Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scientometric diagnosis of the use of remote sensing images in Landscape Ecology studies - doi: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v35i1.8444

This work analyzed the implementation of images from the remote sensors ASTER, CBERS, IKONOS, LANDSAT, MODIS, NOAA, QUICKBIRD and SPOT in Brazilian and international Landscape Ecology studies, developed between 1991 and July 2009. The study analyzed works published in article form using the ISI Web of Knowledge website, and theses and dissertations from the "Thesis Database" at CAPES (Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior). A total of 124 Brazilian and 144 international published works were examined, analyzing 11 and six parameters, respectively. It was observed that the images from sensors MODIS (53%) and LANDSAT (32%) are employed more frequently in international research studies, whereas in Brazil there is preference for products from LANDSAT (65%) and SPOT (11%). The interval with the highest scientific output occurred between 1999 and 2009 (95%) in Brazil and from 1997 to 2009 (93%) internationally, while 2008 was the most significant year for both assessments, accounting for 19 and 18% of published works, respectively. The intense use of satellite imagery in Landscape Ecology studies observed in the last decade indicates there will be an increase in this technology in landscape analysis in coming years.
A paleogeographic approach to aerosol prescription in simulations of deep time climate

Aerosols have important effects on the Earth's radiative balance and are normally included in simulations of present day climate. For simulations of present day or recent past climates, observational information can be used to constrain spatiotemporal variability in aerosol loading. For the deep past, aerosol changes are generally ignored. Here we describe how to use the Community Climate System Model version 4 (CCSM4), standard boundary conditions for a deep time climate simulation, and pre‐industrial emissions information to generate a “paleogeographic” aerosol prescription. This prescription is then applied to a previously published simulation of the Late Permian (251 Ma) to evaluate the how the model climate is affected by the new aerosol prescription relative to the aerosol distribution originally imposed. The new aerosol prescription results in a broadly warmer and wetter climate with a somewhat stronger Pangaean monsoon. Using spatiotemporally varying and speciated aerosol is equivalent to reducing the optical depth of a uniform background aerosol with sulfate‐like properties by ∼30–50%.
An Investigation into Optimal Stock Option Compensation

Throughout twentieth century, it has become increasingly common for executives to be remunerated with stock options, contracts which allow the recipient to buy company stock at a predetermined price, thus giving the incentive to maximize the stock price in order to increase the value of the stock option contract. Not only has stock option compensation become increasingly prevalent to executives at most major listed companies, but also to employees at all levels of the firm, both big and small. However, along with the growth in popularity, stock option compensation also became a topic of contention, not only among the general public, but among lobbyists, legislators and academics. This thesis aims to provide a better understanding of stock option compensation practice, with a particular emphasis on the United States, where stock option compensation is most prevalent. The thesis is divided into three chapters: the first chapter deals with establishing a foundational understanding of stock option practice and possible drivers through investigating the literature on the history of stock option compensation practice in the US. The second chapter develops a holistic theoretical model of an optimal stock option compensation package to possibly explain some practice currently considered as excessive. Then lastly, the third chapter empirically tests the validity of possible drivers of executive stock option policy in recent times in an attempt to identify whether current practice is optimal or not. The first chapter is primarily a literature review, covering a series of events over the history of stock option compensation in the US, ranging from its early beginnings in the early twentieth century until the present day. Included in the coverage of
Hydrologically Based Environmental Flow Methods Applied to Rivers in the Maritime Provinces (Canada)

The demand for water withdrawal continues to increase worldwide. These water withdrawals from rivers can affect fish habitat and aquatic life. As such, environmental flow assessment methods are used in order to protect rivers against excessive water withdrawals. The concept of environmental flow relates to the quantity of water required in rivers to sustain an acceptable level of living conditions for aquatic biota at various phases of their development. For many agencies, environmental flow methods are essential in environmental impact assessments and in the protection of important fisheries resources. The present study deals with the evaluation of hydrologically based environmental flow methods within the Maritime Province of Canada. In total, six hydrologically based environmental flow methods were compared using data from 52 hydrometric stations across the region. Some methods provided adequate environmental flow protection (e.g. 25% mean annual flow and Q50 flow duration method); however, other methods did not provide adequate flow protection (e.g. Q90 flow duration method and 7Q10 and 7Q2 low‐flow frequency). The 70% Q50 method provided adequate flow protection only under good baseflow conditions and should be applied with extreme caution. The present study shows the importance of the hydrologic flow regime, particularly as it pertains to the baseflow component, as a significant determinant in the level of instream flow protection. © 2014 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. River Research and Applications © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sustainable Development Facets: Exporting Industrial Sectors from Inside

Sustainable development of country economy is being driven by various factors. Economy of each country is comprised of economic sectors. External and internal development drivers differently affect different economic sectors, as a rule. Since economic sectors are not homogeneous, their expanding or contracting depends on behavior of concrete market players; i.e. business companies. The paper aims to reveal factors affecting patterns of development exporting companies attributed to industrial sector and its sub-sectors of Lithuanian economy. Methodology of the investigation is based on development of theoretically grounded questionnaire, targeting revealing factors impacting international competitiveness of industrial companies. Impact of factors, attributed to external business environment, and role of factors attributed to internal development forces are to be indicated. Obtained results, is expected, and would allow to foresee trends and main drivers of further development of exporting Lithuanian industrial sectors.
Hybrid of Moment Method and Mode Matching Technique for Full-Wave Analysis of SIW Circuits

─ In this paper, a full wave analysis of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) structures is presented based on the moment method in combination with the mode matching technique. Initially, input and output post pairs are terminated with two waveguide sections. Then waveguide width, as an unknown variable, is adjusted to obtain minimum reflection from the SIW. Field distribution in the structure and current density on posts as well as dispersion characteristic of the SIW are investigated. Also, by taking the advantage of the moment method, analysis of the structures with longitudinal discontinuity along the wave propagation direction is offered. Furthermore, versatile instances are analyzed and compared with experimental values, results from high frequency structure simulator (HFSS), and numerical methods in recent literature. Good agreement between the results verifies the accuracy of the hybrid method. Index Terms ─ Bandpass filter, method of moment, mode expansion, mode matching technique, substrate integrated waveguide.
Unlocking Uncultivated Food for Mountain Livelihood: Case from Hindu Kush Himalayas

Throughout the Hindu Kush Himalayas, uncultivated plants provide agreen social and cultural security to millions of people supporting their livelihood. Review on evaluating the multifunctional role of uncultivated plants in perspective of livelihood support finds that plants add diversity to local food systems, reinforce local culture and contribute diversity to farming systems, and finally are important for household food and nutrition security, social security, income generation and health care. Further, this paper clarifies that local people maintain and conserve diversity for the sake of use. The wise conservation and use of uncultivated plants are essential elements for increasing food security, eliminating poverty, and maintaining the environment. However, the value and potential of uncultivated plants for food and nutrition security, household level health care, income generation opportunity are not yet realized. Fast changing climate and early projections on its impacts suggest that such programmes must increasingly consider the sustenance of ecosystem that promotes uncultivated plants as basis for the welfare of millions.
Çocuklar İçin Kodlama Yazılımları Üzerine Karşılaştırmalı Bir İnceleme

Bilgisayar egitimi ve kodlama egitimi her gecen gun ilerleme kaydetmektedir. Ilkokuldan itibaren mufredatlarda yer almaya baslayan kodlama egitimi cocuklara bilgisayar alaninin yani sira analitik dusunme, yaraticilik ve problem cozumlerinde basari kazandirmaktadir. Kodlama ogrenen cocuklarin karsilastiklari problemlere cozum uretebildikleri, yaptiklari hatalari cozebildikleri ve sonuclarini degerlendirebildikleri yapilan calismalarda ortaya konulmustur. Kodlama egitimi ayrica basari icin hedefler koyan, bu hedefleri asama asama gecen cocuklar icin ilgi cekici olan bir yapiya sahiptir. Bu yapiyi ortamda bulunan resim, ses, muzik ve benzeri medya araclari ile kodlama yazilimlari saglamaktadir. Tum bunlar egitim sureci boyunca cocuklara ozveri ve calisma disiplini kazandirmaktadir. Son yillarda kodlama alaninda gelismeler, beraberinde kullanici profilinin cesitliligine sebep olmustur. Kodlama alaninda cocuklar icin platformlar olusturulmus, onlarin seviyesine hitap eden eglenceli ve ogretici yazilimlar tasarlanmistir. Ancak bu yazilimlarin her birinin farkli ozelliklere sahip olmasi, cocuklar icin uygun bir ortamin secimini zorlastirmistir. Bu sorunu cozebilmek amaciyla calismada, cocuklar icin kodlama ortamlarindan 40 tanesi farkli kriterlere gore karilastirilarak incelenmistir. Yapilan karsilastirmali analizler sonucu, Scratch, code.org ve App Inventor yazilimlarinin diger yazilimlara gore daha fazla ozellik ve fonksiyonlara sahip oldugu gorulmustur. Bu baglamda bahsedilen yazilimlarin cocuklarin kodlama ogrenimlerinde kullaniminin daha yararli olabilecegi soylenebilir.
Parameter estimation of an electrochemistry‐based lithium‐ion battery model using a two‐step procedure and a parameter sensitivity analysis

Lithium‐ion batteries are indispensable in various applications owing to their high specific energy and long service life. Lithium‐ion battery models are used for investigating the behavior of the battery and enabling power control in applications. The Doyle‐Fuller‐Newman (DFN) model is a popular electrochemistry‐based model, which characterizes the dynamics in the battery through diffusions in solid and electrolyte and predicts current/voltage response. However, the DFN model contains a large number of parameters that need to be estimated to obtain an accurate battery model. In this paper, a computationally feasible two‐step estimation approach is proposed that only uses voltage and current measurements of the battery under consideration. In the two‐step procedure, the parameters are divided into 2 groups. The first group contains thermodynamic parameters, which are estimated using low‐current discharges, while the second group contains kinetic parameters, which are estimated using a well‐designed highly‐dynamic pulse (dis‐)charge current. A parameter sensitivity analysis is done to find a subset of parameters that can be reliably estimated using current and voltage measurements only. Experimental data are collected for 12 Ah nickel cobalt aluminum pouch lithium‐ion cell. The voltage predictions of the identified model are compared with several experimental data sets to validate the model. A root mean square error between model predictions and experimental data smaller than 16 mV is achieved.
Baselines for Lifetime of Organic Solar Cells

The process of accurately gauging lifetime improvements in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) or other similar emerging technologies, such as perovskites solar cells is still a major challenge. The presented work is part of a larger effort of developing a worldwide database of lifetimes that can help establishing reference baselines of stability performance for OPVs and other emerging PV technologies, which can then be utilized for pass‐fail testing standards and predicting tools. The study constitutes scanning of literature articles related to stability data of OPVs, reported until mid‐2015 and collecting the reported data into a database. A generic lifetime marker is utilized for rating the stability of various reported devices. The collected data is combined with an earlier developed and reported database, which was based on articles reported until mid‐2013. The extended database is utilized for establishing the baselines of lifetime for OPVs tested under different conditions. The work also provides the recent progress in stability of unencapsulated OPVs with different architectures, as well as presents the updated diagram of the reported record lifetimes of OPVs. The presented work is another step forward towards the development of pass‐fail testing standards and lifetime prediction tools for emerging PV technologies.
Long-term comparative and prospective cohort study of renal function in patients with HIV infection treated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate

Introduction: Evidence regarding long-term evolution of renal function in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection treated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is scarce and often retrospective. Material and methods: We carried out an observational prospective cohort study. Patients with serum creatinine lower than 1.2 mg/dl and an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) higher than 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 were included between January 2001 and December 2005. The primary outcome was the onset of a clinically relevant decrease in renal function (CRDRF) defined as an eGFR < 60 ml/min/1.73m2 in two consecutive measures or < 50 ml/min/1.73 m2 in any measure. Secondary objectives were to identify risk factors for the emergence of CRDRF and renal recovery after TDF discontinuation. Results: Seventy patients receiving TDF and 58 controls were included. After a median follow-up of 7.6 years, 10 patients in the TDF group and none in the control group developed CRDRF (p = 0.005). The incidence rate of CRDRF was 2.2 cases per 100 treated patients per year (CI 95%: 0.85-3.62). Risk factors for CRDRF onset were higher baseline age (HR = 1.1, CI 95%: 1.05-1.18; p = 0.001), arterial hypertension (HR = 24.8, CI 95%: 3.3-185.6; p = 0.002) and lower baseline eGFR (HR = 0.93, CI 95%: 0.89-0.97; p = 0.002). After 36 months from TDF discontinuation in CRDRF cases, seven patients achieved renal recovery (eGFR > 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 in ≥ 2 consecutive measures, with six months between each measure). Conclusions: Long-term use of TDF in the treatment of HIV infection is associated with a higher incidence of a clinically relevant decrease in renal function which may be only partially reversible. HIV AIDS Rev 2017; 16, 2: 77-83 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/hivar.2017.66859
Factors Affecting the Performance of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises: Experience from North Shewa Zone, Ethiopia

Research has shown that there are factors that contribute to success or failure in small enterprises in the government departments in the world. An environment conducive for the growth of MSEs is required, and this has necessitated an investigation into the factors affecting the performance of SMEs in North Shewa Zone, Ethiopia. The general objective of the study is to investigate factors that influencing the performance of micro and small enterprises in North Shewa Zone town, Ethiopia. The research used probability; strata sampling techniques. The researcher selected 386 respondents out of 11,244 populations. For data analysis, we have used OLS regression analysis Pearson correlation Coefficient. Based on the data collected from 386 MSEs in North Shewa Zone, Ethiopia, the results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurship, labour skill, infrastructure, finance, leadership skill and the performance of SMEs. This study recommends that the MSE businesses and government should effectively address the infrastructure especially in terms of electricity, work place, market place and roads in order to increase their performance.
AN ULTRA-FAST X-RAY DISK WIND IN THE NEUTRON STAR BINARY GX 340+0

We present a spectral analysis of a brief Chandra/HETG observation of the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary GX 340+0. The high-resolution spectrum reveals evidence of ionized absorption in the Fe K band. The strongest feature, an absorption line at approximately 6.9 keV, is required at the 5σ level of confidence via an F-test. Photoionization modeling with XSTAR grids suggests that the line is the most prominent part of a disk wind with an apparent outflow speed of v = 0.04c. This interpretation is preferred at the 4σ level over a scenario in which the line is H-like Fe xxvi at a modest redshift. The wind may achieve this speed owing to its relatively low ionization, enabling driving by radiation pressure on lines; in this sense, the wind in GX 340+0 may be the stellar-mass equivalent of the flows in broad absorption line quasars. If the gas has a unity volume filling factor, the mass ouflow rate in the wind is over 10−5M⊙ yr−1, and the kinetic power is nearly 1039 erg s−1 (or, 5–6 times the radiative Eddington limit for a neutron star). However, geometrical considerations—including a small volume filling factor and low covering factor—likely greatly reduce these values.
Genetic diversity of agro-morphological characters in Indian wheat varieties using GT biplot

This study examined the extent of agro-morphological variations in Indian wheat varieties and graphically displayed the interrelationships among them at phenotypic level. 258 wheat varieties developed in last fifty years (1961-2010) for six different agro-climatic wheat sowing regions of India were characterized for Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) using 20 agro-morphological characters. DUS descriptors such as waxiness on plant parts, plant height and growth habit were identified as prominent morphological determinants for genetic diversity in Indian wheat. Genetic variability among these varieties was assessed using GT biplot and ordination analysis. First two PC axes explained 36.9 % of the total multivariate variation during PCA. GT biplot grouped Indian varieties in four distinct groups for selected DUS traits majorly on the basis of waxiness on plant parts, plant height and growth habit. Patterns of descriptor states were found almost similar for six different agro-climatic regions. This suggested that selection criteria for high yielding genotypes led to selection of similar descriptors pattern for Indian wheat and is independent of external factors like climate and demography. This information on variability and correlations of DUS descriptors will be useful to evaluate germplasm at agro-morphological and to develop core collections of Indian wheat using highly variable DUS descriptors identified in this study.
RELATIVISTIC CYCLOTRON INSTABILITY IN ANISOTROPIC PLASMAS

A sufficiently large temperature anisotropy can sometimes drive various types of electromagnetic plasma micro-instabilities, which can play an important role in the dynamics of relativistic pair plasmas in space, astrophysics, and laboratory environments. Here, we provide a detailed description of the cyclotron instability of parallel propagating electromagnetic waves in relativistic pair plasmas on the basis of a relativistic anisotropic distribution function. Using plasma kinetic theory and particle-in-cell simulations, we study the influence of the relativistic temperature and the temperature anisotropy on the collective and noncollective modes of these plasmas. Growth rates and dispersion curves from the linear theory show a good agreement with simulations results.
What Actions Could Boost International Tourism Demand for Tanzania?

Abstract Tanzania recognises the potential of international tourism in accelerating socio-economic development, particularly as a supplier of foreign exchange, investment and employment. This paper investigates the factors affecting international tourism demand for Tanzania. The autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration is applied. Local tourism prices, tourist addiction, tourist income and the 2001 terror attack in the United States have significant impacts on international tourism demand for Tanzania between 1996 and 2006. The government needs to maintain macroeconomic stability, especially low inflation, if the country is to reap full economic benefits from tourism. To reduce sensitivity to local tourism prices, the tourism providers should put more efforts in diversifying tourism products away from the universally available ones. There is also a need to improve customer satisfaction to enhance tourist addiction for the Tanzanian experience. In this regard, there is a need to further train staff in the tourism industry, improve tourism infrastructure such as roads and hotels and aggressively market Tanzanian tourism products to the world.
Spawning of Baltic herring in the Vistula Lagoon: effects of environmental conditions and stock parameters

The Vistula Lagoon is one of the main spawning grounds of Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras L.) in the southeastern Baltic Sea. Coastal spring spawners constitute from 94 to 98% of the total herring catches in the lagoon. Using data from 1950-2000, the high amplitude of inter-annual variability of spawning timing of the Baltic herring was shown within a wide range of environmental conditions and stock characteristics. The principal factors which have a preva- lent effect on spawning timing included the time of ice breakup and clearing from the lagoon, which is related to the severity of the preceding winter, further warming processes and water salinity values. In spite of the inter-annual diversity of spawning time, abiotic conditions, stock size etc., a noticeable constancy was observed in the spawning run (changes in CPUE, age compo- sition, mean weight-at-age of herring during the spawning period). The trend towards milder win- ters and the early occurrence of spring should be mentioned, and the distinct shift of herring spawning in the Vistula Lagoon towards an earlier time and at lower temperatures was observed in spite of the positive trend of mean water temperature in spring.