Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Technical and Allocative Efficiency of Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Swaziland

The objectives of the study were to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder dairy farmers; estimate the technical and allocative efficiency of smallholder dairy farmers in Swaziland, and to identify factors affecting the technical and allocative efficiency of smallholder dairy farmers. This study used a descriptive quantitative survey to analyse data from a sample of 111 smallholder dairy farmers. Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select the farmers. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and econometric analysis (Stochastic Production and Cost Frontier Functions). The average levels of TE and AE for the farmers were 66% and 78% respectively. The availability of water for irrigating pastures, pasture size, soil fertility of pastures, the dairy farming experience, training on dairy farming, distance to the market, farmer’s age, credit access, household size and herd size contribute to the explanation of variations in the TE and AE of the dairy farmers. The study concludes that smallholder dairy farmers were relatively technically and allocatively efficient, however, there is still a 34% and 22% potential to improve the TE and AE levels respectively. The study recommends that soil testing should be done by farmers in order to improve efficiency. There is a need for financial institutions to consider advancing credit to dairy farmers. The SDB should strengthen their technical training through the extension officers in order to encourage efficient use of input resources. Keywords : Allocative efficiency, dairy farmers, technical efficiency,
Relationships between the Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking.

approved: "',(~ ~ r f c=::: The purpose of this study was to investigate the Test of Formal Reasoning (ATFR) and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Additional issues explored were the percentage of the sample group operating at fonnal operational levels and whether there were significant differences between scores on the two tests that were related to differences in gender. The sample consisted of 60 college students (37 women and 23 men) ranging in age from 18 to 20. Both the ATFR and the TTCT Verbal were administered to each subject. Scores for both tests were recorded for each subject as were age and gender. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated to detennine whether a relationship existed between the ATFR Total scores and the TTCT Verbal Total scores. A series of t tests were computed to detennine significant differences in perfonnance on the two tests by men and women. Subjects were categorized by the five cognitive levels assessed by the ATFR and the percentage of students operating at each of the five levels was calculated. The ATFR total scores did not correlate with the TTCT Verbal Total scores. In this sample 48.3% of the participants were found to be operating at the formal operational level of cognitive ability, with 20.0% operating at the transitional level of cognition between the fonnal and concrete levels, and the remaining 31.7% were assessed to be at the concrete level of cognitive ability. The number of college students functioning at a concrete level continues to serve as a reminder that these individuals need infonnation presented to them in a concrete fashion to facilitate learning. Further research is indicated to define whether a relationship exists between creativity and fonnal operational reasoning. These relationships may occur in areas that are more specific, not as the general creativity and fonnal operational reasoning constructs used in this study. In addition, it is suggested creativity and formal reasoning may merely be facets on a larger construct and should possibly studied as such. The limitations in generalizability, due to ample size and financial constraints, may warrant additional research to substantiate the findings of this study. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE ARLIN TEST OF FORMAL REASONING AND THE TORRANCE TEST OF CREATIVE THINKING A Thesis Presented to the Division of Psychology and Special Education EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science
Edinburgh Research Explorer Quantifying the regularity of the mappings between signals and meanings

We combine information theory and cross-situational learning to develop a novel metric for quantifying the degree of regularity in the mappings between signals and meanings that can be inferred from exposure to language in context. We illustrate this metric using the results of two artiﬁcial language learning experiments, which show that learners are sensitive, with a high level of individual variation, to systematic regularities in the input. Analysing language using this measure of regularity allows us to explore in detail how language learning and language use can both generate linguistic variation, leading to language change, and potentially complexify language structure, leading to qualitative language evolution.
Running Head: FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN EPILEPSY Title: Altered functional connectivity in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy

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Development and Implementation of a Vehicle–Pedestrian Conflict Analysis Method

This paper examines the development, use, and evaluation of a new traffic conflict analysis technique that specifically addresses pedestrian–vehicle conflicts with the intention of being applicable to shared-space environments. The method is based on an existing, well-established, and widely used vehicle–vehicle conflict analysis technique, but is adapted to consider the movement of pedestrians, which differs significantly from that of vehicles. The new method is then implemented on the Exhibition Road site of West London with the use of video data collected from locations with a potentially high concentration of vehicle–pedestrian conflicts, and the results of the analysis are presented. Finally, the results are compared with those obtained by other conflict analysis techniques and also against accident data to assess not only the accuracy but also the functionality of the new technique.
Psychological symptoms and quality of life among the population of L ' Aquila ’ s " new towns " after the 2009 earthquake

Background: On April 6th, 2009 the city of L’Aquila was hit by an earthquake which caused more than 65,000 people to lose their homes. In order to provide rapid accommodation to those affected, the Italian Government implemented the CASE project (Complex Anti-seismic Sustainable Environmentally-friendly), consisting in the construction of 19 "New Towns" on the outskirts of the city. The new towns were built in rural areas, far from the city center, and lacked many basic services. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of mental disorders, psychological symptoms and quality of life in a sample of the population affected by this situation. Methods: Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA), were applied to the inhabitants of three new towns. Results: 107 people were interviewed. The mean scores of the GSI of the BSI were 0.70 (SD=0.55). The total score of the IES-R scale was used and the cut-off point, represented by the value equivalent to 33, was exceeded by 59.81% of the sample. The average value was 38.04 (SD=19.22). Fourteen people (21.88%) obtained an average value of ≥ 60. The mean score on the MANSA was 4.5 (SD=0.98), with differences in response among the inhabitants of the three new towns considered. Conclusion: Data obtained shown some differences between the three new towns studied. These could be a starting point from which to conduct a further analysis, with the aim of finding features in the various new towns which correlate positively and negatively with the quality of life, in order to facilitate future policy-makers, and showing them the best options to improve quality of life for citizens involved in natural disasters.
Characteristics of Gene Structure of Bovine Ghrelin and Influence of Aging on Plasma Ghrelin

Ghrelin is a novel growth-hormone-releasing acylated peptide, which has been purified and identified in rat stomach. In the present study, the full-length sequence of bovine ghrelin cDNA was cloned by RT-PCR. The bovine ghrelin cDNA sequence derived in the present study included a 348 bp open reading frame and a 137 bp 3'UTR. The putative amino acid sequence of bovine prepro-ghrelin consisted of 116 amino acids, which contained the 27-amino acid ghrelin. The sequence analysis of the bovine ghrelin gene revealed that an intron existed between Gln 13 and Arg 14 of ghrelin. This exon-intron boundary matched the GT-AG rule of the splicing mechanism. Compared with rats, which have two tandem CAG sequences in the 3'-end of intron, bovine ghrelin genome has only one CAG sequence. Therefore, although rats can produce 28 amino acid-ghrelin and 27 amino acid-des-Gln 14 -ghrelin by alternative splicing, ruminant species, including bovines, might be able to produce only one type of ghrelin peptide, des-Gln 14 -ghrelin. The influence of aging on plasma ghrelin concentration was also examined. Plasma ghrelin concentration increased after birth to approximately 600 days of age, and then remained constant. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 5 : 723-727)
Altering false reports via confederate influence

The present experiment examined the effects of confederate influence on the likelihood that participants would claim to have witnessed non‐existent footage of a highly charged public event. A total of 48 participants completed a questionnaire, in the presence of a confederate, concerning their memory for (non‐existent) closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of an explosion in a Bali nightclub. Overall, 19 participants (39%) claimed falsely to have seen this non‐existent footage. Furthermore, participants increased or suppressed their false reports in line with confirmative or disconfirmative social influence exerted by the confederate. We would like to thank Anthony Pratkanis and two anonymous reviewers whose constructive comments greatly improved the quality of this paper. We also thank Alan Costall for his advice regarding the statistical analysis.
Aspects of a mating aggregation of the spider crab, Libinia emarginata

Observations made while SCUBA diving report for the first time in the spider crab (Libinia emarginata) the occurrence of a mating aggregation in Fishers Island Sound, Connecticut, USA. Observations between 30 April and 20 May 1986 showed the aggregation covered a depth range of 5-8 m and an area of approximately 5 000 m2 at a density of approximately 1 crab/m2. There was no significant difference between the sizes of mature females and ovigerous females. Paired males were significantly larger than unpaired males in the overall population, while paired females were not significantly larger than unpaired females in the overall population. There was no correlation between male and female size in paired crabs. Observations of agonistic bouts between males, and male-female pairs exhibiting "obstetrical" behavior, supplement previously published laboratory observations. However, the observations of "obstetrical" behavior showed it had a wider context that involved mature, nonovigerous females as well as females with newly-extruded eggs, and suggested that this behavior should instead be called "protective" behavior. J. Northw. Atl. Fish. Sci., Vol. 13: 77–82 78 J. Northw. Atl. Fish. Sci., Vol. 13, 1992 Representative samples of crabs were collected during dives on 1, 5 and 8 May, 1986 while only the number of ovigerous females was determined during dives on 14 and 20 May 1986. Paired crabs were collected during all dives in 1986 and kept separate from the others. All collected crabs were sexed and carapace length (CL), from the notch of the rostrum to the posterior margin of the carapace, was measured to the nearest 0.1 mm. The abdominal flap of female crabs and egg clutches were examined to differentiate between immature and mature individuals (Hinsch, 1972). Shell condition was also noted (e.g. intermolt, postmolt). Collected crabs were not returned to the study site.
Central and genus class fields and the Hasse norm theorem

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Effect of Capillary Tube Length and Refrigerant Charge on the Performance of Domestic Refrigerator with R12 and R600a

In this work, the thermodynamic performance of a domestic refrigerator was experimentally studied by simultaneously varying the refrigerant charge (mr) and the capillary tube length (L). The potential of replacing R12 by R600a was also investigated. The test rig for the experiment was a vapor compression refrigerator designed to work with R12. The enthalpy of the refrigerants R600a and R12 for each data set for the experimental conditions were obtained by using REFPROP software (version 9.0). The results show that the design temperature of -120C (according to ISO - 8187 standard) and pull – down time of 135 minutes are achieved by using 60g of R600a with L= 1.2m and 1.5m. For R12, the design temperature is achieved at pull – down time of 165 minutes with mr = 40g and L = 0.9m. The appropriate combination of L and mr for R600a to be used as a drop-in refrigerant for R12 is found to be 1.5m and 60g on the basis of power consumption per day, pull-down time and COP, whereas by considering the cooling capacity, it is 0.9 m and 60g. The cooling capacity of R600a was about 9.18% higher than that of R12, the power consumed by R600a was about 24 % lower than that of R12 and the COP of R600a was about 6.3% higher than that of R12. In conclusion, the proposed R600a seems to be an appropriate long-term candidate to replace R-12 in the existing refrigerator in terms of power consumption, cooling capacity and COP.
Optimal investment for participating insurance contracts under VaR-Regulation

This paper studies a Value-at-Risk (VaR)-regulated optimal portfolio problem of the equity holders of a participating life insurance contract. In a setting with unhedgeable mortality risk and complete financial market, the optimal solution is given explicitly for contracts with mortality risk using a martingale approach for constrained non-concave optimization problems. We show that regulatory VaR constraints for participating insurance contracts lead to more prudent investment than in the case of no regulation. This result is contrary to the situation where the insurer maximizes the utility of the total wealth of the company (without distinguishing between contributions of equity holders and policyholders), in which case a VaR constraint may induce the insurer to take excessive risks leading to higher losses than in the case of no regulation. Compared to the unregulated problem, the VaR-constrained strategy leads to a higher expected utility for the policyholders, highlighting the potential usefulness of a VaR-regulation in the context of insurance. The prudent investment behavior is more significant if a VaR-type regulation is replaced by a portfolio insurance (PI)-type regulation. Furthermore, a stricter regulation (a smaller allowed default probability in the VaR problem or a higher minimum guarantee level in the PI problem) enhances the benefit of the policyholder but deteriorates that of the insurer. For both types of regulation, the gains in terms of expected utility are greater for higher participation rates, while being smaller for higher bonus rates. We also extend our analysis to frameworks where dividend and premature death benefit payments are made at an intermediate time date.
THE EM ALGORITHM OF LOCAL ESTIMATIONS FOR FINITE MIXTURE OF REGRESSION MODELS WITH LAPLACE DISTRIBUTION

In this paper, we study the local maximum likelihood estimations for a dinite mix-ture of regression models with Laplace distribution. By using the kernel regression method and the EM algorithm for maximizing the local weighted likelihood functions, we obtain the local maximum likelihood estimations of the parametric functions, and discuss their asymptotic biases, asymptotic variances and asymptotic normality, which extend the results of the local non-parametric estima-tions for the finite mixture of regression models.Laplace
THE PROSODY OF THE DOUBLE-SUBJECT SENTENCES IN ROMANIAN

The double subject in Romanian sentences is a controversial linguistic phenomenon. While some researchers accept it as a language 'curiosity', others consider it opposition, in order to embody its behavior in the already existing theories. We present a first study in the literature on the phonetic analysis of double-subject sentences; the study is performed on spoken Romanian language.
MECHANISMS OF INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN FEMALE Xiphophorous birchmanni

Mate choice is a powerful driver of sexual selection, and can influence both the strength and direction of selection on phenotypic traits within a population. In Xiphophorus birchmanni, female mate preferences have been extensively characterized. The majority of studies in this species have focused on documenting a mean value for female mate preference within a population. Despite the rich history of mate choice research in this genus and the apparent importance of studying mechanisms of female mate choice for understanding sexual selection processes, no studies to-date have investigated the hormonal mechanisms that underlie female mate choice behavior in this species. Because of its role in reproductive processes across taxa, cortisol was selected as a candidate hormone for involvement in the modulation of reproductive behavior. To establish baseline cortisol values and evaluate possible relationships between cortisol and reproductive activity in this viviparous species, I first evaluated consistency and repeatability of reproductive behavior and water-borne cortisol levels in captive X. birchmanni over six days of repeated mate choice testing. Repeatability and consistency of mate preferences were low, with low volume water sampling for cortisol appearing to be a potential stressor. To determine if repeated sampling could reduce sampling stress, I collected water from females placed in larger volume collection beakers over 4 consecutive days. Water-borne cortisol levels decreased over the sampling period, suggesting habituation to the repeated sampling procedure. Although cortisol values fell within the range of other poeciliid fishes, data indicated that plasma and water-borne cortisol levels were not correlated in this species. Finally, to determine if a relationship existed between circulating cortisol levels and reproductive status in a wild population of X. birchmanni I collected plasma and ovarian samples from wild caught females and correlated reproductive status with plasma cortisol levels. I found that cortisol levels vary with reproductive status. Although samples sizes were small, cortisol was elevated during gestation, a pattern similar to guppies and progesterone in mammals. Results suggested that cortisol may play a role in pregnancy and reproductive behavior in the species and that if water-borne hormone sampling could be validated, this species might serve as a useful model system for teleost behavioral endocrinology. ii
Teachers as Agents of Societal Change

Teachers as Agents of Societal Change This article discusses theoretical and practical aspects of transformative learning that can become a way for adults to critically evaluate and essentially comprehend themselves and their input in education, whose goal is to create action towards a sustainable society. The review of contemporary literature focuses on sustainability as a holistic concept linked to the idea of vision as significant in engendering alternative transformative power. The framework of a sustainable development has a potential to stimulate teachers' engagement with educational and societal processes with respect to the future development of a society within an ethical framework around values of democracy and active societal engagement. The aim of the research presented here is to explore the effect of critical transformative learning process for revitalizing adults' societal action brought about by engagement with in-service course for adults, aiming to gradually assist adults helping them to become creative producers of self and agents of transformations in education.
Peat bogs in northern Alberta, Canada reveal decades of declining atmospheric Pb contamination

Peat cores were collected from six bogs in northern Alberta to reconstruct changes in the atmospheric deposition of Pb, a valuable tracer of human activities. In each profile, the maximum Pb enrichment is found well below the surface. Radiometric age dating using three independent approaches (14C measurements of plant macrofossils combined with the atmospheric bomb pulse curve, plus 210Pb confirmed using the fallout radionuclides 137Cs and 241Am) showed that Pb contamination has been in decline for decades. Today, the surface layers of these bogs are comparable in composition to the “cleanest” peat samples ever found in the Northern Hemisphere, from a Swiss bog ~ 6000 to 9000 years old. The lack of contemporary Pb contamination in the Alberta bogs is testimony to successful international efforts of the past decades to reduce anthropogenic emissions of this potentially toxic metal to the atmosphere.