LDX was not associated with an overall worsening of sleep quality and significantly improved daytime functioning in adults with ADHD. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00334880 Published: 3 August 2009 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2009, 5:34 doi:10.1186/1744-9081-5-34 Received: 30 January 2009 Accepted: 3 August 2009 This article is available from: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions. com/content/5/1/34 © 2009 Adler et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The Accelerated Learning Program: Throwing Open the Gates.

This article reports on the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), a new model of basic writing that has produced dramatic successes for the basic writing program at the Com- munity College of Baltimore County. Borrowing from mainstreaming programs, studio courses, fast track programs, and learning communities, ALP, for four consecutive semesters, has dou- bled the number of basic writers who succeed in passing first-year composition, has cut the at- trition rate for these students in half, has allowed them to accomplish this in half the time, and has done it all at slightly less cost per successful student than traditional basic writing courses.
The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development

1. The Welfare State: a world against employers? 2. Interests and coalitions in the formation of the modern welfare state 3. Workplace accidents as 'social risk': employers and the development of accident insurance 4. Is unemployment insurable? Employers and the development of unemployment insurance 5. Unified or occupationally-fragmented insurance? Political reforms during the Postwar Years 6. Risk redistribution in mature welfare states: the politics of early retirement 7. Conclusions.
A state representation unaffected by environmental changes

To interact with the external environment, robots represent it as a state using sensor data. In this study, we present a state representation based on noisy sensor data using distances among probability distributions. The representation is robust to environmental changes, in other words, the robot can recognize its sensor signals with a certain environmental changes as an identical state. We represent sensor signals as probability distributions; the distances between such distributions express a state. To confirm the effectiveness of our proposed state representation, we conducted experiments using a mobile robot with distance sensors. Experimental results confirmed that our proposed representation correctly recognizes similar states using a converted sensor signal.
The coordination of arm movements: an experimentally confirmed mathematical model

This paper presents studies of the coordination of voluntary human arm movements. A mathematical model is formulated which is shown to predict both the qualitative features and the quantitative details observed experimentally in planar, multijoint arm movements. Coordination is modeled mathematically by defining an objective function, a measure of performance for any possible movement. The unique trajectory which yields the best performance is determined using dynamic optimization theory. In the work presented here, the objective function is the square of the magnitude of jerk (rate of change of acceleration) of the hand integrated over the entire movement. This is equivalent to assuming that a major goal of motor coordination is the production of the smoothest possible movement of the hand. Experimental observations of human subjects performing voluntary unconstrained movements in a horizontal plane are presented. They confirm the following predictions of the mathematical model: unconstrained point-to-point motions are approximately straight with bell-shaped tangential velocity profiles; curved motions (through an intermediate point or around an obstacle) have portions of low curvature joined by portions of high curvature; at points of high curvature, the tangential velocity is reduced; the durations of the low-curvature portions are approximately equal. The theoretical analysis is based solely on the kinematics of movement independent of the dynamics of the musculoskeletal system and is successful only when formulated in terms of the motion of the hand in extracorporal space. The implications with respect to movement organization are discussed.
Relationships among Principal Authentic Leadership and Teacher Trust and Engagement Levels

This study examined the relationships among the authentic leadership style of school principals and the trust and engagement levels of their teachers in a county school district in a Southeastern state. The authenticity of the school principal was found to be significantly positively related to teacher trust and teacher engagement levels. The participant demographic measures held no relationships of significance with any of the components of the study. The results are discussed with regard to their implications for future research and the improvement of practice.
Objects, meaning, and the brain : neuroimaging studies on the impact of semantics on cortical integrative processing

• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Ethnoconsumerism: A New Paradigm to Study Cultural and Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior

In order to follow a baseball game one must understand what bat, hit, an inning, a left fielder, a squeeze play, a hanging curve, and. a tightened infield are. What happens to understanding when empathy disappears? Clifford Geertz (1983, p. 56) The story about the death of positivism is highly exaggerated. Anonymous In a seminal work, Geertz (1983) raised the important issue of the "native's point of view. " 1 As he himself admitted, this is not a new but a recurrent theme; it has, however, assumed certain epistemological significance in the postmodern and poststructuralist era. The purpose of this chapter is to examine a new paradigm in consumer behavior that I have labeled ethnoconsumerism, which is a conceptual framework to study consumer behavior using the theoretical categories originating within a given culture. The " Ethnoconsumerism: A New Paradigm to Study Cultural and Cross-cultural Consumer Behavior, " J. 3 motivation for this chapter is twofold. The primary reason is the ongoing argument in comparative cultural studies regarding the use of a single theoretical framework for studying different cultures. The second reason has its origin in certain insights or intuitions that I have gained during my own introspection about my role as a researcher (see the appendix in this chapter).
STRUCTURAL DETERMINANTS OF TAX REVENUE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, 1990-2009

In recent years many studies have been conducted worldwide in order to investigate the structural or long-term determinants of tax revenue (see inter alia Gupta, 2007; Mahdavi, 2007; Profeta and Scabrosetti, 2010). The aim of this study is to extend the empirical literature on this issue by applying standard models to the case of Latin America and the Caribbean. Through panel econometric methodologies, the paper assesses the statistical significance of a number of potential determinants of tax revenue as a share of GDP, using data from 32 Latin American countries over the period 1990-2009. The empirical analysis pays particular attention to examine the relevance of political and historical variables to understand regional differences in tax revenue. The results indicate that, among the variables that exert a statistically significant influence on tax revenue are the following ones: civil liberties, female labor force participation, the age composition of the population, the degree of political stability, the level of education, the population density as well as the size of the shadow economy.
Determinants of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection among under-fives in Uganda.

BACKGROUND Diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection (ARI) are leading causes of mortality and morbidity in children under the age of five in developing countries. On the African continent, pneumonia (14%) and diarrhoea (17%) cause more child deaths than Malaria (16%), HIV/AIDS (4%), and measles (1%) combined. This paper set out to investigate the factors associated with the occurrence of diarrhoea and ARI incidence for children under five years in Uganda. METHOD We used a nationally representative Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) (2006). Sampling was done in two stages. In the first stage 321 clusters were selected from among a list of clusters sampled in the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS), 17 clusters from the 2002 Census frame from Karamoja, and 30 internally displaced camps (IDPs). In the second stage, households in each cluster were selected as per UNHS listing. In addition 20 households were randomly selected in each cluster. Questionnaires were used during data collection. During the analysis, a maximum likelihood probit model was used in order to ascertain the probability of occurrence of diseases. RESULTS On average, 32% and 48% of children in the survey suffered from diarrhoea and ARI in the two weeks prior to the survey date. The occurrence was concentrated amongst children aged 0-24 months. Mother's education, especially at postsecondary level, reduced the probability of diarrhoea occurrence but had no effect on ARI occurrence. First hour initiation and exclusive breastfeeding reduced the probability occurrence of both diarrhoea and ARI. Other significant factors associated with the occurrence of both diseases include: regional and location differentials, wealth status, type of dwelling, mother's occupation, child age, and child nutritional status. CONCLUSION Policy interventions should target female education, eliminate location and regional disadvantages, and educate the population to adopt breastfeeding practices recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The government should also ensure proper dwelling places for the population that are associated with favourable health outcomes. Other proper feeding practices together with breastfeeding (after six months), should be made known to the masses so as to reduce the number of children that are malnourished and growth retarded.
OBJECT-BASED CLASSIFICATION VS . PIXEL-BASED CLASSIFICATION : COMPARITIVE IMPORTANCE OF MULTI-RESOLUTION IMAGERY

Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) classifications have proven to be valuable assets for resource managers interested in landscape characteristics and the changes that occur over time. This study made a comparison of an object-based classification with supervised and unsupervised pixel-based classification. Two multi-temporal (leaf-on and leaf-off), medium-spatial resolution SPOT-5 satellite images and a high-spatial resolution color infrared digital orthophoto were used in the analysis. Combinations of these three images were merged to evaluate the relative importance of multi-temporal and multi-spatial imagery to classification accuracy. The objectbased classification using all three-image datasets produced the highest overall accuracy (82.0%), while the object-based classification using the high-spatial resolution image merged with the SPOT-5 leaf-off image had the second highest overall accuracy (78.2%). While not significantly different from each other, these two object-based classifications were statistically significantly different from the other classifications. The presence of the high-spatial resolution imagery had a greater impact on improving overall accuracy than the multi-temporal dataset, especially with the object-based classifications.
Challenges for adopting cloud-based software as a service (saas) in the public sector

Technological advances such as the creation of bandwidth, modular applications and cloud computing have enabled the creation of a distributed collaborative sourcing model named Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS presents the embodiment of a new service delivery model in which a service provider is delivering its electronic services over the web to many users on a pay per use or period basis. SaaS is still unexplored in the public sector context and its use has been limited. Based on interviews and a group session the main challenges for adopting SaaS are explored from the government perspective. It was found that SaaS could provide many benefits which are related to the outsourcing of the local control, installation and development of software which could result in potential cost-savings and better cost control. Disadvantages and risks are related to the more difficult control of the IT function. Several items were mentioned as both a benefit and disadvantage, as this will be dependent on the organizational arrangements. There are also many challenges that need to be addressed including ensuring the quality, privacy, security and business continuity which require the implementation of organizational changes and governance mechanisms for public sector organizations that are considering SaaS.
Cigarette Smoke Amplifies Inflammatory Response and Atherosclerosis Progression Through Activation of the H1R-TLR2/4-COX2 Axis

Emerging evidence suggests that infection and persistent inflammation are key players in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although it is well established that cigarette smoke (CS) promotes atherosclerotic CVD, very little is known about the potential impact of the collective effects of CS and intermittent or chronic subclinical infection on atherosclerosis. Our previous studies demonstrated that mast cell-derived histamine and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) synergistically enhance endothelial cell inflammatory response. We further noted that the synergy between histamine and LPS was due to reciprocal upregulation of histamine receptor and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) expression and functions. These results suggest that the combined and persistent effects of mast cell mediators and bacterial agents on the vasculature are risk factors of CVD. Our recent data demonstrated that CS extract enhances histamine- and LPS-induced expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in endothelial cells, suggesting that CS and mast cell mediators may collectively amplify inflammatory response in the vessel wall. We hypothesize that CS enhances histamine-mediated upregulation of TLR2/TLR4 signaling in the endothelium and promotes progression of atherosclerosis. This article presents our perspective on the modulatory effects of CS and nicotine on the “histamine-TLR-COX-2 axis. ”
Hospitality marketing research from 2000 to 2009 : Topics, methods, and trends

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide an analysis of published marketing research within the top four hospitality journals and suggest future research directions. Design/methodology/approach – The study selects the top four hospitality-oriented journals and analyzes the topics, methods, and trends of hospitality marketing articles published between 2000 and 2009 through a qualitative research design using content analysis and descriptive analysis. Findings – The study explores how hospitality marketing research has progressed within the past decade in terms of topical areas, industry applications, and methods, and additionally discovers notable trends for hospitality marketing research. Practical implications – The study analyzes published research in hospitality marketing and is thus expected to provide topical and methodological recommendations to academic scholars in contributing further to scientific progress and the literature. Originality/value – Based on the existing reviews, this study.
Improving Retrieval Quality Using Pseudo Relevance Feedback in Content-Based Image Retrieval

The increased availability of image capturing devices has enabled collections of digital images to rapidly expand in both size and diversity. This has created a constantly growing need for efficient and effective image browsing, searching, and retrieval tools. Pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF) has proven to be an effective mechanism for improving retrieval accuracy. An original, simple yet effective rank-based PRF mechanism (RB-PRF) that takes into account the initial rank order of each image to improve retrieval accuracy is proposed. This RB-PRF mechanism innovates by making use of binary image signatures to improve retrieval precision by promoting images similar to highly ranked images and demoting images similar to lower ranked images. Empirical evaluations based on standard benchmarks, namely Wang, Oliva & Torralba, and Corel datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed RB-PRF mechanism in image retrieval.