Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Did Board of Directors Have an Impact on MENA Bank Performance

This paper examines the impact of board of directors on the variability of bank performance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Based on a sample of 38 banks during 2004-2011, we examine the impact of board characteristics on performance. Our results show that as the size of a bank’s board of directors decreases its performance increases. However, the presence of CEO duality, independent and institutional directors in the board of directors is not significant in explaining performance differences between MENA banks. In addition, the results highlight the fact that state directors undermine the performance while foreign directors are relevant to strengthen the performance in MENA banks. Indeed, our findings highlight the importance of foreign members in enhancing banks performance.
Prognostic Value of Affective Symptomatology in First- Admitted Psychotic Patients

Objective: to analyze the predictive value of affective symptomatology in a first psychotic episode sample followed up during three and five years, regarding to hospitalization, relapses, suicidal behaviour, working level, social activity and global functioning. Method: 112 inpatients with a first psychotic episode were included in a longitudinal-prospective study followed up during three (N=91) and five-year (N=82). Assessments included the YMRS and HRDS-21, the GAF, the Strauss-Carpenter prognostic scale, the PANSS and the Phillips pre-morbid adjustment scale. We used descriptive and logistic analysis to determine the predictive factors associated to the number of relapses, hospitalizations and suicide attempts; depressive, manic, activation and dysphoric dimensions as covariables. Results: 91.46% of relapses and 21% of suicide attempts at fifth year. The GAF discriminated among prognostic groups from the third year (p 0.020), with the poorest prognosis in the schizophrenia group, while bipolar disorders and the rest of the diagnoses achieved an intermediate prognosis. The Strauss-Carpenter scale, specifically working, social activity and global functioning items, discriminated among three diagnostic groups and between affective and non-affective psychosis (p<0.05); while schizophrenia scored the poorest outcome, bipolar disorder scored the highest. Depressive dimension was significantly associated with a lower number of relapses and hospitalizations (p= 0.045 and p= 0.012) and manic dimension with more relapses (p= 0.023). Conclusion: The depressive dimension presents the best prognosis. On the contrary, the activation dimension, in general, gives a more favourable prognosis with regards to functionality (social) and unfavourable with respect to relapses. Finally, the manic dimension is associated with a worse evolution regarding relapses. Only the dysphoric dimension is not associated with syndromic and/or functional prognosis.
Arctic sea ice thickness remained constant during the 1990s

The ice cover of the Arctic Ocean is considered to be a sensitive indicator of global climate change. Recent research, using submarine‐based observations, suggests that the Arctic ice cover was thinner in the 1990s compared to an earlier period (1958–1979), and that it continued to decrease in thickness in the 1990s. Here I analyze subsurface ice thickness (draft) of Arctic sea ice from six submarine cruises from 1991 to 1997. This extensive data set shows that there was no trend towards a thinning ice cover during the 1990s. Data from the North Pole shows a slight increase in mean ice thickness, whereas the Beaufort Sea shows a small decrease, none of which are significant. Transects between the two areas from 76°N to 90°N also show near constant ice thicknesses, with a general spatial decrease from the Pole towards the Beaufort Sea. Combining the present results with those of an earlier study, I conclude that the mean ice thickness has remained on a near‐constant level around the North Pole from 1986 to 1997.
Female volunteer motion in rear impact sled tests in comparison to results from earlier male volunteer tests

Vehicle related crashes causing neck injuries (whiplash) are costly and common, and injury statistic data shows a larger risk of neck injuries for females than for males. This study aims at investigating differences between female and male dynamic response in rear impacts. Rear impact sled tests with female volunteers were carried out and the results were compared with previously performed tests with males in matching test conditions. The volunteer tests were performed at a change of velocity of 7 km/h. The comparison of the average response of the males and the females and their response corridors showed several differences. The horizontal head acceleration peak value was on average 40% higher and occurred on average 18% earlier for the female volunteers compared to the male volunteers. The NIC value was 45% lower and 30% earlier for the females, probably due to a 27% smaller initial head-to-head restraint distance and thereby a 24% earlier head restraint contact. The results provide characteristic differences between dynamic responses of females and males in low speed rear impacts. These results contribute to the understanding of human dynamic response in rear impacts. In addition, they can be used in the process of future development if numerical and/or mechanical human models for crash testing.
Naupliar Development of Hansenocaris furcifera Ito (Crustacea : Maxillopoda : Facetotecta) from Tanabe Bay, Japan

Five naupliar stages of Hansenocarisfurcifera Ito, 1989, the first of which is Nauplius y Type IX sensu Ito, are described in detail, based upon specimens originally collected in Tanabe Bay on the Pacific coast of Honshu, Japan, and reared in the laboratory. The naupliar sequence was determined by connecting partial series of exuviae of separately cultured individuals. The five naupliar stages, which are planktotrophic, are all metanauplii with a pair of setiform maxillular rudiments, and no orthonauplius stage was found. The surface structure of the first naupliar stage was studied by SEM. In front of the first antennae lies a pair of small protuberances with central pores, which are identified as the termini of the head gland instead of frontal filaments. Most of the body surface has a very fine, mesh-like texture, but the dorsocaudal organ and at least part of the window do not. The dorsal plates are deliniated by prominent, chitinous ridges about I Jlm high. Some new terminology is introduced to describe the developmental changes of the plates. Remarkable alterations in the Elongate and Intercalary plates are noticed through naupliar development. The setal ornamentation of the antennule changes through the first four naupliar stages, but that of the antenna and mandible remains unchanged. Hansenocaris furcifera Ito, 1989, was described from Tanabe Bay on the Pacific coast of Honshu, Japan, on the basis of five individuals at the cypris y stage, all raised from nauplii in the laboratory (Ito, 1989a). It has already been noted that Nauplius y Type IX, provisionally described by Ito (1987c), is a naupliar stage of this species. In the present paper, the five naupliar stages preceding the cypris y stage are described. The nauplii of H. furcifera seemed planktotrophic, so I tried to feed them with lsochrysis sp. , Nannochloropsis sp. and Nitz(chia sp. in earlier, preliminary cultures. However, adding such algae to the cultures was unsuccessful because the animals readily accumulated organic debris on their setae and other parts of the body, which made microscopic observation of the animals and their exuviae very difficult. Moreover, such the debris apparently disturbed their continuous swimming acitivity and, in the worst cases, they did not molt and finally died in spite of repeated changes of culture dishes and medium. Hence, I did not feed the larvae used for the present study, but treated them in the same manner as lecithotrophic nauplii (Ito & Takenaka, 1988; Ito, in press). I have not yet succeeded in raising a first-stage nauplius of H. furcifera into its cypris y stage in the laboratory, although cypris y larvae of many species with lecithotrophic naupliar stages have already been obtained in this fashion from early naupliar larvae (Ito, 1984, 1986b, 1989b, Ito & Takenaka, 1988). The longest sequence Publ. Seto Mar. Biol. Lab. , 34(4/6), 201-224, 1990. (Article 9)
Physiological and biochemical responses of diatoms to projected ocean changes

With progressive future global change, marine phytoplankton in surface oceans will be subjected to ocean acidification, as well as to increased solar exposures and decreased vertical transport of nutrients from depth due to increasing stratification. We employed a simultaneous multivariate treatment approach to investigate the physiological and biochemical responses of the diatoms Thalassiosira pseudonana and Skeletonema costatum to these projected ocean changes. Diatoms were grown under different 'clustered' regimes of solar radiation, nutrients, and pCO2 (pH), reflecting present-day (2011) and potential mid-century (2050) and end-of-century (2100) scenarios. Growth rates, chlorophyll a contents and maximal photochemical quantum yield all decreased from the present to 2100 scenarios. While cellular particulate organic carbon signifi- cantly increased in both species along with increased cellular organic C:N ratios, biogenic silica content showed species-specific differences among the cluster treatments. Our results suggest that reduced thickness of the upper mixed layer with enhanced stratification may interact with ocean acidification to influence diatom-related biogeochemical processes by affecting their growth and biochemical composition in species-specific ways.
Chemical species spatial distribution and relationship to elevation and snow accumulation rate over the Greenland Ice Sheet

Major chemical species (Cl−, NO−3, SO2−4, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+) from 24 snowpits (sampled at a resolution of 3 cm, total 2995 samples) collected from northern, central, and southern Greenland were used for this investigation. The annual and seasonal (winter and summer) concentration of each chemical species was calculated and used to study the spatial distribution of chemical species over the central portion of the Greenland Ice Sheet. A two‐sided t‐distribution test (α = 0.05) suggests that concentrations of major chemical species in snow do not vary significantly over this portion of central Greenland. The relationship between chemical concentration and snow accumulation rate was investigated using annual data from two groups of snowpits: those from coastal sites (northern and southern Greenland); and those from high‐altitude inland sites (central Greenland). The snowpit data from a single group, when examined independently of the other group, show that chemical concentrations do not vary with snow accumulation rate. However, when data from the two groups are integrated into a single data set, pseudorelationships appear, with NO−3 concentration decreasing and Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Cl− increasing as snow accumulation rate increases. Therefore we suggest that it is improper to study the relationship between chemical concentration and snow accumulation rate by using data collected from different geographic sites. The relationship between elevation and chemical concentration was investigated using the same suite of annual data sets. We find that Cl−, Na+, and Mg2+ concentrations decrease, while NO−3 concentration increases, with increasing elevation on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Carbon stocks in natural and planted mangrove forests of Mahanadi Mangrove Wetland, East Coast of India

Mangrove forest ecosystem is one of the important carbon sinks in the tropics. The role of mangrove forests in mitigating climate change through reduced deforestation is well recognized. The present field study aimed to estimate the carbon stocks of Mahanadi Mangrove Wetland (MMW), east coast of India. Carbon stocks were estimated in vegetation and soil of natural mangrove forest stands and new mangrove plantation stands. The mean of carbon stock in natural stands was 143.4 +/- 8.2 Mg C ha(-1) (vegetation 89.1 +/- 8.9 and soil 54.3 +/- 3.0 Mg C ha(-1)) and plantation at 151.5 +/- 7.9 Mg C ha(-1) (vegetation 90.6 +/- 16.2 and soil 60.9 +/- 5.6 Mg C ha(-1)). The mean overall C-stock of natural stands and plantations was 147.0 +/- 8.1 Mg C ha(-1) (vegetation 89.4 +/- 7.6 and soil 57.6 +/- 3.2 Mg C ha(-1)), which is 1.6 times higher than that in forests of Odisha. A positive correlation (r = 0.87) was found between vegetation biomass and soil organic carbon in the surface soil (0-30 cm), indicating the role of vegetation in building surface soil/sediment organic carbon. The 6651 ha of mangrove forests in the MMW is estimated to store 0.98 Mt of C, which is equivalent to 3.59 Mt of CO(2)e. The present study reveals that MMW stores substantial amount of atmospheric carbon and therefore needs to be conserved and sustainably managed to maintain as well as increase carbon storage. Further, mangrove plantations, on a per unit area basis, can sequester as much carbon as natural stands.
Natural woody species biodiversity after Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis) reforestation in Hyrcanian Forest, North of Iran

Vatani L, Hosseini SM, Akbarinia M, Shamsi S. 2017. Natural woody species biodiversity after Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis) reforestation in Hyrcanian Forest, North Iran. Biodiversitas 18: 689-695. The present study was conducted to investigate the impact of Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis) reforestation (15 years old ) on woody species diversity comparison natural Hyrcanian forests. 9 sample plots with 20 × 20m area were taken in each stand by a random systemic statistical method and also control area, then natural regeneration number of woody species were measured. Shannon-Wiener for diversity index, Mechanic for richness index and Simpson for evenness index were calculated to evaluate species biodiversity, using Ecological Methodology and SPSS software. The results showed that sixteen tree and shrub species were appeared in Cypress understory naturally, that some of the species were rare. There was no significant difference between the diversity and richness index obtained for Cypress reforestation and natural forest. Regarding the rate of evenness, only in one area was found a significant difference was observed between Cypress reforestation and natural forest that in reforestation was more than natural forest (p<0.05). Regarding the results obtained on the study, Cypress reforestation did not reduce the woody plant biodiversity until the age of fifteen years old and findings of this investigation suggested that the conditions under the Cypress canopy might be suitable for the presence of some woody species, 15 years after reforestation.
Transparency and Liquidity: A Study of Block Trades on the London Stock Exchange under Different Publication Rules

This article examines whether reducing a market's transparency, by delaying the publication of prices for block trades, has any impact on liquidity. The analysis uses a sample of 5,987 blocks from the London Stock Exchange that cover three different publication regimes: immediate (1987/88), ninety minutes (1991/92), and twenty-four hours (1989/90). Delaying publication does not affect the time taken by prices to reach a new level, which is rapid under all regimes. Spreads differ across years but their size relates more closely to market volatility than to speed of publication. There is, therefore, no gain in liquidity from delayed publication. Copyright 1996 by American Finance Association.
'Mobile Phone - the Must-Have Gadget of the 21 st Century': Identifying Trends and Impact on Human Relationships

In the urban areas of Malaysia, it is common to see people holding mobile phones regardless of time and location. There is a high prevalence of mobile phones usage among Malaysians, particularly youths even with most primary school students owning these socially interactive technology gadgets. This study seeks to examine pervasiveness of mobile phones and dependency on the gadgets among male and female users, explore whether the high dependency on mobile phones contributes to any positive or negative effects on human relationships, and to propose solutions if there are any negative effects on aspects of human relationships due to high mobile phone usage in their daily lives. The researchers employed triangulation analysis, which combined both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The instruments of analysis for the research were surveys and personal interviews.
BALANCED SCORECARD ADOPTION AND CHALLENGES: EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA

This study examined the adoption of the balanced scorecard by Malaysian companies and the obstacles they face during their adoption. Questionnaires were distributed to 278 sample companies for the data collection. The sample was divided into two groups for the analysis. The first group included the companies that adopted the balanced scorecard, and the second group included those that did not adopt the balanced scorecard. The scorecard adoption is related to listing status, turnover, organization age, and employee number of the companies. Organizations that have been operating for a longer period have considerable business expertise to adopt the balanced scorecard, whereas larger companies tend to maintain their performance measures for cost reduction and continuous improvement. Both groups agreed that performance evaluation was implemented for planning purposes. In terms of marketing strategy, the first group emphasized focusing strategy, whereas the second group focused on cost leadership strategy. This finding indicates that the members of the second group were looking inward.
Sodankylä manual snow survey program

Abstract. The manual snow survey program of the Arctic Research Centre of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI-ARC) consists of numerous observations of natural seasonal taiga snowpack in Sodankyla, northern Finland. The easily accessible measurement areas represent the typical forest and soil types in the boreal forest zone. Systematic snow measurements began in 1909 with snow depth (HS) and snow water equivalent (SWE). In 2006 the manual snow survey program expanded to cover snow macro- and microstructure from regular snow pits at several sites using both traditional and novel measurement techniques. Present-day snow pit measurements include observations of HS, SWE, temperature, density, stratigraphy, grain size, specific surface area (SSA) and liquid water content (LWC). Regular snow pit measurements are performed weekly during the snow season. Extensive time series of manual snow measurements are important for the monitoring of temporal and spatial changes in seasonal snowpack. This snow survey program is an excellent base for the future research of snow properties.
A model of weakly vortical interfacial flow

A boundary-integral model is derived to describe two-dimensional, weakly viscous, quasi-irrotational fluid flow at the interface between two fluids. Vortical flow is restricted to a thin boundary layer, allowing the interfacial fluid dynamics to be largely generated by a vortex sheet approximation. A theoretical analysis of the model reveals that small-amplitude interfacial waves have only conservative and dissipative modes of behaviour. In contrast, similar analyses of other models of weak vorticity reveal non-physical modes which increase in energy. Numerical simulations of our model demonstrate the appropriate conservation of key physical invariants.
Atomistic description of wave function localization effects in InxGa1-xN alloys and quantum wells

We present a detailed analysis of wave function localization effects in InxGa1−xN alloys and quantum wells. Our work is based on density functional theory to analyze the impact of isolated and clustered In atoms on the wave function localization characteristics in InxGa1−xN alloys. We address the electronic structure of In0.25Ga0. 25N/GaN quantum wells by means of an atomistic tight-binding model. Random alloy fluctuations in the quantum well region and well-width fluctuations are explicitly taken into account. The tight-binding model includes strain and built-in field fluctuations arising from the random In distribution. Our density functional theory study reveals increasing hole wave function localization effects when an increasing number of In atoms share the same N atom. We find that these effects are less pronounced for the electrons. Our tight-binding analysis of In0.25Ga0. 27N/GaN quantum wells also reflects this behavior, revealing strong hole localization effects arising from the random In atom distribution. We also show that the excited hole states are strongly localized over an energy range of approximately 50 meV from the top of the valence band. For the quantum wells considered here we observe that well-width fluctuations lead to electron wave function localization effects.
Low frequency of RAS and absence of FLT3-ITD gene mutations in patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes in India: AIIMS experience.

e22231 Background: Chromosomal abnormalities and molecular detection has potential importance for diagnosis and prognosis of MDS, although the mechanisms underlying the development of MDS and their progressive evolution to AML are still largely unknown. Since, no studies have been reported from India on the prevalence of N-RAS, K- RAS point mutation in codon 12 and FLT3-ITD mutations in patients with MDS, we undertook this study. METHODS DNA and RNA were extracted from bone marrow /peripheral blood. Using RT-PCR the patients were screened for length mutations in FLT3 gene. PCR-RFLP and nested PCR-RFLP were used for the detection of point mutation in codon 12 of N-RAS and K-RAS. RESULTS A total of 53 patients (median age 39 yrs, range 9-78yrs; M: F 2:1; median TLC-3.9×109/l, range 0.8-116 ×109/l Median platelet count- 87 ×109/l, range 1-349 ×109/l, Median hemoglobin -6.8 g/dl, range 2.7- 16.1 g/dl, were studied. One out of 53 patients (2%) was found positive for N-RAS and four patients were positive for K-RAS (8%) mutation. FLT3-ITD mutation was studied in 47 patients; all the patients were found negative. The mean observation of all the patients was 30 months and the median overall survival was 28 months. Nine patients died during follow up. The presence of N-RAS codon 12 mutation was associated with the poor survival. FLT3-ITD mutation was not observed in any of our cases, which is in contrast to 3% reported from the West. CONCLUSIONS Thus, it appears that the RAS and FLT3 mutations are uncommon in MDS patients in India. No significant financial relationships to disclose.