Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Confidence intervals for the correlation between the gamma-ray burst peak energy and the associated supernova peak brightness

A strong correlation between the gamma-ray burster peak energy and the peak luminosity of the associated supernova was discovered by Li for four GRBs. Despite the fact that the formal significance level of the correlation is 0.3 per cent, the smallness of the data set requires careful further evaluation of the result. Subject to the assumption that the data are bivariate Gaussian, a 95 per cent confidence interval of (−0.9972, 0.02) for the correlation is derived. Using data from the literature, it is shown that the distribution of known peak GRB energies is not Gaussian if X-ray flashes are included in the sample. This leads to a proposed alternative to the bivariate Gaussian model, which entails describing the dependence between the two variables by a Gaussian copula. The copula is still characterized by a correlation coefficient. The Bayesian posterior distribution of the correlation coefficient is evaluated using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. The mean values of the posterior distributions range from −0.33 to about zero, depending on the specifics of the supernova (SN) peak brightness distribution. The implication is that the existing data favour a modest correlation between the GRB peak energy and the SN peak brightness; confidence intervals are very wide and include zero.
The effect of transformational leadership style and organizational culture on the formation of organizational cynicism in the Agricultural Bank of Tehran

Article history: Received January 5, 2016 Received in revised format March 28, 2016 Accepted April 2, 2016 Available online April 2, 2016 The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of transformational leadership style and organizational culture on the formation of organizational cynicism in the Agricultural Bank in city of Tehran. The population of this study consisted of 1022 employees of the Agricultural Bank of Tehran. A total of 304 questionnaires were distributed, of which 264 valid questionnaires were collected. These questionnaires were distributed randomly among the male and female employees in Tehran branches of Agricultural Bank. Standard questionnaire of transformational leadership model, standard questionnaire of organizational culture model and organizational cynicism were applied in this study. In this study SPSS19 and Smart PLS software were used to analyze the collected data. Hypothesis testing showed that at first, Transformational leadership style had no significant effect on the formation of organizational cynicism in the Agricultural Bank in Tehran, and organizational culture had a significant negative impact on the formation of organizational cynicism in the Agricultural Bank in the second hypothesis. © 2016 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Design and impact of hesitation gestures during human-robot resource conflicts

In collaborative tasks, people often communicate using nonverbal gestures to coordinate actions. When two people reach for the same object at the same time, they often respond to an imminent potential collision with jerky halting hand motions that we term hesitation gestures. Successful implementation of such communicative conflict response behaviour onto robots can be useful. In a myriad of human-robot interaction contexts involving shared spaces and objects, this behaviour can provide a fast and effective means for robots to express awareness of conflict and cede right-of-way during collaborative work with users. Our previous work suggests that when a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) robot traces a simplified trajectory of recorded human hesitation gestures, these robot motions are also perceived by humans as hesitation gestures. In this work, we present a characteristic motion profile derived from the recorded human hesitation motions, called the Acceleration-based Hesitation Profile (AHP). We test its efficacy to generate communicative hesitation responses by a robot in a fast-paced human-robot interaction experiment. Compared to traditional abrupt stopping behaviours, we did not find sufficient evidence that the AHP-based robot responses improve human perception of the robot or human-robot task completion time. However, results from our in situ experiment suggest that subjects can recognize AHP-based robot responses as hesitations and distinguish them to be different from abrupt stopping behaviours.
SPOTS: The Search for Planets Orbiting Two Stars

Binary stars constitute a large percentage of the stellar population, yet relatively little is known about the planetary systems orbiting them. Most constraints on circumbinary planets (CBPs) so far come from transit observations with the Kepler telescope, which is sensitive to close-in exoplanets but does not constrain planets on wider orbits. However, with continuous developments in high-contrast imaging techniques, this population can now be addressed through direct imaging. We present the full survey results of the Search for Planets Orbiting Two Stars (SPOTS) survey, which is the first direct imaging survey targeting CBPs. The SPOTS observational program comprises 62 tight binaries that are young and nearby, and thus suitable for direct imaging studies, with VLT/NaCo and VLT/SPHERE. Results from SPOTS include the resolved circumbinary disk around AK Sco, the discovery of a low-mass stellar companion in a triple packed system, the relative astrometry of up to 9 resolved binaries, and possible indications of non-background planetary-mass candidates around HIP 77911. We did not find any CBP within 300 AU, which implies a frequency upper limit on CBPs (1–15 MJup) of 6–10% between 30–300 AU. Coupling these observations with an archival dataset for a total of 163 stellar pairs, we find a best-fit CBP frequency of 1.9% (2–15 MJup) between 1 and 300 AU with a 10.5% upper limit at a 95% confidence level. This result is consistent with the distribution of companions around single stars.
Annotated Bibliography for Forest Managers on Fire-Bark Beetle Interactions

In a nutshell • Forest managers in the western US are facing more fires and the most extensive bark beetle outbreaks recorded for the region. • Interactions of wildfire and bark beetle outbreaks and their reciprocal influences on fire behavior, bark beetle dynamics, and ecosystem structure are critical research issues in many western coniferous forests.  For the effects of bark beetles on fire: o There is increasing evidence that spruce beetle outbreaks have no effect on the occurrence and severity of stand-replacing fires in spruce-fir forests. o The effect of mountain pine beetle infestations on fire occurrence and severity in lodgepole pine forests are unclear; research results are ambivalent. o Effect of bark beetle outbreaks on fire in other forest types are unknown (ponderosa pine, pinyon-juniper) or need more research (Douglas-fir). o Time-since-beetle outbreak is an important factor to consider in the relationship between bark beetle outbreaks and fire risk because fuels change over time.  For the effects of fire on bark beetle outbreaks: o There is increasing evidence that Douglas-fir beetle attack rates are higher on fireinjured Douglas-fir trees. o The evidence regarding effects of fire injury in lodgepole pine on mountain pine beetle attack rates is inconclusive, and whether attacks on fire-injured trees lead to subsequent attacks on healthy trees and/or outbreaks is not known. o Effects of fire injury on attack rates of tree-killing bark beetles in other systems (spruce beetle-Engelmann spruce, mountain pine beetle-ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine beetle-Jeffrey pine) need more research. o Non-aggressive bark beetles such as Ips and wood borers have higher attack rates on fire-injured trees. o More studies are needed to test whether the above trends in attack rates result in changes in bark beetle reproductive success.
The effects of different environmental factors on the biochemical composition of particulate organic matter in Gwangyang Bay, South Korea

Abstract. The biochemical composition of particulate organic matter (POM) produced through phytoplankton photosynthesis is important in determining food quality for planktonic consumers as well as the physiological conditions of phytoplankton. Major environmental factors controlling the biochemical composition were seasonally investigated in Gwangyang Bay, South Korea, which has only natural conditions (e.g., no artificial dams). Water samples for the biochemical compositions were obtained from three different light depths (100, 30, and 1 %) mainly at three sites in Gwangyang Bay from April 2012 to April 2013. Different biochemical classes (carbohydrates, CHO; proteins, PRT; and lipids, LIP) were extracted, and then the concentrations were determined by the optical density measured with a spectrophotometer. The highest and lowest PRT compositions among the three biochemical classes were found in April 2012 (58.0 %) and August 2012 (21.2 %), whereas the highest and lowest LIP compositions were found in August 2012 (49.0 %) and April 2012 (24.8 %), respectively. The CHO composition was recorded as high in January 2013 and remained above 25 % during the study period. The calorific contents of the food material (FM) ranged from 1.0 to 6.1 Kcal m−3 (annual average ± SD = 2.8 ± 1.1 Kcal m−3). Based on a Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis, a major governing factor in the biochemical composition of POM was dissolved inorganic nitrogen loading from the river input in Gwangyang Bay. In conclusion, a relatively larger amount of FM and the higher calorific contents of POM found in this study compared to other regions reflected good nutritive conditions for sustaining productive shellfish and fish populations in Gwangyang Bay. Continuous observations are needed to monitor the marine ecosystem response to potential environmental perturbations in Gwangyang Bay.
"Bluewashing" the Firm? Voluntary Regulations, Program Design, and Member Compliance with the United Nations Global Compact

Voluntary programs have emerged as important instruments of public policy. We explore whether programs lacking monitoring and enforcement mechanisms can curb participants’ shirking with program obligations. Incentive-based approaches to policy see monitoring and enforcement as essential to curb shirking, while norm-based approaches view social mechanisms such as norms and learning as sufficient to serve this purpose. The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a prominent international voluntary program, encourages firms to adopt socially responsible policies. Its program design, however, relies primarily on norms and learning to mitigate shirking. Using a panel of roughly 3,000 U.S. firms from 2000 to 2010, and multiple approaches to address endogeneity and selection issues, we examine the effects of Compact membership on members’ human rights and environmental performance. We find that members fare worse than nonmembers on costly and fundamental performance dimensions, while showing improvements only in more superficial dimensions. Exploiting the lack of monitoring and enforcement, UNGC members are able to shirk: enjoying goodwill benefits of program membership without making costly changes to their human rights and environmental practices.
The Relations among Dimensions of Service Quality, Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Willingness to pay more: Case of GSM Operators Service at Northern-Iraq

The objective of this research is to determine the factors of service quality that affect the satisfaction, loyalty, and willingness to pay more for this service of the customers. In this concept, researchers conducted a survey questionnaire that was adopted from the research of Parasuraman et al.’s ServQual. Regression analysis has been proposed in order to see the significance of each dimensions of service quality on satisfaction. Later on the same model has been applied to see the significance of satisfaction on loyalty. Furthermore, the effect of loyalty and satisfaction on willingness to pay more was also tested by regression analysis model. Analysis of variance model had been conducted to see if there is any significant difference between demographic information (monthly spending, GSM operators, and age of the customers) and evaluation of dimensions of the service quality. The results show that responsiveness, reliability, and tangibles have significant effect on the satisfaction of the customers. It also has been seen that satisfaction has significant effect on the customer loyalty and both (satisfaction and customer loyalty) have significant impact on the willingness to pay more for GSM operators.
Sensitivity of Vadose Zone Water Fluxes to Climate Shifts in Arid Settings

In arid regions, groundwater resources are prone to depletion due to excessive water use and little recharge potential. Especially in sand dune areas, groundwater recharge is highly dependent on vadose zone properties and corresponding water fluxes. Nevertheless, vadose zone water fluxes under arid conditions are hard to determine owing to, among other reasons, deep vadose zones with generally low fluxes and only sporadic high infiltration events. In this study, we present an inverse model of infiltration experiments accounting for variable saturated nonisothermal water fluxes to estimate effective hydraulic and thermal parameters of dune sands. A subsequent scenario modeling links the results of the inverse model with projections of a global climate model until 2100. The scenario modeling clearly showed the high dependency of groundwater recharge on precipitation amounts and intensities, whereas temperature increases are only of minor importance for deep infiltration. However, simulated precipitation rates are still affected by high uncertainties in the response to the hydrological input data of the climate model. Thus, higher certainty in the prediction of precipitation pattern is a major future goal for climate modeling to constrain future groundwater management strategies in arid regions.
Association of yield and yield related traits in aromatic rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Sixty cross combinations of SakkhorkhoraR and IR58025A were studied in the experimental field of Bangabundhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Salna, Gazipur during July 2010 to November 2010, to assess the character association & contribution of characters towards grain yield in restorer lines. The correlation study revealed that days to first flowering showed significant positive relationship with seed yield per plant at genotypic levels. Days to maturity showed significant positive relationship with number of tillers per plant at both genotypic and phenotypic level and effective panicles per plant at genotypic level. Plant height showed highly significant positive relationship with effective panicles per plant at both genotypic and phenotypic level. Path analysis study revealed that effective panicles per plant (0.2153) had the highest positive direct effect followed by days to first flowering (0.1492), plant height (0.0646), spikelet fertility status (%) (0.0242) and number of seeds per panicle (0.0241). Days to maturity, spikelet sterility status, effective panicles per plant, plant height, number of tillers per plant, number of seeds per panicle and spikelet fertility status had positive indirect effects on grain yield. So, based on the study days to first flowering, plant height, spikelet fertility status ,effective panicles per plant were identified as the important characters to be considered in the selection for improvement of aromatic rice genotypes. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 41(3): 387-396, September 2016
Investigation of genome-based prediction in differentially structured plant populations

Technical advances in the last years led to a rise and steady development of genome-based prediction in several crops. This thesis investigates the impact of model choice as well as of population-specific parameters on the accuracy of predicting quantitative traits using molecular markers covering the whole genome. Data from several simulated and experimental plant populations exhibiting different population structure are analyzed and a multivariate genome-based prediction model for analyzing data with population structure is proposed.
Cratering behaviour and faecal C:N ratio in relation to seasonal snowpack characteristics in a High-Arctic ungulate

ABSTRACT Snow and ice determine winter forage availability for Arctic herbivores. Winter precipitation is anticipated to increase, and icing following warm spells and rain-on-snow (ROS) are likely to become more frequent. While this may reduce herbivore survival, fecundity and population growth, we can also expect behavioural and dietary responses. Here, we tested predictions from optimal foraging theory on how changing snowpack conditions influence choice of feeding craters and diet quality in a large generalist herbivore, the wild Svalbard reindeer. Snow and ice conditions over winter 2012/13 (a ‘normal’ winter with little ROS and icing) were measured in reindeer feeding craters, in paired controls one metre away and in fixed control sites. On average, feeding craters had less snow and integrated ram hardness (IRH, the force needed to reach the ground), but not less ice, than nearby controls. However, on this fine spatial scale, reindeer tended to select for microhabitat with worse snowpack conditions up to a certain level of snow (ca. 10 cm), ice (0.5 cm) and IRH (250 kg cm) in the nearby controls, reflecting the trade-off between selection for forage abundance versus accessibility in a sparsely vegetated environment. In this lichen-free system, faecal C:N ratios increased during winter as forage accessibility was increasingly restricted by snow, possibly indicating a reduction in diet quality due to changes in diet composition. Our study suggests that snowpack depth and hardness largely determine Svalbard reindeer feeding behaviour and diet quality during the course of a winter season.
Relationship Between Financial and Real Sectors: Implications for Stable Economic Development (Evidence from Thailand)

The real sector of an economy is the key section as activities of this sector persuade economic output and is represented by those economic segments that are essential for the progress of GDP of the economy. The sector generates better outcomes if accompanied with a healthier financial system; thus, advancement of financial sector is a means for the growth of real sector. The study in this paper explores the relationship between financial and real sectors of Thailand with the volatility analysis of GDP caused by development of financial market. The GARCH Model, Johansen-Juselius (1990) co-integration test, vector error correction model (VECM), and Granger causality testing approach was employed on time series data over the first quarter of year 1993 until the second quarter of year 2017. Consistent with past studies, both the elements of capital market (i.e. bonds and stock markets) and the money market (i.e. credit to private sector by banks) bears a positive relationship to the GDP, our results shows that both markets help promoting economic growth. We can infer that differences in financial markets’ composition and institutions do matter, as these three major sections – bond market, stock market, and banks– do not simultaneously develop and grow, but at a different level of their growth they complement each other. Our findings suggest that there exists inter dependency between real and financial sector’s technologies which in turn enlightens the effect of financial market development on the GDP growth.
Evaluation of milt quality of the yamú Brycon amazonicus under hormonal induction

Summary Two-year old and first sexual maturation male Yamu Brycon amazonicus were selected, according to the presence of semen under gentle abdominal pressure (body weight BW 1.300 ± 3 g; Total length TL 41.4 ± 0.2 cm, mean ± SEM). Five treatments were carried out: three with mGnRHa (10, 15 and 20 µg/kg in a single dose), one with carp pituitary extract CPE (4.4 mg/kg in two applications, 10 and 90 % with a 12 h interval) and a treatment control with application only of saline solution (0.9%). The volume, spermatic concentration, spermatocrit, fertility rate, percentage of live spermatozoa, motility and activation time were evaluated. The CPE caused an increase in volume, a decrease in sperm concentration and spermatocrit. A positive linear regression between the spermatocrit and the sperm concentration was found (p 0.05). For the other parameters evaluated, there were no differences, between the hormones utilized, or between them and the control. It was concluded that the CPE influences, the sperm fluidity, increasing the volume and decreasing the concentration, while the mGnRH-a does not cause any quantitative or qualitative changes in the yam˙ semen. Key words: artificial reproduction, Bryconinae , CPE, mGnRH, semen. Resumen Machos de dos anos de edad y primera maduracion sexual de yamu Brycon amazonicus fueron seleccionados de acuerdo con la presencia de semen bajo una ligera presion abdominal (peso corporal PC 1300 ± 3 g, longitud total LT 41.4 ± 0.2 cm, media ± SEM). Fueron realizados cinco tratamientos: tres con mGnRH-a (10, 15 y 20 µg/kg en una unica aplicacion), uno con EPC (4.4 mg/kg en dos aplicaciones, 10 y 90 % con un intervalo de 12 h) y un tratamiento control con solamente aplicacion de solucion salina (0.9 %). El volumen, la concentracion espermatica, el espermatocrito, la tasa de fertilidad, el porcentaje de espermatozoides vivos, la motilidad y el tiempo de activacion fueron evaluados. El EPC causo un incremento en el volumen de liquido espermatico y consiguiente disminucion en la concentracion espermatica y en el espermatocrito. Se hallo encontrada una regresion lineal positiva entre el espermatocrito y la concentracion espermatica (p 0.05). Para los otros parametros evaluados, no hubo diferencia entre los grupos suplementados con hormonas ni entre el grupo control y estos. Se concluyo que el EPC tiene influencia sobre la fluidez del semen, incrementando el volumen de liquido espermatico y disminuyendo consecuentemente la concentracion espermatica, mientras que el mGnRH-a no causa ningun cambio cuantitativo o cualitativo en el semen del Yamu. Palabras clave: Bryconinae , CPE, mGnRH, reproduccion artificial, semen.
Inequality and Saving Behavior in Rural and Urban China

This thesis documents the rising income inequality and saving behavior among rural and urban households in China using a panel data survey for the period 1989 to 2009 and considers moreover the urban-rural income gap. It thereby not only regards China in its entireness but also explores the situation in nine selected provinces. It investigates how the saving behavior of rural and urban households in China changed in the last decades and gives an explanation for the extraordinary high and rising saving rates observed in China and tries finally to find a causation running from differences in the saving behavior of rural and urban households to the increasing inequality. It concludes that inequality within rural and urban households increased, whereas the urban-rural income gap seems to be pretty constant over time. Saving rates, rural as well as urban, increased markedly with urban rates increasing faster and more evenly. There seems eventually a rudimental inference that the high saving rates might have caused the high income inequality in China.