Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persistent effects of aerial applications of disparlure on gypsy moth: trap catch and mating success

In forest plots treated aerially with a plastic laminated flake formulation (Disrupt® II) of the gypsy moth sex pheromone disparlure to disrupt gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), mating was monitored the year of treatment and 1–2 years after treatment to determine the effects of the treatment on suppression of trap catch and mating success. In the year of treatment, there was a greater than 95% reduction in trap catch and a greater than 98% reduction in mating success compared to controls. One year after treatment at a dosage of 37.5 g active ingredient (a.i.) ha−1, trap catch was reduced by 46–56% and mating success was reduced by 60–79%. Both trap catch and mating success were significantly reduced compared to controls in plots treated 1 year previously at 15 g a.i. ha−1. Trap catch, but not mating success, was significantly reduced 2 years after treatment at 37.5 g a.i. ha−1. The efficacy of mating disruption (MD) treatments in the Slow‐the‐Spread of the Gypsy Moth program was significantly reduced 2 years compared to 1 year after treatment. No such reduction was observed in plots treated with aerial applications of Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki. The higher apparent efficacy of MD treatments 1 year after application may result to some extent from the suppression of moth capture in pheromone traps from the persistent effects of the previous year's treatment.
Slag Splashing in a Basic Oxygen Furnace under Different Blowing Conditions

The influence of three different blowing conditions on the slag splashing process in a basic oxygen furnace for steelmaking is analyzed here using two-dimensional transient Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations. Four blowing conditions are considered in the computer runs: top blowing, combined blowing using just a bottom centered nozzle, combined blowing using two bottom lateral nozzles, and full combined blowing using the three top and the three bottom nozzles. Computer simulations show that full combined blowing provides greater slag splashing than conventional top blowing.
High performance teams - the characteristics and practices of highly efficient teams within organizations

Products, processes and services are increasingly becoming more complex, urging organizations to enhance their operations in order to remain competitive in their markets. In several organizations, the usage of teams is considered one way of strengthening the operations. As teams and teamwork hence is becoming more commonly used, it is of great importance to understand how to increase the efficiency and performance of these teams. The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate which characteristics and practices are describing high performance teams. Furthermore, the authors will provide Saab Airborne with a recommendation for what to focus on in order for their system teams to become high performing. The research was conducted by the use of a qualitative method. In order to find what characteristics and practices are common in high performance teams, a literature review was performed, investigating theory by different authors. In addition, interviews were conducted with wellfunctioning, efficient teams. The literature review and interviews resulted in a framework. Moreover, interviews were held with team members at system teams at Saab Airborne. These interviews were compared to the created framework in order to find recommendations for how to increase the efficiency in the teams. The framework created consists of 9 categories; Goals, Member Contribution, Mutual Support & Collaboration, Self-organization, Communication, Planning & Coordination, Sense of Belonging, Evaluation & Feedback and Motivation. All are considered important in order to become or remain a high performance team, but to improve some of the categories are preferred above improving none. Regarding the recommendations for Saab Airborne, the teams are considered to be very good at their tasks, but the teamwork could be improved. Saab Airborne should focus on improving leadership, communication and collaboration. By starting with focusing on these, several categories in the framework will be improved, and the teams could have the possibility of increasing their efficiency and performance.
Proximate Composition, Chlorophyll a, and Carotenoid Content in Dunaliella salina (Dunal) Teod (Chlorophycea: Dunaliellaceae) Cultured with Cost-Effective Seaweed Liquid Fertilizer Medium

Growth, proximate composition, chlorophyll a, and carotenoid content were estimated in static cultures of micro alga Dunaliella salina (Dunal) Teod (Chlorophycea: Dunaliellaceae) to compare the quality and quantity of biomass produced with seaweed liquid fertilizer (SLF) against Walne’s medium. Culture of micro algae was performed with controlled temperature of 27 ± 1 °C, salinity of 33, and an irradiance of 120 ± 3 μ mol m–2 s –1, and daily samples were taken to estimate the above-mentioned parameters. Mean cellular density from samples of both medium were similar and growth rates were 0.44 and 0.42 doubling per day, respectively. Maximum values of protein content 5.2 and 5.5 pg per cell were estimated on day 5 in Walne’s medium and SLF, respectively. Carbohydrate and lipid content decreased during the first 4 days corresponding to the culture exponential growth. Higher carbohydrate content was found in both media during the first 2 days and thereafter reduced partially compared to their concentrations. Generally lipid contents in cultures with SLF were significantly higher (P ≤0.05) compared to Walne’s medium. Both pigments also increased exponentially and their concentration was same in both experiments. In conclusion, all the parameters tested were similar when using either media, and hence SLF can be used as an alternate media for micro algal culture.
The importance of followers' emotions in effective leadership

Within the framework of Affective Events Theory (AET) this study examines emotional experiences as a potential mediator between followers’ perceptions of employee-centered leadership and their experiences of job engagement and intention to leave the organisation, respectively. The results showed that the relationships between employee-centered leadership and job engagement, as well as turnover intentions, were fully mediated by the followers’ positive emotional experiences. Negative emotional experiences yielded insignificant mediation effects, a finding that may be explained by characteristics of the leadership style studied. The present study substantiates that followers’ emotions bridge the ‘gap’ between leader behaviour and follower attitudinal outcomes and, hence, supports the notion that followers’ emotions are essential in the study of effective leadership. Key Words: Leadership; Emotions; Affective Events Theory; job engagement; Intention to leave.
The habitat selection of a female lynx (Lynx lynx) in the northwestern part of the Vrancea Mountains, Romania

Despite having a large range in the Romanian Carpathians, the ecology of Eurasian lynx is relatively misunderstood, particularly concerning the size of its home range and utilized resources. By means of a collar equipped with a GPS device, the movements of a mature lynx female were monitored for a period of 305 days in the northwestern section of Vrancea Mountains. The area of the female's home range is estimated at 486.11 km2, a significantly larger area than what had been recorded previously for Romania. The probability of lynx occurrence is slightly diminished with each 1% decrease in coniferous forest cover, mixed forest, natural grassland, and shrub cover, and is considerably augmented by increasing spatial heterogeneity. To protect the Romanian lynx population effectively, the application of landscape-scale forestry management strategies is needed, instead of multiple uncorrelated management plans for the different protected areas located in the region.
HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF ALSTONIA SCHOLARIS FRUITS AGAINST CARBON TETRACHLORIDE-INDUCED HEPATOTOXICITY IN RATS

The hepatoprotective activity of ethanolic extract of fruits of Alstonia scholaris was evaluated by carbon tetrachloride (CCL4)-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. The toxicant CCL4 was used to induce hepatotoxicity at a dose of 2 ml/kg as 1:1 mixture with olive oil. The ethanolic extract of fruits of Alstonia scholaris was administered in the dose of 150 and 300 mg/kg/day orally for 5 days. Silymarin (50 mg/kg) was used as standard drug. The hepatoprotective effect of the ethanolic extract was evaluated by the assessment of biochemical parameters such as SGOT, SGPT, SALKP, total bilirubin and histopathological studies of the liver. Treatment of animals with the ethanolic extract significantly reduced the liver damage and the symptoms of liver injury by restoration of architecture of liver as indicated by lower levels of serum bilirubin as compared with the normal and silymarin treated groups.
Challenges Affecting the Implementation of the Integrated Approach to Mental Healthcare at PHC Clinics

Abstract The implementation of the integrated approach could pose a challenge to nurses. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the perceptions of the professional nurses on the challenges affecting the implementation of the integrated approach with specific reference to the care of mentally ill patients. A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive design was used. The population comprised of PHC nurses working in the Mutale subdistrict PHC facilities of Vhembe District. Probability systematic random sampling and purposive sampling were used to obtain a sample of six PHC clinics and 45 PHC nurses, respectively. Ethical principles were adhered. Focus groups and individual interviews were used. Data was analyzed using Tesch’s open coding method. Findings revealed poor management of resources and difficulties in managing psychotic patients to be affecting the implementation of the integrated approach. The study suggests staff development programs. Furthermore, nurses need skills to handle aggressive mentally ill patients.
Microbiological, Chemical, and Sensory Assessment of Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) Stored at Different Temperatures

Cao R. , Chang-Hu Xue Ch.-H. , Liu Q. , Xue Y. (2009): Microbiological, chemical, and sensory assessment of Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas ) stored at different temperatures. Czech J. Food Sci., 27: 102–108. The changes were studied in microbiological, chemical, and sensory properties of Pacific oysters stored at 10°C, 5°C, and 0°C. Pseudomonas (22%) and Vibrionaceae (20%) species were dominant in raw oysters. The dominant bacteria found in the spoiled samples were Pseudomonas regardless of the storage temperature. During storage, rapid increases in aerobic plate count (APC) values of the samples stored at 10°C and 5°C were observed, while no obvious lag phases were detected. With the samples stored at 0°C, a decrease in APC value during the first 4 days and a lag phase of about 6 days were observed. The APC values of the samples stored at 10°C, 5°C, and 0°C reached the level of 10 7 CFu /g on day 6, 10, and 18, respectively. All the tested samples stored at different temperatures revealed a slight decrease in pH and a significant increase of total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) during storage. The average TVB-N concentration of about 22.0 mg N/100 g was observed at the end of the shelf-life as determined by APC. Combined with the sensory assessments, the shelf-life of 6–7, 10–11, and 17–18 days for oysters stored at 10°C, 5°C, and 0°C, respectively, was determined.
Nonparametric regression with discrete covariate and missing values

We consider nonparametric regression with a mixture of continuous and discrete explanatory variables where realizations of the response variable may be missing. An imputation based nonparametric regression estimator is proposed. We show that the proposed approach leads to a leading order variance benefit, whereas smoothing the categorical variables gives a second order variance improvement. We also demonstrate the applications of the proposed approach through numerical simulations and two practical examples. AMS 2000 subject classifications: Primary 62G08; secondary 62G20.
The Effect of Surface Texturing on Dry Gross Fretting

The effect of steel disc surface texturing on dry gross fretting in a ball-on-disc configuration was studied. Dimples were created with abrasive jet machining. The tribological performance of sliding pairs, steel–steel and steel–ceramics, was experimentally studied. The character of surface texturing effect was related to the dominant wear type. During steel–steel contact, the presence of dimples on disc surfaces could lead to increases in wear and friction. However, the escape of wear debris into dimples could result in reductions of friction and wear in the steel–ceramics configuration.
Winter marine atmospheric conditions over the Japan Sea

exceed 600 W m 2 , and sheet clouds cover most of the Japan Sea, with individual roll clouds extending from near the Russian coast to Honshu. During December through February, 1991–2002, these strong cold-air outbreak conditions occur 39% of the time and contribute 43% of the net heat loss from the Japan Sea. The average number of strong cold-air events per winter (November–March) season is 13 (ranging from 5 to 19); the 1999/2000 winter season covered in our measurements was normal. INDEX TERMS: 4247 Oceanography: General: Marine meteorology; 4504 Oceanography: Physical: Air/sea interactions (0312); 3307 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Boundary layer processes; 3329 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Mesoscale meteorology; KEYWORDS: marine meteorology, air/sea interaction, Japan Sea
The Influence of Soil Texture on Spatial Variability of the Cone Index in a Sandy Loam Soil (Eutric Leptosol)

Geo-referenced penetration resistance measured as Cone Index CI, were conducted in a 54 (9 by 6) grid cells each 10m2 on a sandy loam soil (Eutric Leptosol) of the University of Juba demonstration farm in October 2012. Undisturbed soil core samples were extruded at 30 cm depth for the determination of the soil fractions and texture. An Eikjelkamp handpush penetrologger was used to determine the cone index. The results showed that correlations between the CI and sand, silt and clay contents at (P<0.05) were significant though for sand this was very weakly positive (r2=0.03) and weak for silt (r2=0.133) and hardly any for clay (r2=0.01) fractions respectively. The result of this study showed that the mean penetration resistance or Cone Index varied between 1.2-1.9 MPa with a critical value of CI, t=2.41 MPa significant at (P<0.05). The results showed that the critical CI value was attained with textural composition of silt and clay at values 63.53% and 11.01% respectively (P<0.05). This suggested that higher CI in the soil was contingent on the critical amounts of especially silt and clay. Sites on the experimental plots that were originally cultivated a year earlier on in 2011 showed CI values ranging between 1.2 to 1.7 MPa while this was between 1.7 to 2.8 MPa for previously uncultivated sites. A spherical model of the isotropic semi-variogram gave the best fit for both ordinary kriging and Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) methods with no significant differences in the separation distance, h at 13.10m, semi-variance  or sill at 0.334. The semi-variances for both methods was constant over the entire separation distance suggesting spatial dependence. The results of this study clearly indicated that the penetration resistance of the Eutric Leptosol was a function of the soil texture.
Advanced English learners benefit from explicit pronunciation teaching: an experiment with vowel duration and quality

Pronunciation skills are a key feature in overall oral communication skills. Without adequate pronunciation skills language learners might be misunderstood in communicative situations. This cross-sectional study focused on learning vowel duration and quality in L2 English. The subjects were advanced Finnish learners of English, whose production was compared to a native group before and after teaching. Our results suggest that explicit pronunciation teaching made the subjects’ pronunciation of L2 vowel qualities more native-like. Both of our subject groups mastered vowel duration on a native level, which suggests that learners who are used to different degrees of vowel duration in their L1 can transfer those features into L2 even if they are used functionally differently. Our study suggests that vowel duration is easier than vowel quality for Finnish learners of English. The study also showed the positive effect of pronunciation teaching for advanced learners.
Statistical Assessment of Employee’s Turnover and Its Causes; In the Case of Moret and Jiru Wereda, North Shoa, Amhara, Ethiopia

The purpose of this study is to assess the employee turnover rate and cause in the case of Moret and Jiru Wereda. In light of this objective the study adopted quantitative and qualitative method of research approaches to test a series research hypothesis and subjective analysis respectively. Specifically, the study used survey of questionnaire analysis of Moret and Jiru Wereda. 326 respondents were selected based on stratified random sampling method. Data was then analyzed on quantitative basis using binary logistic regression and descriptive statistics; however, qualitative basis was used to subjective data. The result of this paper indicates that among the respondents 39.9 % of them do not want to quit their current job but majority of them (60.1%) said they seriously consider quitting their job very often. And furthermore the logistic regression found that Age of respondent, income of the respondents, experience of the respondents, educational level, satisfaction and incentive to be significantly related with turnover intension of the respondents and other factors such as gender, working hour and stress are found to be insignificant predictors of the turnover intension of the employees.
ETNOMATEMATIKA PADA PERMAINAN TRADISIONAL ENGKLEK DAN GASING KHAS KEBUDAYAAN SUNDA

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan hal-hal apa saja yang terdapat unsur matematika pada kebudayaan sunda khususnya pada permainan tradisonal yang ada di Purwakarta. Dalam masyarakat sunda disadari atau tidak, banyak masyarakat yang menggunakan matematika dalam permainan anak. Metode dalam penelitian ini adalah survey eksplorasi dengan pendekatan kualitatif dimana instrument yang digunakan adalah lembar observasi, pedoman wawancara, studi literatur dan konsultasi dengan pakar etnomatematika. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah dalam permainan anak khas kebudayaan sunda yaitu Engklek terdapat unsur geometri datar, yaitu persegi, persegi panjang dan setengah lingkaran dalam petakan yang digunakan dalam permainan. Selain itu terdapat pula unsur membilang pada permainannya. Sedangkan untuk gasing terdapat unsur matematika berupa tabung yang bentuk permainanya seperti tabung. Dalam proses permainannya terdapat unsur pendidikan karakter berupa kebersamaan, kejujuran, sportivitas dan lain-lain.
Heavy metals pollution index of surface water from Commodore channel, Lagos, Nigeria

Surface water pollution poses a major risk to all biotic entities dependent on the water body. This study assessed the surface water quality of commodore channel, Lagos lagoon with respect to its heavy metals pollution level using indexing approach to determine the sources of heavy metal and its associated pollution risk. Samples were collected at a depth of 10-15 cm within a distance of 4 km from the shore line. Metal concentrations were evaluated using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. The Concentrations of Pb (0.203-2.601 mg/L), Fe (0.253-1.049 mg/L), Cd (0.017-0.133 mg/L), and Co (0.000-0.226 mg/L) exceeded the recommended limits set by the World Health Organization, while Zn concentration (0.007-0.319 mg/L), was within acceptable limits for all locations investigated. Heavy metal pollution index (HPI) of the study area was found to be 3532.1, exceeding the critical pollution index value of 100. Similarly, the Metal Index (MI) of 150.5 of the study area was above threshold limit value of 1, suggesting that the area is seriously polluted with heavy metals. Sample t-test, confirms that there is a significant statistical different (with p value at p<0.05) between samples collected from the industrial areas and non-industrial area. The study revealed the sources of the heavy metals are primarily from anthropogenic source attributed to the untreated industrial discharge, and municipal solid waste disposed in the area. Prompt enforcement of environmental protection laws is needed to prevent continuous pollution of the area. Key words: Water quality, heavy metals, atomic absorption spectrometry, surface water, heavy metal pollution index, metal index.
Effects of water immersion on soleus neuromuscular parameters

Aquatic rehabilitation is a widely used tool for injury prevention or rehabilitation. The underlying neuromuscular mechanisms during immersion are less known due to methodological issues. The following study main purpose to assess neuromuscular functions and muscle architecture changes within immersed condition. The physical properties of water to the human body are well understood, as well as its effect on the cardiorespiratory system. While the Hoffmann reflex, as a tool to assess neuromuscular changes on dry land is widely examined, it has been rarely used during immersion. The effect of water immersion on muscle behavior is also unknown. In this study control values were recorded in sitting position for one hour on dry land. This recording period was needed to mimic the similar protocol as in water and to compare the two conditions. The dry land recording showed no changes in the recorded parameters over time. Unaltered reflex and muscle architecture parameters on dry land indicate that the changes during immersion are due to the altered environment. During the first 15 minutes of immersion maximal M-wave and muscle thickness decreased significantly. Maximal H/M ratio showed no significant changes in water immersed condition. The decreased potentiation of the muscle due to the architecture changes is reflected by the decreased maximal M-wave; however the unaltered H-reflex indicates background compensatory mechanisms. Possibly the activation of peripheral mechanoceptors and the effect of weightlessness decreased the tonic presynaptic inhibition which leads to compensated H-reflex response. Repeating the protocol showed good reliability of the maximal H/M ratio, and good inter-session reliability of the muscle thickness. The thesis indicates that with adequate precaution, H-reflex and ultrasound recording is possible during prolonged immersed condition, while the results raise the possibility of acute peripheral and central neuromuscular activation during immersion. With the current protocol the precise mechanisms cannot be addressed, it rather raises the importance for future studies to measure muscle architecture and presynaptic inhibition.