Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generating Improved Experimental Designs with Spatially and Genetically Correlated Observations Using Mixed Models

The aim of this study was to generate and evaluate the efficiency of improved field experiments while simultaneously accounting for spatial correlations and different levels of genetic relatedness using a mixed models framework for orthogonal and non-orthogonal designs. Optimality criteria and a search algorithm were implemented to generate randomized complete block (RCB), incomplete block (IB), augmented block (AB) and unequally replicated (UR) designs. Several conditions were evaluated including size of the experiment, levels of heritability, and optimality criteria. For RCB designs with half-sib or full-sib families, the optimization procedure yielded important improvements under the presence of mild to strong spatial correlation levels and relatively low heritability values. Also, for these designs, improvements in terms of overall design efficiency (ODE%) reached values of up to 8.7%, but these gains varied depending on the evaluated conditions. In general, for all evaluated designs, higher ODE% values were achieved from genetically unrelated individuals compared to experiments with half-sib and full-sib families. As expected, accuracy of prediction of genetic values improved as levels of heritability and spatial correlations increased. This study has demonstrated that important improvements in design efficiency and prediction accuracies can be achieved by optimizing how the levels of a treatment are assigned to the experimental units.
Systematic review of health data quality management and best practices at community and district levels in LMIC

Research findings have reported lack of reliable health data and poor management for district health information systems in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). This paper aims to review the literature on problems with health data quality management and health information evidences and evidences of best practices and use at community and district levels in LMIC, with a view to making recommendations for future research. Research citations, conference proceedings and diseases surveillance reports from 2000–2011 were accessed in PubMed, Medline, LISTA (EBSCO), CINAHL, Cochrane, and Google. Relevant studies were selected, the methodologies critiqued and synthesized. The researchers accessed 1383, and 38 were reviewed by three reviewers. Poor quality health data, low level of health information use, and poor management of health information systems were found. These findings hinder evidence-based decisions based and planning at community and district levels in LMIC. Though poor practices were found, improved health care services delivery with improved health data efficiency was found to be possible.
Selection of parental lines among round fruited brinjal for hybridization aiming at export promotion

Selection of parental lines for considering export trade in hybridization programme is a new approach in brinjal breeding. Eight quantitative characters were taken to estimate genetic variation and relationships among twenty seven genotypes of round fruited brinjal, and to identify potential donors for the development of recombinants suitable for export. Analysis of variation revealed considerable level of variability among the genotypes. High broad sense heritability (Eƒ80 %) and genetic advance as per cent of mean (Eƒ20 %) were observed for the maximum number of traits under study. Among the yield components, only number of marketable fruits per plant showed positive and significant correlation (r = 0.771 and 0.725 at genotypic and phenotypic level, respectively) with marketable fruit yield per plant. However, number of marketable fruits per plant (1.24) followed by average fruit weight (0.834) ex-hibited maximum positive direct effects on marketable fruit yield per plant suggesting to give emphasis on these traits while imposing selection for amenability in fruit yield of round fruited brinjal. Principal component analysis showed the amount of variation by principal components 1 to 4 viz., 26.75, 49.98, 69.81 and 84.28 %, respectively. Divergence analysis based on various yield component traits grouped 27 brinjal genotypes into nine main clusters. Dendrogram based on hierarchal clustering grouped genotypes based on their yield component traits rather than their geographic origin. Based on averages and principal component analysis, six genotypes (BCB-30, Deshi Makra, Gujrat Brinjal Round, 09/BRBWRes-3, BCB-10, 10/BRRVar-2) appeared to be promising donors for use in export oriented breeding programme.
The Relationship Between College Students’ Resilience Level and Type of Alcohol Use

Background. Outcome research regarding the level of college student alcohol use (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, 2002; Engs, Hanson, 1999; Hersh, Hussong, 2006; Knight et al., 2002) suggests that these studies may mask a more complex relationship between different levels of alcohol use and the psychosocial characteristics of the user. However, there have been few studies that have explored the relationship between level of use and particular psychosocial traits (White, Jamieson-Drake, Swartzwelder, 2002). Purpose. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship in a college student population between the psychological trait of resilience and the following five different levels of alcohol use: binge drinking, heavy drinking, moderate drinking, light drinking, and abstinence from drinking. Material and methods. Responses by a sample of 88 male and female volunteer college students on the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (Connor, Davidson, 2003) and a researcher-developed survey of alcohol use were compared to determine the relationship between resilience level and alcohol consumption level. Results. A significant negative correlation was found between resilience level and alcohol consumption level. Female mean resiliency scores (M = 73.56) were significantly lower than male mean resiliency scores (M = 77.84). One-half of students were abstainers and one-fourth rated themselves to be heavy or binge drinkers. Conclusions. Results would suggest that students who drink struggle to moderate their alcohol consumption and that college personnel can use resilience factors as a framework to design both preventative and intervention services, with special focus on building resilience factors in the female population.
What determines the price received by cocoa farmers in Cameroon? An empirical analysis based on bargaining theory

Studies have shown that small-scale agricultural producers from developing countries do not generally obtain the potential gains of trade. To investigate what can be done to help them get better prices, we examine ways to increase their bargaining power. Using data from 1,854 cocoa transactions between traders and producers in Cameroon during the 2005/2006 season, we show that when the bargaining situation is least favorable to the producers (because prices are non-negotiable due to interlinked credit and there is information asymmetry) the traders seize the entire surplus generated by the trade. Farmers who can avoid accepting credit from the cocoa buyers and can delay sales until after the start of the school year, when the buyers will not be able to take advantage of the farmersâ€™ financial need, are able to negotiate higher prices. To improve their bargaining situation, Cameroonian cocoa producers need an efficient market information system, better access to credit and the development of collective marketing.
Potato bacterial wilt management in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearumis the major threat to potato production. Farmers are not aware of the causes of potato diseases and they believe that all types of diseases are caused by rain and mist. Research has been carried out in four districts namely Shashemene, Tulubolo, Welmera and Welisso f rom 2011 to 2012 main crop seasons however; the research was extended to 2014 in Shashemene district. The purposes of the research was to change the perception of farmers and address the causes, sources and management options of the disease and assist farmers to develop healthy potato farms; Farmers field school(FFS) extension approach supported by sessions harmonized with crop henology was used to assess the effect of one season rotation (Potato - Beans - Potato; Potato - Cabbage - Potato; Potato - Carrot - Potato and Potato - Potato - Potato)and two seasons rotations (Potato - Beans - Carrot - Potato; Potato - Beans - Cabbage -Potato; Potato - Beans - Beans - potato; Potato - Carrot - Carrot - Potato; Potato - Cabbage - Carrot -Potato; Potato - Cabbage - Cabbage - Potato and Potato - potato - potato - potato) with none host crop species on the development of the disease. At the inception of the project, all members of the group were introduced to potato diseases and their causal agents through farmers field school extension approach. After subsequent sessions, experimentation, and demonstration at field level, more than 65 % of the farmers in the group were able to identify symptoms, causative agents and means of dissemination and possible management measures of potato wilt, late blight and viruses. The result showed that, the extension approach was found to be effective in stimulating farmer’s perception by considering their goals in the targeting and design of innovations. One season rotation of potato with beans cabbage and carrot significantly (P<0.05) reduced the incidence of the disease by 22.1, 15.4 and 27.3% respectively as compared to the mono crop potato which had 45.2 % incidence. The correlation between mean tuber yield over disease incidence in one season and two seasons rotation shad negative and significant Y= - 0.2588x + 29.767(R2= 0.7946) and Y= -0.177x + 28.019 (R² = 0.4597) respectively. Potato - Cabbage-Cabbage-Potato and Potato - Cabbage-Carrot-Potato had significantly (p<0.05) lowest disease incidence compared to Potato – Beans– Beans- Potato, Potato - Carrot- Carrot- Potato, Potato - Carrot– Beans- Potato and Potato - Cabbage– Beans- Potato rotation however, all treatments significantly (P<0.05) reduced the incidence of the disease and increased marketable tuber yield compared to the mono crop potato. The result of these researches suggested that FFS through session supported extension approach was found to be effective to generate and disseminate bacterial wilt management technologies. One and two season rotation with beans and cabbage reduced wilt incidence, latent infection in tubers and increased tuber yield under Shashemene condition.
Major Acute Phase Proteins in Pig Serum from Birth to Slaughter

Abstract Age-related changes in serum concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), haptoglobin (Hp), serum amyloid A (SAA), and pig major acute phase protein (pig-MAP) were investigated in healthy pigs from birth to slaughter under field conditions. Repeated blood samples were obtained from 60 pigs at ages of 1-19 weeks. Concentrations of acute phase proteins (APP) were measured with the use of commercial ELISA kits. Concentrations of all APP increased with age (P<0.05) and positive correlations were evidenced between their concentrations and the age of pigs. Great variations in CRP, Hp, and SAA concentrations were found, as can been seen from standard deviation values. The minimal individual variability was found in regard to pig-MAP. A significant increase in all APP was observed in pigs’ serum after weaning, constituting an important characteristic of this period. The elevation of APP after weaning may be associated with stress induced by mixing animals after weaning or changes in the pattern of feed administration. The peak in APP may be also caused by the initiation of synthesis of these proteins by piglets. Because a significant association between age and APP concentrations exists, further studies are needed to decide whether the age may influence the diagnostic value of APP as a marker of infection. Additionally, studies are needed to estimate whether the APP response in infection is age-dependent to any clinical importance degree.
A shape optimization problem for the $p$-Laplacian

It is known that the torsional rigidity for a punctured ball, with the puncture having the shape of a ball, is minimum when the balls are concentric and the first eigenvalue for the Dirichlet Laplacian for such domains is also a maximum in this case. These results have been obtained by Ashbaugh and Chatelain (private communication), Harrell et. al., by Kesavan and, by Ramm and Shivakumar. In this paper we extend these results to the case of $p$-Laplacian for $1 < p < \infty$. For proving these results, we follow the same line of ideas as in the aforementioned articles, namely, study the sign of the shape derivative using the moving plane method and comparison principles. In the process, we obtain some interesting new side results such as the Hadamard perturbation formula for the torsional rigidity functional for the Dirichlet $p$-Laplacian, the existence and uniqueness result for a nonlinear pde and some extensions of known comparison results for nonlinear pdes.
Employee's Use of Work-Family Policies and the Workplace Social Context

This article analyzes the effects of workplace social context on managers' and professionals' use of work-family policies in a financial services corporation. These official policies are ambiguous and contested and, as institutional theory implies, may fail to become fully implemented. We use a multilevel model to determine the individual-level and work group-level factors that affect respondents' policy use. In addition to individual-level factors, the social context of the work group affects employees' decisions to use work-family policies. We find support for our hypotheses stressing the social resource of power and protection: employees are more likely to use these policies if they work with powerful supervisors and colleagues, who can buffer them from perceived negative effects on their careers.
Detection of z ∼ 2.3 Cosmic Voids from 3D Lyα Forest Tomography in the COSMOS Field

We present the most distant detection of cosmic voids (z ∼ 2.3) and the first detection of three-dimensional voids in the Lyα forest. We used a 3D tomographic map of the absorption with an effective comoving spatial resolution of 2.5 h−1 Mpc and a volume of 3.15 × 105 h−3 Mpc3, which was reconstructed from moderate-resolution Keck I/LRIS spectra of 240 background Lyman-break galaxies and quasars in a 0.16 deg2 footprint in the COSMOS field. Voids were detected using a spherical overdensity finder calibrated from hydrodynamical simulations of the intergalactic medium (IGM). This allows us to identify voids in the IGM corresponding to voids in the underlying matter density field, yielding a consistent volume fraction of voids in both data (19.5%) and simulations (18.2%). We fit excursion set models to the void radius function and compare the radially averaged stacked profiles of large voids (r > 5 h−1 Mpc) to stacked voids in mock observations and the simulated density field. Comparing with 432 coeval galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the same volume as the tomographic map, we find that the tomography-identified voids are underdense in galaxies by 5. 95σ compared to random cells.
Bank Regulation and Market Discipline around the World

This paper investigates the effectiveness of depositor discipline and its relationship with various bank regulations and supervisions using a panel of about 17,000 bank-year data during 1992-2002 around 60 countries. We first theoretically show that deposit interest rate and its sensitivity to bank risk depend on the bank insolvency risk and the fraction of deposit protection, among others. Then we find evidence that strict regulations on bank activities and powerful supervisory authorities tend to reduce deposit interest rate and its sensitivity to bank risk. We interpret our results as suggesting that strict regulations on bank activities are likely to be associated with generous bailout of an insolvent bank, resulting in weak market discipline and a fragile banking system.
Vertical Integration through Blended Learning: a whole-of-program case study

The systematic segregation of students into class and year level groupings does not naturally support collaboration and project-based learning. At the same time, the Internet has enabled global social networking which has proven to be a source of engagemenuits that may be unfamiliar to them, but which they are likely to encounter in their professional careers.
Influence of Pre-question and genre-based instructional strategies on reading

This study investigated the influence of Pre-question and genre-based instructional strategies on science undergraduates’ achievement in, and attitude to, reading. Using purposive sampling,two specialised universities in Nigeria were selected and stratified sampling was employed in assigning students to research groups based on gender and performance in a verbal ability test. Two hundred and eighty-five students participated in the study. Pre-post randomised block experimental design was used with three experimental groups and one control group. The experimental procedure involving Pre-question, genre-based instruction and a combination of Pre-question and genre-based instructional strategies were used for the experimental groups for four weeks whilst the control group received normal teacher input. Data were collected through a Reading Comprehension Achievement Test and Students’ Attitude Questionnaire. Qualitative data, obtained from videotapes of classroom interactions, were subjected to conversation and interaction analyses and quantitative data were analysed with Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicate that although there was no significant main effect of instructional strategy on students’ achievement in reading comprehension, there was significant main effect of instructional strategy on students’ attitude to reading ( F (3,231) = 30.9; p <. 05). Findings from the qualitative enquiry revealed that female students were more voluble and assertive in their responses probably because of the need to resist male domination whilst male students used discourse strategies to affirm their authority. The study indicated that the combination of pre-question and genre-based approach was the most effective in enhancing the students’ attitude to reading. Reading is one of the most useful of the Language Arts skills which learners need for academic reasons and for lifelong learning. The globalised world demands that the second language student of science and technology demonstrates competence in reading materials in his specialist area in order to participate fully in his discourse community.
Financing Housing Transformation in Informal Settlements in Jordan

This paper aims to examine how housing transformation is financed in informal settlements in Jordan. A quantitative method was seen as an appropriate approach to deal with the research objectives. The Baqa'a Palestinian refugee camp was targeted as the biggest informal settlement in terms of the number of population and housing units. Findings reveal that construction and housing transformation took place over three separate periods of time and was influenced both by increasing family size over time and improvement in a family's income. Irregular financing played a major role in increasing housing transformation and expansion of informal settlements. Regression analysis results demonstrate that irregular financing has a significant impact on housing transformation. As a result, this paper confirms that the process of construction and housing transformation is incremental.
On Some Biases Encountered in Modern Listening Tests

Hedonic judgments are prone to many non-acoustical biases. Since audio quality evaluation involves, to some degree, hedonic judgments, the scores obtained from typical audio quality listening tests can be biased if the nonacoustical factors are not properly controlled. In contrast to hedonic judgments, sound character judgments are less prone to the non-acoustical biases, and, if appropriate acoustical anchors are used, can provide highly reliable and repeatable data. However, when listeners are asked to judge multidimensional attributes, like the overall spatial audio fidelity, the resultant data may exhibit a large variation and a multimodal distribution of scores. A possible solution to this problem will be discussed.
Sensitivity Study of CO 2 Storage Capacity in Brine Aquifers with Closed Boundaries: Dependence on Hydrogeologic Properties

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Sensitivity Study of CO 2 Storage Capacity in Brine Aquifers with Closed Boundaries: Dependence on Hydrogeologic Properties Quanlin Zhou, Jens Birkholzer, Jonny Rutqvist, and Chin-Fu Tsang Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Road, MS 90-1116, Berkeley, CA 94720 SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON CARBON CAPTURE AND SEQUESTRATION - DOE/NETL May 7 - 10, 2007
HOST RANGE AND PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF IRANIAN ISOLATES OF ZUCCHINI YELLOW MOSAIC VIRUS

The host range and molecular variation of several Iranian isolates of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) were investigated. Of 1,119 symptomatic cucurbit samples and one symptomatic weed species (Colocynth; Citrullus colocynthis) collected from 13 Iranian provinces, 430 samples were ZYMV-infected as indicated by DASELISA. Twenty one viral isolates were chosen for biological and molecular characterizations based on their host range and geographical distribution. Based on biological properties, the isolates clustered in three groups. Isolates of group I and II, induced similar symptoms on watermelon, Chenopodium quinoa and C. amaranticolor, whereas isolates of group III produced different symptoms. The complete coat protein (CP) gene, the N-terminal coding region of the CP gene and the C-terminal part of the polymerase gene (NIb) of the 21 isolates were amplified by PCR, cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis using the 836 bp fragment comprising the complete CP gene and the 250 bp of NIb-CP fragment showed that ZYMV isolates clustered in three groups. Iranian isolates belonged to group I which was divided into two subgroups, IA and IB.
Interrelations between continuous and discrete lattice filter structures

The authors explore the connection between continuous and discrete lattice filtering algorithms. Lattice filters become ill-defined when applied to continuous-time processes sampled at very fast rates. It is shown that these problems are resolved if the standard formulation of lattice filter structures, based on the forward shift operator, is replaced by an alternative formulation based on the incremental difference (or delta) operator. The lattice algorithms corresponding to the continuous and discrete cases are presented in a unified framework, thereby revealing their common structure. It is shown that when the discrete problem is obtained by sampling an underlying continuous time system, then the lattice filter corresponding to the discrete case converges in a well defined sense to the solution of the underlying continuous problem as the sampling period approaches zero. <<ETX>>