Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Juvenile survival in a tropical population of roseate terns: interannual variation and effect of tick parasitism

Many demographic studies on long-lived seabirds have focused on the estimation of adult survival, but much less is known about survival during the early years of life, especially in trop- ical species. We report analyses of a capture-recapture dataset of 685 roseate terns ringed as fledg- lings and adults between 1998 and 2005 on Aride Island, Seychelles, and recaptured/resighted at the same colony site over a 5 yr (2002 to 2006) period. A multistate model was used to estimate survival for different age classes, including juvenile (first-year) birds returning as non-breeding prospectors. The effect of infestation by parasites (ticks) on survival was also examined. Overall, the estimated return of first-year individuals to the natal colony was very variable, ranging from 2 to 22%. Condi- tioned on survival, the probability of returning from Age 2 yr onwards increased to 70%. Survival rates were best modeled as time-specific, with estimates varying from 0.02 to 1.00 (mean 0.69) in first- year birds with a marked negative effect of tick infestation. In older birds (minimum age of 2 yr), the annual estimates fell between 0.69 and 0.86 (mean 0.77). Using a components of variance approach for estimation of year-to-year variation, we found high temporal variability for first-year individuals (coefficient of variation (CV) = 65%) compared to much less variation in the survival rate of older birds (CV = 9%). These findings agree with the life-history prediction that demographic rates of juve- niles are usually lower and more variable than those of older individuals. Our results are also consis- tent with the predicted negative effect of tick parasitism on juvenile survival. Compared with data from other roseate tern populations, survival over the first 2 yr (Age 0 to 2 yr) was 18 to 40% higher in this study, suggesting that a high 'young' survival rate may be an important demographic trait in this tropical population to compensate for the low annual reproductive success. Our data show that estimating survival of young individuals may be crucial to elucidating the demographic tactics of seabirds.
Perceptions of Jordanian children with cancer regarding concealing the true nature of their diagnosis: An interpretive phenomenological analysis study

An interpretative phenomenological analysis approach was used to explore and document the experiences of children diagnosed with cancer regarding the true nature of their diagnosis in the first three months after diagnosis. Face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen children diagnosed with cancer and three major themes emerged during data analysis: (1) Surrounded by silence, (2) Confusing the silence, and (3) Try to make sense of the silence. During the journey to diagnosis most participants reported that people around them conceal the true nature of their illness. Participants were left to their own to make sense of the silence that was surrounding them. This created an unintentional division between the participants, their parents and health team members. This also deprived the participants of important sources of support and compromised their emotional and psychosocial well- being. Jordanian parents and health team members need to follow other countries lead and declare the diagnosis of cancer to children in order to effectively prepare them for the challenges they face to cope with their illness.
The Impact of Sequential Tests on Student Outcomes: An Exploratory Analysis

Instructors typically consider material sequencing when developing courses; however, other factors may affect student performance. In this study, student performance when taking quizzes in sequential classes reveals that student performance on quizzes in the second class signifi cantly drops when a quiz is given on the same day in the fi rst class. No effect due the change in quiz sequencing in the fi rst class was observed over the course of the semester. To an instructor, student requests to change the date of a quiz due to another quiz being given on the same date may be a legitimate request, and instructors should carefully consider course requirements sequencing in back-to-back classes.
Disintegrant Properties of Native and Modified Polymers in Metronidazole Tablet Formulations

Natural polymers may be modified in order to improve desired properties in tablet formulations. Granule incorporation techniques have different effects on the disintegrant properties of tablets. Disintegrant properties of two new plant polymers, extracted from Pigeon pea ( Cajanus cajan ) and Khaya senegalensis tree, were investigated in metronidazole tablet formulations. Native and microwave irradiated forms of the starch and gum were incorporated into the tablet formulations using a 3-factor general full factorial design. Type of disintegrants (X 1 ) was at two levels (Starch or Gum), effect of modification (X 2 ) was also investigated at two levels (Native or Irradiated), while the mode of incorporation (X 3 ) of the disintegrants was at three levels (Intragranular (IG), Extragranular (EG) or Intra-extragranular (IG/EG). Sodium starch glycolate was the standard. Tablets were evaluated for disintegration, dissolution and physical qualities using British Pharmacopoeia methods. The native and modified gum showed higher hydration capacity than the starches. The rank order of the disintegrant properties of the polymers was MG (modified gum)>NG (native gum)>MS (modified starch)>NS (native starch) (p IG > EG; and EG > IG/EG > IG for the gums. However, IG/EG incorporation of native and modified starches and gums gave a longer t 80 (time taken for 80% of the drug to dissolve) than both IG and EG (p X 1 > X 2 and the effect on t 80 was X 1 > X 3 > X 2 . The gums and starches were better disintegrants than sodium starch glycolate, with the gums exhibiting better properties than the starches. Microwave irradiation had no significant effect on the disintegrant properties of both polymers but increased the crushing strength of the tablets. Intragranular incorporation proved to be the best method for optimum disintegrant property. Key words : Pigeon pea starch, Khaya gum, Polymer modification, Disintegrant properties, Factorial design
USERS' PERCEPTION ON CASH FLOW REPORTING PRACTICES IN MAURITIUS

The IASB and the FASB are currently proposing that cash flow statements under the direct method be mandatory for all firms under the harmonized cash flow reporting requirements. The study investigates which cash flow reporting method is perceived as being more useful among users in Mauritius. The aim is to assess whether the direct method will favorably be integrated in reporting practices of Mauritian companies. A questionnaire was developed and surveyed for data collection. Findings reveal that users have a preference for the direct cash flow reporting method as far as relevance, reliability and decision usefulness are concerned. But we report a weak mean difference among them. In addition, as far as understandability is concerned, results suggest that users prefer the indirect method. This paper purports to contribute towards the on-going debate about which cash flow reporting method is more useful.
Asymptotically stable dynamic risk assessments

Abstract In this paper we study asymptotically stable risk assessments (or equivalently risk measures) which have the property that an unacceptable position cannot become acceptable by adding a huge cash-flow far in the future. Under an additional continuity assumption, these risk assessments are exactly those which have a robust representation in terms of test probabilities that are supported on a finite time interval. For time-consistent risk assessments we give conditions on their generators which guarantee asymptotic stability.
The Impact of Family Structure on Risk Attitudes and Financial Decisions during the Financial Crisis

Family structures have changed profoundly in most developed countries in recent decades. Declining fertility and marriage rates and increasing divorce rates, together with longer life expectancies, make financial planning more challenging. Our study analyzes the impact of family structure on individuals' attitudes toward risk and on their savings and investment decisions based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) over the period 2004-2010. Using panel data analysis, marital status is found to be a key variable affecting risk attitudes and savings and investment decisions. Compared to people who are single, married individuals report being less willing to take risks, but more likely to invest in risky assets. Our findings indicate that while the recent financial and economic crisis has influenced individuals' attitudes, it has not -- with the exception of investments in risky assets -- affected the savings and investment decisions of individuals.
High-resolution ensemble projections and uncertainty assessment of regional climate change over China in CORDEX East Asia

Abstract. An ensemble simulation of five regional climate models (RCMs) from the coordinated regional downscaling experiment in East Asia is evaluated and used to project future regional climate change in China. The influences of model uncertainty and internal variability on projections are also identified. The RCMs simulate the historical (1980–2005) climate and future (2006–2049) climate projections under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) RCP4.5 scenario. The simulations for five subregions in China, including northeastern China, northern China, southern China, northwestern China, and the Tibetan Plateau, are highlighted in this study. Results show that (1) RCMs can capture the climatology, annual cycle, and interannual variability of temperature and precipitation and that a multi-model ensemble (MME) outperforms that of an individual RCM. The added values for RCMs are confirmed by comparing the performance of RCMs and global climate models (GCMs) in reproducing annual and seasonal mean precipitation and temperature during the historical period. (2) For future (2030–2049) climate, the MME indicates consistent warming trends at around 1 ∘C in the entire domain and projects pronounced warming in northern and western China. The annual precipitation is likely to increase in most of the simulation region, except for the Tibetan Plateau. (3) Generally, the future projected change in annual and seasonal mean temperature by RCMs is nearly consistent with the results from the driving GCM. However, changes in annual and seasonal mean precipitation exhibit significant inter-RCM differences and possess a larger magnitude and variability than the driving GCM. Even opposite signals for projected changes in average precipitation between the MME and the driving GCM are shown over southern China, northeastern China, and the Tibetan Plateau. (4) The uncertainty in projected mean temperature mainly arises from the internal variability over northern and southern China and the model uncertainty over the other three subregions. For the projected mean precipitation, the dominant uncertainty source is the internal variability over most regions, except for the Tibetan Plateau, where the model uncertainty reaches up to 60 %. Moreover, the model uncertainty increases with prediction lead time across all subregions.
International Fragmentation of Production and Trade Volatility: An Analysis for the European Countries

In the last years, world exports have displayed very strong fluctuations, much higher than GDP fluctuations. Some recent works tried to understand the causes of these fluctuations, and in particular if these strong swings in world trade flows are related to the growing weight of intermediates in trade and to the phenomenon of international fragmentation of production (IFP) or international outsourcing. This is the issue addressed in this paper. We analyze the influence of international fragmentation of production and trade in intermediate goods on the fluctuations of trade flows for the EU countries. After assessing the relevance of international trade in intermediate goods at the sector level using indices computed from the input-output tables of the EU countries, we test whether a significant relation exists between the extent of international fragmentation of production measured by this proxy and the volatility of trade flows, and the possible implications of these results.
Purification of oily wastewater by ultrafiltration

Investigations have been carried out for purification of oily wastewater by a combination of ultrafiltration/reverse osmosis processes. A tubular ultrafiltration system using cellulosic and non-cellulosic membranes was tested with typical oily wastewater collected from harbour and simulated emulsion without any pretreatment. Both membrane types produced a permeate with an oil content generally less than 10 mg/dm3. Rejection of chemical oxygen demand (COD) is 80% for ultrafiltration treatment. The permeate is generally of acceptable quality for direct sewer discharge. For further treatment of UF permeate, reverse osmosis was applied with tubular Bl PC1 modules using cellulose acetate membranes. The rejection of COD after ultrafiltration/reverse osmosis treatment increased up to 98.5% and total dissolved solids (TDS) to 95.7%. Reverse osmosis treatment will permit reuse of the treated water as process water.
The community of gastrointestinal helminths in the housemouse, Mus musculus, in Santiago, Chile

El raton domestico, Mus musculus, esta en Chile desde aproximadamente el 1600 DC. y es el mas sinantropico de los roedores chilenos. Para conocer sus parasitos se realizo un estudio en tres diferentes localidades de Santiago. La comunidad de helmintos fue pobre en especies y solo se encontraron tres especies de helmintos: Syphacia obvelata, Aspiculuris tetraptera y Physaloptera calnuensis; todas estas especies constituyen el primer registro para Chile. Este es tambien el primer hallazgo de P. calnuensis en este hospedador. Syphacia obvelata fue la especie mas prevalente y abundante.
Columbia River plume fronts. II. Distribution, abundance, and feeding ecology of juvenile salmon

Well-defined fronts develop at the seaward edge of riverine plumes where suspended materials and planktonic organisms are concentrated by convergent water flows. Riverine plume fronts have been hypothesized to be favorable fish habitats because they can lead to localized prey aggregations. We examined the spatial distribution of juvenile Pacific salmonids Oncorhynchus spp. in and around plankton-rich frontal regions of the Columbia River plume to test the hypothesis that juvenile salmonids aggregate at riverine plume fronts to feed. Juvenile salmonids tended to be abun- dant in the frontal and plume regions compared to the more marine shelf waters, but this pattern dif- fered among species and was not consistent across the 2 study years. Stomach fullness tended to be higher in the more marine shelf waters than either the front or plume areas, which does not support the hypothesis that salmonids consistently ingest more prey at frontal regions. Many prey organisms were disproportionately abundant at these fronts, but salmon stomach-content analysis did not reveal higher stomach contents at fronts or identify prey groups indicative of feeding in the frontal areas. Although our results indicate that the Columbia River plume influences the distributions of juvenile salmon, our observations do not support the hypothesis that juvenile salmonids congregate to feed at fronts at the leading edge of the Columbia River plume. The short persistence time of these fronts may prevent juvenile salmon from exploiting these food-rich, but ephemeral, features.
IASI nitrous oxide (N 2 O) retrievals: validation and application totransport studies at daily time scales

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to present a method to retrieve nitrous oxide (N2O) vertical profiles from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) onboard the MetOp platform. We retrieved N2O profiles using IASI clear sky radiances in 2 spectral bands: B1 and B2 centered at ∼ 1280 cm−1 and ∼ 2220 cm−1, respectively. Both retrievals in B1 and B2 (hereafter referred to as N2O_B1 and N2O_B2, respectively) are sensitive to the mid-to-upper troposphere with a maximum of sensitivity at around 309 hPa. The degrees of freedom for N2O_B1 and N2O_B2 are 1.38 and 0.93, respectively. We validated the retrievals using the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO). The comparisons between HIPPO and the two retrieved datasets show relatively low standard deviation errors around 1.5 % (∼ 4.8 ppbv) and 1.0 % (∼ 3.2 ppbv) for N2O_B1 and N2O_B2, respectively. However, the impact of H2O contamination on N2O_B1 due to its strong absorption bands in B1 significantly degrades the quality of the retrievals in tropical regions. We analysed the scientific consistency of the retrievals at 309 hPa with a focus on the long-range transport of N2O especially during the Asian summer monsoon. Over the mid-latitude regions, both variations of N2O_B1 and N2O_B2 at 309 hPa are influenced by the stratospheric N2O-depleted air because of the relative coarse shape of the averaging kernel. The analysis of N2O_B2 using results from backtrajectories exhibits the capacity of these retrievals to capture long-range transport of air masses from Asia to northern Africa via the summer monsoon anticyclone on a daily basis. Thus, N2O_B1 and N2O_B2 offer an unprecedented possibility to study global upper tropospheric N2O on a daily basis.
Dry Matter Yield Potentials of Some Gamba Grass ( Andropogon gayanus Kunth.) Accessions in the Southern Guinea Savanna of Benue State, Nigeria

Benue state of Nigeria has a high potential for ruminant livestock production with its extensive grass cover of the southern guinea savanna, dominate by gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus kunth). However, this and other grasses have not been evaluated for forage utilization in the state. Investigations were therefore conducted to identify suitable genotypes among the local and introduced grasses. Forage dry matter yields of 20 accessions of A. gayanus, from Benue and neighbouring Kogi states were evaluated at three locations in Benue state: Makurdi (7°43’N, 8°32’E). Otupka (7°04’N, 7°39’E) and Yandev (7°22’N, 9°02’E). forage was harvested every six weeks during the rainy season over two years in a completely randomized design with three replicates. There are significant differences in annual rainy season DM yields of the 20 A. gayanus accessions. At Makurdi, DM yields in t/ha varied from 4.7 (Acc.9) to 14.4 (Acc.2), while at Otukpa yields ranged from 7.7 (Acc.4) to 22.3 (Acc.12) and 5.7 (Acc.9) to 14.9 (Acc.18) at Yandev. Average DM yields over the three sites varied from 1.9 (Acc.3 and Acc.6) to 13.4 (Acc.10). based on the DM production, accessions 10, 11 and 18 may be considered for exploitation in Benue state.
Aspartic acid racemization method for age estimation in human tissues: a review

The amino acid racemization is a chemical reaction process that depends on the property change of proteins in the organism. There is change in the concentration of L-and D-amino acids in during life and after death, as well. This change leads to the relationship with aging process. Aspartic acid (Asp) is non-essential amino acid which is commonly utilized on racemization because it has most rapidly accumulated of D-aspartic acids of all amino acids. Therefore, aging is related to the interconversion of amino acids, which is a useful tool for age estimation in forensic science. Aspartic acid racemization can occur in many human structures e.g. teeth, bone, articular cartilage, intervertebral disc, yellow ligament, skin, lung parenchyma, aorta, and eye-lens. Additionally, the relationship between aspartic acid racemization and age can be used for investigation of protein turnover and pathological diseases. There are different aspartic acid preparation methods which obtain different results. In this review, we describe aspartic acid racemization method, several factors of racemization, application of racemization for age estimation including several preparation methods based on racemization in both teeth and bones.
The impact of migrant remittances on household welfare in Ghana

Migrant remittances have become a source of external finance whose magnitude exceeds the amount of official development assistance in some developing countries. Balance of payments statistics from the Bank of Ghana indicate the amount of remittances to Ghana exceeds ODA and is a potential force to reckon with particularly considering its growth rate in recent years. It is general knowledge in Ghana that families with migrant workers,particularly those in developed countries, are able to withstand shocks to income. This relationship has not been tested empirically, however, even though the Ghana Living Standards Survey is rich with such micro-data on the economy. This study therefore uses Waves 1 to 4 of the GLSS to investigate whether migrant remittances significantly affect household poverty (welfare). The study found that remittances improve household welfare and help to minimize the effects of economic shocks to household welfare.They do not offset the shocks completely, however, except for food crop farmers (the poorest in Ghana).
Title The spatial impact of commuting on income : a spatialmicrosimulation approach

The Irish economic boom resulted in a substantial increase in car-ownership and commuting. These trends were particularly noticeable in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA), with an unprecedented increase in employment levels and private car registrations. While employment dropped by an overall 6% during the recent economic recession, the already increasing process of suburbanisation around Irish main cities continued. The commuting belt around Dublin extended beyond the GDA with a substantial number of individuals commuting long distances. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of both monetary and non-monetary commuting costs on the distribution of employment income in Ireland. The Census of Population is the only nationwide source of information on commuting patterns in Ireland. However, this data set does not include information on individual income. In contrast, SMILE (Simulation Model for the Irish Local Economy) contains employment income data for each individual in Ireland. Using data from the Census of Population of Ireland, discrete choice models of commuting mode choice are estimated for three sub-samples of the Irish population based on residential and employment location and the subjective value of travel time (SVTT) is calculated. The SVTT is then combined with the SMILE data to produce a geo-referenced, attribute rich dataset containing commuting, income, demographic and socio-economic data. Results show that the monetary and non-monetary costs of commuting are highest among those living and working in the GDA.
Factors Affecting Consumers' Attitudes toward Online Shopping in the City of Tabuk

This study aimed to identify Factors that affect consumers' attitudes toward online shopping In the city of Tabuk. To achieve the objectives of the study, a questionnaire was designed to collect data and distribute it to study population through polled a simple random sample of (214) from individuals who are dealing with the service of online shopping in the city of Tabuk. The study has been using the statistical package of Social Sciences (SPSS) for data analysis. Results of the study showed the presence of a statistically significant effect of Factors (Perceived usefulness, Perceived ease of use, Product Involvement, Perceived Risk) in affecting consumers' attitudes toward online shopping. Keywords: Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Product Involvement, Perceived Risk, Online Shopping.