Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Grain Boundary Morphology and Its Effect on Creep of TiAl Alloys

Three kinds of microstructures with different grain boundary morphologies and their creep properties of a Ti-47Al-2Nb-2Mn+0.8 vol%TiB 2 alloy are investigated. Tensile creep tests and microstructural examinations indicatethat a stabilized fine-grained fully lamellar (FGFL) microstructure with relatively smooth grain boundaries shows inferior creep resistance. A stabilized fully lamellar (FL) microstructure with well-interlocked grain boundaries and wider lamellar spacing yields reduced minimum strain rate and extended creep rupture life. Furthermore, a nearly lamellar microstructure (NL) with well-interlocked grain boundaries exhibits better creep resistance than the stabilized FGFL microstructure though it has four times wider lamellar spacing and 15 vol% equiaxed y grains at the grain boundaries, but worse creep resistance than the stabilized FL microstructure. Examinations to the deformed microstructures show that grain boundary instability involving spheroidization of the lamellae is a major microstructural degradation process, resulting in fine globular regions at the grain boundaries. Voids develop along the grain boundaries, particularly in the fine globular regions, leading to intergranual fracture. It is suggested that grain boundary sliding (GBS) is operating in the stabilized FGFL microstructure, and promotes mutually with the grain boundary instability during subsequent creep deformation, resulting in increased minimum strain rate and shortened tertiary stage. The well-interlocked grain boundary inhibits the onset of GBS and enhances the grain boundary stability effectively. These results demonstrated that the grain boundary stability has a great effect on creep behavior of TiAl Alloys.
Demand for prenatal care and its impact on neonatal, infant and child mortality in Zimbabwe: Evidence from the Demographic and Health Surveys

Abstract: The effect of the quality of prenatal care on child mortality outcomes has received less attention in sub-Saharan Africa. This study sought to explore the consequence of the quality of prenatal care and its individual components on neonatal, infant and under-five mortality using the three most recent rounds of the nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey data for Zimbabwe conducted in 1999, 2005/06 and 2010/11. The model for the demand for the quality of prenatal care is estimated using an OLS regression while the child mortality models are estimated using standard probit regressions. Since infant mortality rates and access to quality prenatal care might differ by rural and urban residence, we estimate separate models for the overall sample, urban and rural samples. The results indicate that a one-unit increase in the quality of prenatal care lowers the risks of neonatal, infant and under-five mortality by nearly 36%, 29.31%, and 27.53% respectively for the overall sample. The probability of neonatal, infant and under-five mortality is lowered by about 41.67%, 35.18%, and 30.77% respectively for urban-born children following a one-unit increase in the quality of prenatal care. For the rural sample, we found that a one-unit increase in the quality of prenatal care lowers the risks of neonatal, infant and under-five mortality by nearly 34.61%, 27.12%, and 25.35% respectively. These findings are all statistically significant at the 1% significance level. Examining the effect of individual prenatal care components on child mortality revealed that blood pressure checks, information on pregnancy complications, iron supplementations, and tetanus vaccinations are all important in lowering child deaths. Overall, our results suggest the need for public health policy makers in Zimbabwe to focus on ensuring high-quality prenatal care especially in low-income and rural segments of the population to save Zimbabwe’s children.
Visualization of dominant stress-transfer mechanisms in experimental debris flows of different particle-size distribution

Physical modelling of debris flow in a small-scale flume has been carried out to investigate the internal stress-transfer mechanisms within unsteady, saturated, and segregating granular free-surface flows. Measurements of the internal velocity fields within model flows were obtained via planar laser–induced fluorescence and particle image velocimetry. Normalized velocity profiles taken at a section over the flow duration were found to essentially collapse onto a single curve, the shape of which was dependent on the particle-size distribution. While all flows exhibited internal basal slip and shear, for tests on well-graded materials that are most representative of debris flows, the shear rate was found to reduce towards the surface to near-zero, exhibiting near plug-flow. Dimensional analysis shows that particles of different size within these flows experienced different dominant stress-transfer mechanisms — frictional, collisional or viscous. Rapid grain-size segregation therefore is both due to and resu.
The Mediator"s Role in Philippine Schools Overseas (PSO"s)

Within the eclectic history of conflict research, subsuming number of theories and models of conflict resolution, the roles of mediators are often labeled based on cultural milieu. Using an in-depth semi-structured interview, this phenomenological study probed into the conflict mediation of 10 school administrators representing the Philippine Schools Overseas in the United Arab Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman and the State of Qatar with a view to understanding their unique roles as mediation persona. Transcribed field texts were read and reread for purposes of nai ve understanding after which a structural analysis was done via a dendogram. To emerge a collective and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon, transcendental subjectivity was observed and was first subjected to the member- checking procedure. Themes were emerged following the inductive approach in theme development. Interestingly, results of cool and warm analyses paved the identification of trilogy of mediator's roles at Philippine Schools Overseas School administrators namely bracketing, balancing, and blending roles. The emerged mediator's trilogy of roles expands the overall capability of school leaders while viewing their role not only from the technical and managerial perspective but also from the humanistic point of view where conflict resolution is treated and interpreted in a way that it is less stressful yet humane and productive.
The Costs of Sprawl Reconsidered: What the Data Really Show

The Costs of Sprawl? The “anti-sprawl” movement has received much attention in recent years, and has been successful in implementing its “smart growth” policies in some areas. Much of the justification for the current campaign against the lowdensity (sprawling) urban development that Americans and Western Europeans prefer is based upon assumptions that it is more costly than the more dense development of central cities. A federally financed research project (Costs of Sprawl) concluded that we can no longer afford sprawling development and that failure to force more dense development in the next quarter-century would impose more than $225 billion in additional costs.
Soil Nitrogen Fertilization Effects on Phytoextraction of Cadmium and Lead by Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.)

ABSTRACT A greenhouse experiment using 24 plastic pots filled with 6 kg of Pb- and Cd-contaminated soil was carried out. In all 24 pots, soils were heavy metal–contaminated with 10 mg Cd kg−1 soil and 500 mg of Pb kg−1 soil by using CdCl and PbNO3. Two-month-old tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) plants were used to extract these heavy metals. Results showed that tobacco is able to remove Cd and Pb from contaminated soils and concentrate them in its harvestable part, that is, it could be very useful in phytoextraction of these heavy metals. Increasing additions of ammonium nitrate to soil (50, 100, and 150 mg N kg−1 soil) significantly (p ≤ .05) increased aboveground Cd and Pb accumulation during a 50-day experimental period, whereas increasing additions of urea to soil (50 and 100 mg N kg−1 soil) did not show these effects at the same significance levels. Increasing additions of ammonium nitrate to soil shows as dry matter increases, both accumulated Cd and accumulated Pb also increase when tobacco plants are growing under Pb- and Cd-contaminated soil conditions. Higher Pb concentrations depress Cd/Pb ratios for concentrations and accumulations, suggesting that Pb negatively affects Cd concentration and/or accumulation.
Nutrient content, uptake, quality of chickpea and fertility status of soil as influenced by fertilization of Phosphorus and Zinc

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy farm, College of Agriculture, Bikaner during Rabi, 2009-10. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications, assigning twelve treatments consisting of four levels of phosphorus (control, 20, 40 and 60 kg ha-1) and three levels of zinc (control, 3.0 and 6.0 kg ha-1). The results indicated that N content and uptake in grain increased significantly with increasing levels of phosphorus upto 60 kg ha-1 but N content and uptake in straw increased significantly upto 40 kg P2O5 ha-1. P content and uptake by grain and straw was significantly increased by applying increasing level of phosphorus upto 60 and 40 kg P2O5 ha-1, respectively. Zn content and uptake in grain and straw decreased significantly with increasing levels of phosphorus. Increasing level of phosphorus application increased significantly the available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in soil after harvest of the crop. Significant decrease in available zinc in soil was observed with increasing level of phosphorus upto 60 kg P2O5 ha-1. N and Zn content and uptake by seed and straw increased significantly with increasing levels of zinc upto 6.0 kg ha-1. But P content in grain and straw was decreased significantly with increasing level of zinc.
Geographical distribution of observational activities for astronomy

The geographical distribution of astronomy- related observational activities is illustrated from com- prehensive and up-to-date samples of professional insti- tutions, of public observatories and planetariums, and of associations. Results are commented and, in particular, the lack of evolution over the past century in the overall distribution is pointed at as an alarming indicator.
Fleeing the Peace? Determinants of Outward Migration after Civil War

In countries where civil war has formally ended, not all refugees return. Nor does emigration come to a halt. Why? We argue that three specific features of post-war situations explain the varying levels of outward migration: the quality of peace, the quality of political institutions, and the quality of economic livelihoods. We test our hypotheses using a mixed-method research design that combines a series of statistical models with evidence from two case studies, Nepal and El Salvador. Our findings suggest that, cross-nationally, postwar violence and repression as well as exclusion from economic opportunities are the major drivers of outward migration after civil war. Complementary evidence from the two case studies shows that the effects of violence and of the lack of decent economic livelihoods on post-war emigration are enhanced by insufficient or dysfunctional political reforms.
Marine Cretaceous Palynology of Site 361, DSDP Leg 40, Off Southwestern Africa

Relatively rich marine playnomorph assemblages, consisting of dinocysts and acritarchs, occur in the majority of the 35 Cretaceous cores investigated from Site 361. The Early Cretaceous, Cores 48 to 27, is considered to be of Aptian age with the early-late Aptian boundary lying between Samples 33-3, 117-118 cm and 32-2, 117119 cm. The Aptian dinocyst assemblage is comparable to that found in Australia and Europe. The Late Cretaceous, Cores 24 to 13, is more difficult to date because of the poor similarity of the assemblages with those from Europe; they are more comparable to the Australian assemblages where, unfortunately, the precise stratigraphic ranges of species are mainly unknown. Cenomanian was not identified and the succession begins in the Turonian. The top of the Turonian is tentatively drawn above Core 21 and the remainder of the Cretaceous sequence is assigned a Senonian-early Maestrichtian age. Normal marine conditions prevailed in the photic zone during the deposition of the above sediments; however, during most of the Aptian and Turonian, bottom conditions appear to have been anaerobic. During the Aptian, in particular, run-off from the surrounding landmasses was great and considerable amounts of terrestrially derived organic matter were transported to the site of deposition resulting in the accumulation of organically rich sediments; sapropel is abundant and, in this case, is probably land derived. Systematics are kept to a minimum and only four new taxa are proposed—Australisphaera gen. nov.; A. verrucosa sp. nov., Aiora perforare sp. nov., and Cyclonephelium distinctum subsp. longispinatum subsp. nov.
Meta-analysis of research in e-learning Spanish journal published

E-learning is a way of teaching that presently makes greater sense in the process of democratization of education. This articles describes a meta-analysis performed on Spanish journals found in Social Sciences and Law areas (N = 118) indexed in JCR and SCOPUS and awarded with the FECYT seal, that have published articles on this topic in the last 5 years (2011–2015). The total number of articles analyzed was 108. The main results show that these have focused on studies on academic efficiency, learning, teaching and cognitive styles, and interaction and communication. The main conclusion reached was the need for a study on the reasoning behind why elements such assessments are not treated in these articles.
Insider Ownership and Financial Analysts’ Information Environment: Evidence From Dual-Class Firms

We examine the association of insider ownership with financial analysts’ forecast accuracy and dispersion in a sample of U.S. dual-class firms. Insider ownership exerts two effects: a positive incentive effect and a negative entrenchment effect. The lack of significant findings in prior research regarding the association between insider ownership and forecast accuracy may be attributable to the offsetting forces of these two effects. Using a comprehensive hand-collected sample of U.S. firms that maintain more than one class of common stock, we are able to disentangle incentive and entrenchment effects which are confounded in single-class firms. We find that disproportionate insider control is negatively associated with forecast accuracy and positively associated with forecast dispersion. Moreover, insider cash flow rights (insider voting rights) are positively (negatively) associated with forecast accuracy and negatively (positively) associated with forecast dispersion, consistent with incentive-alignment and entrenchment effects of ownership affecting financial analysts’ forecasting environment in opposite directions.
Which stressors are associated with which forms of depression in a homogenous sample? An analysis of the effects of lifestyle changes and demands on five subtypes of depression

Background: Although depression is often considered as a single or unitary construct, evidence indicates the existence of several major subtypes of depression, some of which have distinct neurobiological bases and treatment options. Objective: To explore the incidence of five subtypes of depression, and to identify which lifestyle changes and stressor demands are associated with each of five established subtypes of depression, within a homogenous non-clinical sample. Method: 398 Australian university students completed the Effects of University Study on Lifestyle Questionnaire to identify their major stressors, plus the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale to measure their symptomatology. Regression analysis was used to identify which stressors were most powerful predictors of each depression subtype. Results: The five different subtypes of depression were predicted by a range of different stressors. Incidence of clinically significant scores for the subtypes of depression varied, with some participants experiencing more than one subtype of depression. Conclusions: Different depression subtypes were predicted by different stressors, potentially challenging the clinical validity of depression as a unitary construct. Although restricted in their generalisability to clinical patient samples, these findings suggest further targets for research with depressed patients (German J Psychiatry 2012; 15(1): 23-31).
Radionuclide Studies of Stony Meteorites from Hot Deserts

We summarize the use of radiocarbon produced by spallation in meteorites in space to determine their terrestrial age or residence time. This “age” gives us important information as it can be compared to the rates of weathering and infall of meteorites. The processes that affect the collection of meteorites in a given area can be related to the rates of infall of new meteorites, and the rate of removal by chemical weathering and physical erosion.
How do board of directors affect corporate governance disclosure? - the case of banking system

The purpose of our empirical study is to assess the relationship between board of directors’ features and the level of disclosure in case of European Union banking environment, basing on the general statement that disclosure and quality of corporate governance system are two closely related concepts - the higher the level of transparency, the better the quality corporate governance practices. The main features considered for assessing board of directors quality were: independence, size, education, experience and gender of its membership, as well as the frequency of their meetings. The results of the performed analysis, based on correlations and linear regressions using SPSS software, reveal that those banking institutions which have a board mainly made of non-executive directors, with higher-level educational degrees, business knowledge and experience, ensuring regular meetings are more transparent.
Goal Configurations and Processing Strategies as Moderators Between Instructional Design and Cognitive Load: Evidence From Hypertext-Based Instruction

In this article, we propose some augmentations of cognitive load theory (CLT) inspired by evidence from hypertext-based instruction. In particular, we focus on the role of goal configurations and processing strategies as moderators between instructional design and cognitive load. First, we describe pivotal assumptions of CLT and conceptual shortcomings related to these assumptions. Second, we review evidence from our own hypertext-based research that gives reasons for integrating configurations of teacher goals, learner goals, as well as processing strategies into CLT. These augmentations of CLT are necessary to account for the rather weak relation between instructional design and pattern of cognitive load that shows up in the context of self-controlled learning. CLT, augmented with the notion of learner control, can now better serve as a theoretical foundation for the design of hypertext-based instruction.
Generalized gradient flow and singularities of the Riemannian distance function

Significant information about the topology of a bounded domain Ω of a Riemannian manifold M is encoded into the properties of the distance, d∂Ω, from the boundary of Ω. We discuss recent results showing the invariance of the singular set of the distance function with respect to the generalized gradient flow of d∂Ω, as well as applications to homotopy equivalence.
Sequencing of harvester work during standard cuttings and in areas with windbreaks

The aim of the study was to characterize repetitive cycles of harvester operation. The study was conductedinthinning, �matureandpost-disasterpinestands. �Thesequencesoftheactivities � characteristic of harvester operation were described as time series. In order to detect the cyclic variablestructureoftheanalysedtimeseries, �themethodologyofthesinglespectrumFourier � analysiswasapplied. �Instandardstands, �post-disasterlate-thinningstandsandmaturestands, �the � existence of stable operational cycles with the length of three activities was discovered while in post-disastermaturestandsadditionalfive-activityoperationalphaseswerenoted. �Describedin � thisway , �thelengthsoftheoperationalcyclesofharvestersworkinginpost-disasterareaswere � higherbyabout �55% �and �30% �respectively , �ascomparedtostandardthinningandmaturestands.
Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Efficacy of Aqueous and Methanolic Extract of Mangifera indica (Mango Stem Bark)

ENGLISH/ANGLAIS] Affiliations: Department of Biochemistry, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, NIGERIA * Email Address for Correspondence/ Adresse de courriel pour la correspondance: madasko@yahoo.co m Accepted/Accepté: December, 2011 Full Citation: Mada SB, Garba A, Muhammad A, Mohammed A, Adekunle DO. Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Efficacy of Aqueous and Methanolic Extract of Mangifera indica (Mango stem bark). World Journal of Life Sciences and Medical Research 2012;2(2):81-5. Increasing resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics and other orthodox drugs has resulted in the search for more organic molecules from plant source with antimicrobial properties. Therefore investigation of African medicinal plants for their antimicrobial activity rank highest among biological tests carried out on the plants and their isolates. Phytochemical screening of the crude stem bark extracts of Mangifera indica revealed the presence of tannins, saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides and phytosterols. The antimicrobial activity of the aqueous and methanolic extract of Mangifera indica stem bark were assayed using disc diffusion method on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. At concentration of 50 mg/ml, both the aqueous and methanolic reconstituted extract inhibits the growth of these organisms though with varying degree of susceptibility depending on the bacterium and the extracting solvent. The MIC values ranged from 6.25 50 mg/ml, while the MBC values ranged from 12.5 50 mg/ml. The antimicrobial activity obtained in this study indicate the presence of bioactive compounds and support the claim by the local communities for use of Mangifera indica stem bark decoction for treatment of infections such as diarrhea. The stem bark extract of M. indica tree can be used as a source of broad spectrum antibiotic because it inhibits the growth of both Gram positive and Gram negative organisms.