Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Mixed Estimation for Combining Airborne Laser Scanning Data in Two Different Forest Areas

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data have become the most accurate remote sensing technology for forest inventories. When planning new inventories the costs of fieldwork could be reduced if datasets of old inventory areas are effectively reused in the new area. The aim of this study was to apply mixed estimation using a combination of existing and new field datasets in area-based approach. Additionally, combining datasets with mixed estimation was compared with constructing new local models with smaller datasets. The two forest study areas were in Juuka and Matalansalo, which are located about 120 km apart in eastern Finland. ALS-based regression models were constructed using datasets of Matalansalo (472 reference plots) and Juuka (10–212 reference plots). Models were developed for the basal area median tree diameter and height, mean tree height, stem number, basal area and volume. The work was based on a simulation approach which involved five methods for approximating the regression coefficients. The first method merged the datasets using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models, whereas the second and third methods combined datasets using mixed estimation on different weighting principles, and the final two estimated local models with predetermined and new independent variables. The results indicate that mixed estimation can improve the accuracy of derived stand variables compared with basic OLS models. Additionally, a sample of 40–50 plots was enough to build local models for basal area and volume and produce at least the equal accuracy of results than any other methods in this study.
Enterprise Multiple and Future Returns of the Brazilian Stock Market

The estimation of cross-section returns for defining investment strategies based on financial multiples has been proven to be relevant following Fama and French’s (1992) research. One of the challenges for such studies is to identify the main variables that are suitable for explaining the returns in a particular context because the variables that are widely used in developed markets behave differently in emerging countries. In this study, we analyze the predictive power of the EV/EBITDA multiple in the context of the Brazilian stock market. The results show that the analyzed multiple has a strong relationship with the future returns of companies listed on the BM&F BOVESPA index between 2005 and 2013. For the period under review, the investment strategy of purchasing stocks when EV/EBITDA was low and selling stocks when EV/EBITDA was high showed abnormal returns of 15.94% per year, even after controlling for risk factors.
Psychological Contracts, OCB and Customer service: An Exploratory Examination

This paper examines the relationships among the psychological contract, fairness, OCB, and customer service. We report on two exploratory studies that provide insight into psychological contract violations and subsequent perceptions of fairness, as well as OCB activity. A linkage is made between psychological contracts and behavior directed internally and those directed externally (i.e., customer service). We extend the current theory to suggest implications for effectively managing customer service employee OCB. Finally, suggestions are made for both practice and future research to be conducted in a multidisciplinary design.
Wind–terrain effects on the propagation of wildfires in rugged terrain: fire channelling

The interaction of wind, terrain and a fire burning in a landscape can produce a variety of unusual yet significant effects on fire propagation. One such example, in which a fire exhibits rapid spread in a direction transverse to the synoptic winds as well as in the usual downwind direction, is considered in this paper. This type of fire spread, which is referred to as ‘fire channelling’, is characterised by intense lateral and downwind spotting and production of extensive flaming zones. The dependence of fire channelling on wind and terrain is analysed using wind, terrain and multispectral fire data collected during the January 2003 Alpine fires over south-eastern Australia. As part of the analysis, a simple terrain-filter model is utilised to confirm a quantitative link between instances of fire channelling and parts of the terrain that are sufficiently steep and lee-facing. By appealing to the theory of wind–terrain interaction and the available evidence, several processes that could produce the atypical fire spread are considered and some discounted. Based on the processes that could not be discounted, and a previous analysis of wind regimes in rugged terrain, a likely explanation for the fire channelling phenomenon is hypothesised. Implications of fire channelling for bushfire risk management are also discussed.
INCIDENCE OF HIV-1 INFECTIONS AND CHANGE IN STI’s AND RISK SEXAUL BEHAVIOURS IN NORTHERN TANZANIA: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

i Acknowledgements . ii Table of contents.iii List of acronyms . vi Definition of terms . vii List of tables . viii List of figures . viii 2.0: BACKGROUND AND REVIEW 2.1: Global HIV-1/AIDS Epidemic.1 2.2: Local HIV-1/AIDS Epidemic . 1 2.3: HIV-1/AIDS situation in Kilimanjaro region.3 2.4: Drawbacks in HIV/AIDS monitoring systems . 4 2.5: HIV-1 transmission factors . 5 2.6: Risk behavioural change and HIV transmission . 9 2.7: STI’s situation in Tanzania . 11 2.8: STI’s as biological cofactors . 13 3.0: NUFU FUNDED PROJECT-KEHE PROJECT (Background) . 15 4.0: PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RATIONALE.15 5.0 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 5.1: Main Objective . 18 5.2. Specific Objectives . 18 6.0: METHODOLOGY 6.1: Study design . 18 6.2: Study area and population . 18 6.3: Sample size and sampling . 20 6.4: SURVEY PHASES 6.4. 1: Field organization and response rate . 20 6.4. 2. Tests and testing strategies. 21 6.4. 3: Structured interviews . 22 6.4. 4: Assurance of data quality and quality control of tests.23 6.5: Research and Ethical issues . 23
3D Virtual Worlds: Business and Learning Opportunities

Virtual worlds (VWs) are rampant and easily accessible to common internet users nowadays. Millions of users are already living their virtual lives in these worlds. Moreover, the number of users is increasing continuously. The purpose of this paper is to review all the business opportunities on these virtual worlds along with the learning opportunities for the real world companies and business students. This paper clearly and precisely defines the virtual worlds in the context of social networking sites and also aims at discussing the past, present and future of VWs. All the possible business opportunities for the real world companies including advertisement & communication, retailing opportunities, application for human resource management, marketing research and organizations' internal process management through virtual worlds are critically reviewed here. In addition to the discussion current learning and training opportunities for the real world companies and business students are also reviewed. The paper aims at proving that the VWs are full of business and marketing applications and they could be widely used by the real world companies for effective and efficient business operations.
Product support strategy: conventional versus functional products

Purpose – Most advanced durable industrial products need some kind of support to compensate for weaknesses in design or in product exploitation. Aims to examine different scenarios for product support and discusses approaches for development of product support strategy for conventional and functional products.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a case study of a manufacturer of advanced durable industrial production systems.Findings – Traditionally, the customer buys, operates, and maintains equipment used in production systems. Alternatively, the customer can buy the performance, instead of the physical product. In such cases, the manufacturer is responsible for operating, maintaining, and supporting the product in addition to designing and making it. Thus, the long‐term profit for both user and manufacturer will depend on the product's designed‐in life cycle costs, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and supportability) characteristics, as well as on the effectiveness and ef.
Properties of star forming galaxies in AKARI Deep Field-South

Aims. The main aim of this work is the characterization of physical properties of galaxies detected in the far-infrared (FIR) in the AKARI Deep Field-South (ADF-S) survey. Methods. Starting from a catalog of the 1000 brightest ADF-S sources in the WIDE-S (90 mu m) AKARI band, we constructed a sub-sample of galaxies with spectral coverage from the ultraviolet to the FIR. We then analyzed the multiwavelength properties of this 90 mu m selected sample of galaxies. For galaxies without known spectroscopic redshifts we computed photometric redshifts using the codes Photometric Analysis for Redshift Estimate (Le PHARE) and Code Investigating GALaxy Emission (CIGALE), tested these photometric redshifts using spectroscopic redshifts, and compared the performances of both codes. To test the reliability of parameters obtained by fitting spectral energy distributions, a mock catalogue was generated. Results. We built a large multiwavelength catalog of more than 500 ADF-S galaxies. We successfully fitted spectral energy distributions of 186 galaxies with chi(2)(min) \textless 4, and analyzed the output parameters of the fits. We conclude that our sample consists mostly of nearby actively star-forming galaxies, and all our galaxies have a relatively high metallicity. We estimated photometric redshifts for 113 galaxies from the whole ADF-S sample. Comparing the performance of Le PHARE and CIGALE, we found that CIGALE gives more reliable redshift estimates for our galaxies, which implies that including the IR photometry allows for substantial improvement of photometric redshift estimation.
The effects of docking on growth traits, carcass characteristics and blood biochemical parameters of Sanjabi fat-tailed lambs.

The effects of docking on growth traits, fattening performance, carcass characteristics and blood biochemical parameters were investigated using 24 fat-tailed Sanjabi single-born male lambs raised from a large commercial sheep herd. The lambs were randomly divided into two groups. One group (n = 12) were docked at two days of age with rubber-rings using an elastrator. The second group (n = 12) were left intact. After weaning (90 days), all lambs were moved to rustic rangelands for 40 days. Then all the lambs were fed concentrates ad libitum for 60 days during the fattening period. Growth traits, body weight and average daily gain (kg) were recorded at the end of the weaning and fattening periods. Blood biochemical parameters including urea, total protein, glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) were measured during the fattening period. Finally, at the end of the fattening period, eight lambs (4 intact and 4 docked lambs) were slaughtered in order to determine carcass characteristics. Fat-tail docking had no effect (p>0.05) on lamb growth from birth to weaning. Body weight and average daily gain of docked lambs were significantly higher (p<0.05) than for intact lambs at the end of the fattening period. There was no difference in carcass measurements between the two groups, except for chest depth and leg weight which were higher (p<0.05) in docked lambs. During the fattening period, cholesterol and LDL of docked lambs were less than in intact lambs (p<0.05). The current results indicated that docking with rubber rings causes an improvement in growth traits during the fattening period and leads to desirable carcass characteristics compared to intact lambs; interestingly, this procedure had a significant effect on the lowering of blood cholesterol and LDL of docked lambs.
Estimation of the local response to a forcing in a high dimensional system using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem

Abstract. The fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT) has been proposed as a method of calculating the response of the earth's atmosphere to a forcing. For this problem the high dimensionality of the relevant data sets makes truncation necessary. Here we propose a method of truncation based upon the assumption that the response to a localised forcing is spatially localised, as an alternative to the standard method of choosing a number of the leading empirical orthogonal functions. For systems where this assumption holds, the response to any sufficiently small non-localised forcing may be estimated using a set of truncations that are chosen algorithmically. We test our algorithm using 36 and 72 variable versions of a stochastic Lorenz 95 system of ordinary differential equations. We find that, for long integrations, the bias in the response estimated by the FDT is reduced from ~75% of the true response to ~30%.
Rumen microbial ecology in reindeer - Adaptations to a unique diet

Svalbard reindeer are isolated on the high-arctic archipelago of Svalbard under austere nutritional conditions, while the semi-domesticated Norwegian reindeer migrate between lush coastal summer pastures and inland taiga and boreal forest habitats with ground lichens in winter on mainland Norway. We propose that interactions between reindeer and Arctic plants through 15 million years of evolution have resulted in a unique rumen microbial ecosystem, and present data on rumen bacterial diversity analysed by PCR amplifi cation and sequencing of 16S rDNA clone libraries from these sub-species of reindeer. Resulting sequences represent novel bacteria different from those reported in other ruminants.
Investigation of short-term effective radiative forcing of fire aerosols over North America using nudged hindcast ensembles

Abstract. Aerosols from fire emissions can potentially have large impact on clouds and radiation. However, fire aerosol sources are often intermittent, and their effect on weather and climate is difficult to quantify. Here we investigated the short-term effective radiative forcing of fire aerosols using the global aerosol–climate model Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). Different from previous studies, we used nudged hindcast ensembles to quantify the forcing uncertainty due to the chaotic response to small perturbations in the atmosphere state. Daily mean emissions from three fire inventories were used to consider the uncertainty in emission strength and injection heights. The simulated aerosol optical depth (AOD) and mass concentrations were evaluated against in situ measurements and reanalysis data. Overall, the results show the model has reasonably good predicting skills. Short (10-day) nudged ensemble simulations were then performed with and without fire emissions to estimate the effective radiative forcing. Results show fire aerosols have large effects on both liquid and ice clouds over the two selected regions in April 2009. Ensemble mean results show strong negative shortwave cloud radiative effect (SCRE) over almost the entirety of southern Mexico, with a 10-day regional mean value of −3.0 W m−2. Over the central US, the SCRE is positive in the north but negative in the south, and the regional mean SCRE is small (−0.56 W m−2). For the 10-day average, we found a large ensemble spread of regional mean shortwave cloud radiative effect over southern Mexico (15.6 % of the corresponding ensemble mean) and the central US (64.3 %), despite the regional mean AOD time series being almost indistinguishable during the 10-day period. Moreover, the ensemble spread is much larger when using daily averages instead of 10-day averages. This demonstrates the importance of using a large ensemble of simulations to estimate the short-term aerosol effective radiative forcing.
Effect of Working Capital Management on the Profitability of Listed Companies in Tehran Stock Exchange

In the current challenging economic and environment increasing pressure and limited external resources, current assets and liabilities, that is to say, working capital of the economic enterprises is of great importance. Working capital optimal management of the economic enterprises can be considered as a competitive advantage for them. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the relationship between working capital management and profitability of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange. Research data was analyzed using population of 116 listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange for the period of 2006-2011 by applying combination method of all data (pooled data) and ordinary least squares regression (OLS). The research results indicate that, there is a significant inverse relationship between cash conversion cycle and its components, including the collection period, inventory turnover period and accounts payable turnover period, and profitability of the firms. Corporate managers can increase the profitability of their company desirably by reducing the collection period and inventory turnover period.
Factors Affecting Knowledge Acquisition among Adult Workers in Online Informal Learning Activities

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a research model that investigates the factors influencing knowledge acquisition among adult workers participating in online informal learning activities. A total of 342 adult workers, all of whom were civil servants working for the government in Taiwan, participated in this study. A survey instrument was used to assess their perceived abilities in information querying, information differentiation, online communication self-efficacy, information evaluation and extraction, and knowledge acquisition. A Structural Equation Modeling was performed using Partial Least Squares regression for data exploration and model estimation. The results of this study indicate that information querying, significantly affected the participants’ information differentiation performance. The construct of information differentiation yielded a positive influence in the respondents’ online communication self-efficacy and information evaluation and extraction. Moreover, information evaluation and extraction was found to be a significant predictor influencing adult workers’ knowledge acquisition. The findings imply that organizations should consider including information literacy training in training initiatives and provide friendly online collaborating tools to enhance employees’ online informal learning experiences.
Enhancing the Quality and Relevance of Higher Education Through Effective Teaching Practices and Instructors' Characteristics

The five key behaviours for effective teaching are: lesson clarity, instructional variety, and instructor task orientation, engagement in the learning process and student success rate. This study examines the reflections of university students and instructors regarding the implementation of effective teaching practices and instructors' characteristics in engineering education. Data gathered from two groups (engineering students & instructors) interviews were developed and 25 item Likert scale questionnaires were completed by a sample of 69 students and 64 instructors. Means, ranking, and standard deviation followed by other analyses indicated that there was a high degree of similarity between students and instructors with respect to the perceived attributes of effective and ineffective teaching. It appears that the effective instructors are the mirror image of the ineffective by being imbued with a generous dose of personality traits in addition to skills. Both instructors and students in this research conducted in the selected universities of Ethiopia depicted the effective/excellent university instructor as someone who: (1) is respectful, (2) makes classes interesting, (3) is fair in evaluating, (4) cares about students' success, (5) shows a love for their subject, (6) is friendly, (7) encourages questions and discussion, (8) is always well prepared and organized, and (9) makes difficult subjects easy to learn. Findings of students' and instructors' perspectives suggest that effective teaching is the blending of both personality and ability factors. The key factor, however, remains the instructors' personality.
Improving IT Efficiency, Maximizing Taxpayer Dollars

Challenge • Bring order to chaos. With seven data centers, sprawling server infrastructure, and few IT standards, the State of Indiana’s IT professionals faced problems on every front. • Improve the customer experience. An aging and highly diverse PC fleet meant agency employees had to contend with slow systems and frequent downtime. IT lacked effective remote management technologies, hampering its ability to get users back online quickly when problems arose. • Slash support costs. The complexity of the state’s IT environment made management difficult and drove up support costs.
Designing TiO2 Based Nanostructures by Control of Surface Morphology of Pure and Silver Loaded Titanate Nanotubes

The synthesis and the morphological transformations of pure and silver loaded titanate nanotubes into anatase titania nanostructures under relatively mild temperatures (500 °C) have been discussed. At first, it will be shown that the transformation of titanate into titanium oxide leads to the formation of TiO2 particles, and then the role of the silver, in affecting morphology, crystallinity, and optical properties of the nanostructures, is highlighted. Morphology and structure of the titanate precursor and of the formed TiO2 particles (both pure or silver loaded) have been investigated by means of Brunauer−Emmett−Teller and powder X-ray diffraction analyses, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Surface and optical properties have been explored by means of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and ultraviolet−visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopies. With regard to the vibrational properties of the obtained materials, the comparison of .
Impact of nitrogen seeding on the AUG pedestal: experiments and modelling

M. G. Dunne, L. Frassinetti, M. Beurskens, M. Cavedon, R. Fischer, G.T. A. Huijsmans, F. M. Laggner, R. M. McDermott, G. Tardini, E. Viezzer, E. Wolfrum, the EUROfusion MST1 Teamand the ASDEX-Upgrade Team Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik, D-85748 Garching,Germany Division of Fusion Plasma Physics, Association EURATOM-VR, KTH, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, OX14 3DB,UK Physik-Department E28, Technische universitat Munchen, Garching Germany ITER Organization, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, F-13115 St Paul Lez Durance, France Institute of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Fusion@OAW, 1040 Vienna, Austria
Suppression of Acoustic Resonance in Piping System Using Passive Control Devices

Piping systems used in industrial applications such as power stations and natural gas pipelines are liable to generation of pressure pulsations, often arising from the use of reciprocating pumps and/or dynamic instability of valves, which can act as sources of unwanted noise and vibration. In the event that the frequencies of these pulsating sources correspond to the resonant frequencies of the piping system, a very dangerous acoustic resonance condition can result, which can produce extremely large pressure fluctuations, often a several times the dynamic head of the flow in the main pipe, as well as substantial vibration of the piping system and surrounding components. These conditions, referred to as Acoustic Induced Vibrations (AIV), can lead to issues with leakage due to gasket and seal ruptures, valve failure, and in serious cases, fatigue and fracture of the piping system, related components and instrumentation. In this paper, the effectiveness of different passive noise control devices for attenuation of pressure pulsation in piping system is investigated experimentally. A small-scale pipeline system is constructed and used to examine the performance of these devices and a summary of the results is presented in the paper.