Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Showiness, non-parasitic symbionts, and nutritional condition in a passerine bird

The study of host-symbiont interactions has mainly focused on how parasites influence the fitness and behaviour of their host. Two common assumptions of such studies are that all symbiontic organisms are parasites, and that they are directly or indirectly related to host traits which act as signals of quality in mate choice. We assessed the prevalence and abundance of feather mites (Proctophyllodes pinnatus; Astigmata; Protocphyllodidae) on Linnets (Carduelis cannabina; Aves; Carduelinae) and examined how the abundance of mites may be related to the condition and plumage colour of Linnets. Mite prevalence was so high (near 100%) that no variation could be found between age classes or sexes. However, mite abundance was significantly higher in males than in females. No significant relationship was found between mite abundance and host nutritional condition, except for yearling females. Nutritional condition and showiness of secondary sexual traits (carotenoid-based plumage patches) were not correlated in male linnets. Size and brightness of red patches in the plumage of males varied with age, but were unrelated to mite abundance when age was taken into account. The absence of effects of mites is in agreement with the long held, neglected view that feather mites form non-parasitic associations with birds. Higher mite abundance on males may be attributed to more secretions of the uropygial gland, on which mites feed. Gender variation in plumage colour and abundance of feather mites suggests a common hormonal-mediated mechanism regulating both traits.
Occupational structure in the Polish territories at the turn of the 20th (1895-1900) century

Authors present the occupational structure of Polish lands at the turn of 20th century on the basis of censuses carried out in Germany (1895), Russia (1897) and Austria (1900). Our research provides corrections to the errors of the censuses, to a considerable extent. As a result, we present an occupational structure that allows a more complete the picture of the economic situation in the Polish territories at the end of the 19th century. The conducted research has created an opportunity to partially verify the assumption, which is common in Polish economical historiography, that a technological turning point and an industrial revolution occurred in Polish lands already in the 1870s and 1880s. Revised census data demonstrated that the extent of industrialization in Polish lands was still very limited in 1900.
Assessing the utility of social media as a data source for flood risk management using a real‐time modelling framework

The utility of social media for both collecting and disseminating information during natural disasters is increasingly recognised. The rapid nature of urban flooding from intense rainfall means accurate surveying of peak depths and flood extents is rarely achievable, hindering the validation of urban flood models. This paper presents a real‐time modelling framework to identify areas likely to have flooded using data obtained only through social media. Graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerated hydrodynamic modelling is used to simulate flooding in a 48‐km2 area of Newcastle upon Tyne, with results automatically compared against flooding identified through social media, allowing inundation to be inferred elsewhere in the city with increased detail and accuracy. Data from Twitter during two 2012 flood events are used to test the framework, with the inundation results indicative of good agreement against crowd‐sourced and anecdotal data, even though the sample of successfully geocoded Tweets was relatively small.
The Mediating Effect of Culture on Management Succession and Corporate Growth Strategy among Local Family Businesses in the Manufacturing Sector in Nairobi County, Kenya

Family businesses exhibit one of the most fundamental characteristics of complexity theory – the interaction of three highly interdependent sub-systems. Not only are the interactions between the family, ownership, and business systems complex, but each of the systems are individually complex. Organization culture refers to shared assumptions, values and norms and is a source of sustained competitive advantage. Culture affects the decision-making process because shared beliefs and values give organizational members a consistent set of basic assumptions and preferences. Culture has been recognized as a contingent variable in the process of strategy formulation. Certain types of culture could enhance organization performance and culture is related to organization strategy particularly in the implementation of a selected strategy. Keywords: Familybusiness, OrganizationCulture, Growth strategy, Manufacturing.
Heat transfer with phase change in a shell and tube latent heat storage unit

Concerning thermal energy storage, latent heat thermal energy storage is particularly attractive technique because it provides a high energy storage density. The development of a latent heat thermal energy storage system therefore involves first the understanding of heat transfer in the phase change materials (PCM) when they undergo solid-to-liquid phase transition in the required operating temperature range, and second, the design of the container for holding the PCM and the formulation of the phase change problem. The paper presents a study on the heat transfer mode of a PCM stored in a horizontal cylindrical shell and tube heat exchanger, being the PCM placed inside the tubes. For this purpose, an experimental bench has been developed to test the heat transfer process, coupled with a Ground-Source Heat Pump (GSHP), controlled by a computer program developed to manage the coupled GSHP+PCM system. The aim is to compute the heat transfer of the installation during the loading, storage and downloading energy processes. More precisely, the interest is to check experimentally to what extent some common hypothesis used for heat transfer calculations are valid or not. In particular: (i) Comparison between the radial and the axial heat transfer through the wall of the PCM tube; (ii) The temperature distribution of the heat transfer fluid in the central and peripheral locations; (iii) The heat transfer rate between the container and the ambient temperature. Results indicate that density gradients could occur during energy exchange between the heat transfer fluid and the PCM when melting or solidification are taking place, leading to modification of central flow with respect to peripheral flow. Also, the temperature gradients recorded in the axial direction during the change of phase were very small compared with those of that of the radial direction, indicating essentially a two-dimensional heat transfer mode.
Cyclical behavior of thrust wedges: Insights from high basal friction sandbox experiments

Scaled sandbox experiments with high basal friction, simulating the growth of accretionary wedges, display cycles alternating between frontal imbricate thrusting and underthrusting of long, undeformed sheets. By contrast, low basal friction experiments with otherwise similar and constant, initial conditions produce a classic frontal imbricate fan through repeated failure along frontal thrusts. The cyclical behavior observed in high basal friction experiments is expressed by three quantities: (1) the average spacing between frontal thrusts, (2) the advance and retreat of the deformation front, and (3) the frontal slope (Alpha) of the actively deforming wedge. As a long sheet is underthrust, the front is steepened through slumping until the maximum critical angle is reached. Then frontal thrusting resumes and the accretion of imbricate slices builds the wedge forward, thereby lowering the taper to the minimum critical angle. At shallow tapers, a long unit is underthrust and subsequently uplifts, shortens, and steepens the overlying wedge through backthrust deformation, thus completing the cycle. Underthrusting of long units offers a simple mechanism for underplating overlying units. It also provides a possible explanation for temporally and spatially varying wedge geometries in nature, when basal frictions attain 80%–90% of the internal friction.
A New Transgenic Mouse Model for Studying the Neurotoxicity of Spermine Oxidase Dosage in the Response to Excitotoxic Injury

Spermine oxidase is a FAD-containing enzyme involved in polyamines catabolism, selectively oxidizing spermine to produce H2O2, spermidine, and 3-aminopropanal. Spermine oxidase is highly expressed in the mouse brain and plays a key role in regulating the levels of spermine, which is involved in protein synthesis, cell division and cell growth. Spermine is normally released by neurons at synaptic sites where it exerts a neuromodulatory function, by specifically interacting with different types of ion channels, and with ionotropic glutamate receptors. In order to get an insight into the neurobiological roles of spermine oxidase and spermine, we have deregulated spermine oxidase gene expression producing and characterizing the transgenic mouse model JoSMOrec, conditionally overexpressing the enzyme in the neocortex. We have investigated the effects of spermine oxidase overexpression in the mouse neocortex by transcript accumulation, immunohistochemical analysis, enzymatic assays and polyamine content in young and aged animals. Transgenic JoSMOrec mice showed in the neocortex a higher H2O2 production in respect to Wild-Type controls, indicating an increase of oxidative stress due to SMO overexpression. Moreover, the response of transgenic mice to excitotoxic brain injury, induced by kainic acid injection, was evaluated by analysing the behavioural phenotype, the immunodistribution of neural cell populations, and the ultrastructural features of neocortical neurons. Spermine oxidase overexpression and the consequently altered polyamine levels in the neocortex affects the cytoarchitecture in the adult and aging brain, as well as after neurotoxic insult. It resulted that the transgenic JoSMOrec mouse line is more sensitive to KA than Wild-Type mice, indicating an important role of spermine oxidase during excitotoxicity. These results provide novel evidences of the complex and critical functions carried out by spermine oxidase and spermine in the mammalian brain.
Effect of cyanobacterium on competition between rotifers: a population growth study

Abstract We determined the population growth of Plationus patulus and Brachionus havanaensis grown alone or together (1:1 ratio) on different feeds of solely Chlorella, solely Anabaena, or their mixture at a level of 1 × 106 cells mL−1 for all diets. Our results showed that regardless of diet, population densities of B. havanaensis were higher than those of P. patulus. For both rotifer species, Anabaena caused extinction of populations, regardless whether offered alone or in combination with the green alga. In mixed rotifer cultures, the peak densities of P. patulus or B. havanaensis were much lower than when cultured alone. Rate of population increase (r) of P. patulus fed Chlorella was significantly lower (0.12 d−1; p < 0.001) than for B. havanaensis (0.19 d−1) grown under similar conditions. Growth rates of both rotifers fed Anabaena (alone or together with Chlorella) became significantly lower than when fed solely Chlorella. Thus, our results showed that P. patulus and B. havanaensis have similar sensitivities to Anabaena, with both species failing to grow when this cyanobacterium was included in the diet.
Informativeness of linguistic unit boundaries

Contemporary models of structural analysis tend to operate with discrete units at different linguistic levels. There is, however, considerable debate regarding the choice of units and the validity of the cues that guide their demarcation. At the level of grammatical analysis, this debate focuses largely on the status of words vs subword units and on the generality of the linguistic properties that mark each type of unit. This paper suggests that the status of a unit type can be evaluated in terms of its informativity. A measure of informativity is obtained by assessing the influence that different unit boundary types have on text compressibility. The results obtained from this initial study support a pair of general conclusions. The first is that unit boundaries primarily reflect a statistical structure, and that the typological variability of linguistic cues reflects the fact that they serve a secondary reinforcing function. The second is that word boundaries are the most informative boundary type, and that the demarcation of words provides the most informative description of the regular patterns in a language.
The influence of the welfare state on the number of young old persons

ABSTRACT Many current discussions of welfare state reforms focus on the ‘young old’, a group now generally perceived as healthy people past retirement age without a legal responsibility for dependent persons in need of care. For the welfare state, they constitute a resource whose activities are hard to steer. This article focuses on the influence of the welfare state on the number of ‘young old’ people. It describes different ways in which the welfare state influences the number of young old persons, and investigates whether variations in the regulations for the ages of normal, early and late retirement are the prime cause. The paper also estimates the share of the young old among those aged 50–90 years in 10 European countries in 2004 using comparable survey data. These shares ranged between 36 and 49 per cent for men and between 35 and 52 per cent for women. High shares were found in continental European countries, and low shares in Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom. The shares in southern European countries varied among the countries and by gender. To explain the variations in the share, country differences in retirement regulations proved helpful but insufficient. When the overall influence of the welfare state on the share of young old persons in the population was analysed, a country-characteristic pattern emerged.
Study of pool boiling and critical beat flux enhancement in nanofluids

The pool boiling characteristics of dilute dispersions of alumina, zirconia and silica nanoparticles in water were studied. These dispersions are known as nanofluids. Consistently with other nanofluid studies, it was found that a significant enhancement in Critical Heat Flux (CHF) can be achieved at modest nanoparticle concentrations (<0.1% by volume). Buildup of a porous layer of nanoparticles on the heater surface occurred during nucleate boiling. This layer significantly improves the surface wettability, as shown by a reduction of the static contact angle on the nanofluid-boiled surfaces compared with the pure-water-boiled surfaces. CHF theories support the nexus between CHF enhancement and surface wettability changes. This represents a first important step towards identification of a plausible mechanism for boiling CHF enhancement in nanofluids.
The cascading impacts of livestock grazing in upland ecosystems : a 10-year experiment

Livestock grazing is a major driver of land-use change, causing significant biodiversity loss globally. Although the short-term effects of livestock grazing on individual species are well studied, a mechanistic understanding of the long-term, cascading impacts is lacking. We manipulated livestock densities using a unique, replicated upland experiment over a 10-year period and found significant effects of grazing treatment on plant and arthropod biomass; the number of Anthus pratensis breeding bird territories; the amplitude of Microtus agrestis population cycles and the activity of a top predator, Vulpes vulpes. Lower plant biomass as a result of higher stocking densities led to cascades across trophic levels, with fewer arthropods and small mammals, the latter affecting predator activity. Breeding bird territories were a function of arthropod abundance and vegetation structure heterogeneity. Our results provide a novel food-web analysis in a grazing experiment to provide a mechanistic understanding of ho.
Deglaciation history of the southwestern Fennoscandian Ice Sheet between 15 and 13 14C ka BP

Analysis of 2D and 3D seismic records from the continental shelf off western Norway, in combination with chronological constraints from 14C dates, has led to a model for the glacial development in these shelf areas between c. 15 and 13 14C ka BP. On the shallow Måløy Plateau adjacent to the Norwegian Channel, iceberg scours are preserved below a prominent moraine ridge, which by correlation to the Norwegian Channel indicate ice retreat at c. 15 14C ka BP. Subsequently, the ice advanced across the scoured surface and deposited a till sheet before stabilizing to deposit a prominent moraine, termed the Bremanger Moraine. Based on location on the shelf, seismic stratigraphy, morphology and C dates the Bremanger Moraine is correlated with a significant moraine on the continental shelf off Trøndelag. We suggest that these features are products of a regional glacial event, the Bremanger Event, dated to <15–13.3 14C ka BP. The Bremanger Event is probably a result of the deteriorating climatic conditions in the NE Atlantic during Heinrich event 1.
High reliable non-conductive adhesives for flip chip CSP applications

Chip Scale Packages (CSP) have been adapted for mobile phones, DVC, PC cards, PDA's and various other applications due to the robustness, cost effectiveness, and high reliability of CSP packages. For first level interconnection in CSP, wire bonding with encapsulation, Au stud bump by conductive adhesive, and solder bump interconnection with underfill process are mostly used. Non-conductive adhesives (NCA), widely used in display packaging and fine pitch flip chip packaging technology, are recommended as one of the most suitable interconnection materials for flip chip CSPs. NCA interconnection in flip chip assembly have many advantages such as easier processing, good electrical performance, lower cost, and low temperature processing. In this paper, we have developed film type NCA materials for flip chip assembly on organic substrates such as FR-4 printed circuit boards (PCBs) or BT resin. NCAs are generally a mixture of epoxy polymer resin without any fillers, and have high CTE values like conventional underfill materials used to enhance thermal cycling reliability of solder flip chip assembly on FR-4 boards. In order to reduce thermal and mechanical stress and strain induced by CTE mismatch between a chip and organic substrate, the CTE of NCAs was optimized by filler content. The modified NCA interconnection in flip chip CSP showed highly reliable interconnection when exposed to various environmental tests.
CREATIVITY AND COGNITIVE INHIBITION: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVITY by KACY WELSH

This experiment was conducted to examine a possible relationship between the development of creativity and the development of intentional cognitive inhibition. Creativity was defined as the creation of something novel and useful and was theorized to be an ability that all people possess to varying degrees. Cognitive inhibition was defined as the suppression of irrelevant items from working memory. It was hypothesized that a decrease in creative ability would occur during the fourth grade, reflecting a beginning understanding and overuse of cognitive inhibition, which would reduce the number of irrelevant items in working memory to such a degree that creative ability would suffer. Forty participants from second grade, fourth grade, sixth grade and college completed two tasks from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and a directed forgetting task designed to measure intentional cognitive inhibition. The hypotheses were not supported. Methodological concerns are discussed as a possible reason for the results. INDEX WORDS: Creativity, Cognitive Inhibition, Development, Children, Testing
Corporate Governance Approach of Turkish Companies Operating in the Istanbul Stock Exchange: The Case of an Emerging Market Economy in an Age of Capitalist Diversity

This research attempts to analyse how the firms that are quoted in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) react to the demands and expectations of their stakeholders (inside stakeholders such as workers, management and shareholders; and outside stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, trade unions, local council, competitors, public institutions, investors, media and civil society organisations). We explored the national characteristics of Turkish corporate governance system by assessing the relationships between the corporate governance practices of the ISE firms and the following variables: sectoral activities, trading duration, market capitalisation and public ownership ratios. The analyses of these strategies were used to determine whether the Turkish corporate governance model, as an example for emerging market economies, is more in tune with the Anglo-Saxon or Continental European forms of corporate governance model. Following our literature survey we have identified the company strategies aimed at two different types of stakeholders: Our research has identified some common characteristics for ISE-100 firms and these characteristics do signal a hybrid mixture of corporate governance principles that display similarities and differences with both Continental European and Anglo-Saxon systems.
Ownership Structure, Corporate Governance and Firm Performance

Based on previous studies, ownership structure is not standardized across different country and economic sectors. In other words, each country or economic sector might have different types of sustainable ownership structure that contribute to the competitive and healthiness of a firm. Failure to establish a sustainable ownership structure may produce a result that is contradicted from what is expected by the shareholders. This situation frames a picture that ownership structure is a vital determinant in enhancing firm performance. By highlighting the corporate governance components that normally used in the academic research, this study tends to identify the important components that applied in the reforms of the Malaysian corporate governance. This study is needed as a tool to proof whether the ownership structures and corporate governance practices are truly influenced firm performance. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between firms’ ownership structures, corporate governance pratices and firm performance. Specifically, this study narrows the ownership structures categories into; institutional, government, family, foreign, managerial and concentrated. Besides, this study focuses on ten corporate governance components which include board structure, CEO duality, board size, independent board of directors, directors’ professionalism/qualification, board meeting, board committee, directors’ remuneration, transparency and disclose, merger and acquisition. Firm performance will be measured in the aspect of accounting profitability- return on asset and return on equity; and market performance- Tobin-Q, price to earnings and price to book value. The participating firms of this study are non-financial public firms that are actively listed in the main market of Bursa Malaysia during the five years period (2010 to 2014). The sample will be tested and analyzed by using empirical quantitative method, linear regression, multiple regression and panel data regression analysis. Keywords: Ownership Structure, Corporate Governance, Bursa Malaysia JEL Classifications: H5; H7; P4