Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tree cumulants and the geometry of binary tree models

In this paper we investigate undirected discrete graphical tree models when all the variables in the system are binary, where leaves represent the observable variables and where all the inner nodes are unobserved. A novel approach based on the theory of partially ordered sets allows us to obtain a convenient parametrization of this model class. The construction of the proposed coordinate system mirrors the combinatorial definition of cumulants. A simple product-like form of the resulting parametrization gives insight into identifiability issues associated with this model class. In particular, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for such a model to be identified up to the switching of labels of the inner nodes. When these conditions hold, we give explicit formulas for the parameters of the model. Whenever the model fails to be identified, we use the new parametrization to describe the geometry of the unidentified parameter space. We illustrate these results using a simple example.
Biogeographic analysis of ribosomal RNA clusters from marine bacterioplankton

Bacterial cosmopolitanism, which has for a long time been accepted by most micro- biologists, confronts recent reports of endemic species and restricted distributions. From a marine perspective, our current knowledge is lacking global pictures of bacterioplankton distribution. Public databases storing nucleotide sequences grow daily from recurrent environmental analyses of the microbial community using the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rDNA) sequence as a marker of bacterial occurrence. These studies significantly contribute to our understanding of the global microbial processes. To address the question of whether marine bacterioplankton are cosmopolitan, 7070 SSU rDNA sequences submitted to GenBank were analyzed for sampling information and clustered into distinct ribotypes, based on sequence similarity levels. The resulting distribution maps displayed remarkable patterns of distributions of some members of the bacterioplankton community. Despite a strong bias toward sampling sites in the northern temperate regions of the globe, specific ribotypes showed ubiquitous dispersal whereas other ribotypes showed a distribution restricted to polar regions. These results suggest that marine bacterioplankton components present unexpected global patterns of distributions, where cosmopolitanism appears as an occasional trait.
Human Resource Management and Employee Performance in Federal University of Technology Akure

The study on human resources and the performance of employees in an organization have taken different faces of attention amidst various scholars and professionals in recent past, but this study dwells on the effectiveness of human resources in achieving a better employee performance. Based on this premise, the study examined the effectiveness of human resource management in achieving employee performance in The Federal University of Technology, Akure. The study examines effectiveness of training and development in enhance employee skills, knowledge and attitude to work and evaluate effect of promotion exercise on labour turnover. Survey method was adopted in gathering data and the data collected were carefully analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages, mean, standard deviation, relative importance index and chi-square in testing of the research hypotheses.The study shows that there is a significant relationship between human resource management and employee performance as all tends to have a significant effect on each other. The study concludes that training and development of staff should be a routine activity irrespective of the cadre, and promotion exercise is free from biased. The study therefore recommends that effective training and development, and promotion exercise truly enhance employee performance.
THE POTENTIAL POLLINATORS OF CAESALPINIA CRISTA (LEGUMINOSAE : CAESALPINIOIDAE)

Caesalpinia crista is one of the economically important medicinal plants of the family Leguminosae and is considered to be one of the best medicines to cure malaria. It is a large straggling, very thorny shrub with hooks and straight hard yellow prickles with nectaries at its base which attracts a considerable number of nectar feeding insects as it is an insect pollinated plant. The pollination ecology of C. crista was investigated through direct observation and video recording during the flowering period for three consecutive years (2009-2011) at Rani Reserve Forest, Assam, North Eastern India situated at 26o01' N to 26o06' N Latitude and 91o35' E to 91o42' E Longitude. In this present study, 22 species of insects were recorded in association with the plant among which 10 are major pollinators and the remaining 12 are minor pollinators of the plant. Among the 10 pollinator insects, seven potential pollinators was found to be exclusively bee species, Apis cerana, Anthophora semperi, Xylocopa aestuens, Xylocopa latipes, Megachile disjuncta, Megachile latipes and Megachile sp. Future conservation and management of this medicinally important plant species needs to take into account the needs and biology of its potential pollinators.
Access to Arable Land by Rural Women in Cameroon

Summary This study examines rural women access to and control of agricultural production resources in arable small-scale sustainable agricultural production in a developing country setting. Specifically, the study addresses the women’s level of accessibility and control of arable land in agricultural production in the North West Region of Cameroon. The objectives of the study were: (a) to determine the extent to which rural women in the study area gain access to and control small-scale arable land; and (b) to assess the degree of association between access to small-scale arable land by rural women and their level of control of the arable land. The study relied on a one-shot case study design. The method of data collection consisted surveying a randomly selected sample of 1,120 rural women involved in small-scale agricultural production in the study area. The data obtained from the survey were analyzed using the following statistical procedures: (1) frequency distribution, (2) correlation analysis, and (3) one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results revealed that rural women farmers do have access to arable land through their families, but do not control arable land, and there is no association between access to and control of arable land. The study recommends that developing countries involved in arable small-scale agricultural production, should consider adopting agricultural policies that include rural women in decision-making, implementation, and evaluation of agricultural production inputs and outcomes.
Antioxidant Activity and Quality Characteristics of Pine Needle Cookies

Pine needle powder has medical and functional uses. In this study, cookies were prepared using different 0.5%, 1%, 3%, 5% of pine needle powder. The total phenolic content was measured by the Folin-Ciocalteu method, and antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH assay. The antioxidant activity was highly correlated with the total phenolic composition of pine needle cookies (r=0.989). In addition, the quality characteristics of the pine needle cookies were estimated based on the bulk density and pH of the dough, spread factor, loss rate, leavening rate, color, texture profile analysis, and sensory evaluations. The bulk density of the dough and the hardness, total polyphenol contents and DPPH free radical scavenging activity of cookies significantly increased with increasing pine needle powder, while the pH of the dough, spread factor and L values of the cookies decreased with increasing pine needle powder content (p<0.05). Additionally, the consumer acceptability scores for the 3% pine needle cookie groups ranked significantly (p<0.05) higher than those of the other groups in appearance, taste, flavor, texture and overall preference. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that pine needle powder is a good ingredient for increasing the consumer acceptability and the functionality of cookies.
Predictive potential and risks of selected bankruptcy prediction models in the Slovak business environment

In our study, we focused on the assessment of four bankruptcy prediction models, to figure out which model is most appropriate in the conditions of the Slovak business environment. Based on the previous research within the Slovak conditions, we set a portfolio of 4 models to be assessed: Altman model (1984), Ohlson model (1980), indexes IN01 and IN05 that were validated on the sample of 700 Slovak companies. Based on previous studies we expected that IN indexes are superior to Ohlson and Altman model. The excellency of our research lies in validation and assessing the accuracy of bankruptcy prediction models at three levels: the overall accuracy, accuracy of the bankruptcy prediction, and the non-bankruptcy prediction accuracy. This analytical structure enables to look at the topic more complexly and to increase the objectification of accuracy of analysed models. Based on the results, we showed that Ohlson model is not applicable to predict bankruptcy in the Slovak conditions as reached the lowest bankruptcy prediction ability even if has high non bankruptcy prediction ability. On the other hand, we have confirmed our expectation about the bankruptcy prediction ability of index IN05, that is proven to be superior to Ohlson and Altman model and so is the most appropriate model for Slovak business environment.
Neural Network in Modeling Malaysian Oil Palm Yield

Problem statement: Forecasting of palm oil yield has become an important element in the management of oil palm industry for proper planning and decision making. The importance of yield forecasting has led us to explore modeling of palm oil yield for Malaysia using the most recent development of Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The main issue in yield forecasting is to predict the future value with the minimum error. Approach: Artificial neural networks are computing systems containing many interconnected nonlinear neurons, capable of extracting linear and nonlinear regularity in a given data set. It is an artificial intelligence model originally designed to replicate the human brain’s learning process, a network with many elements or neurons that are connected by communications channels or connectors. The ANN can perform a particular function when certain values are assigned to the connections or weights between elements. In this study, a secondary data set from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) on the foliar nutrient composition, fertilizer trials and Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) yield were taken and analyzed. The foliar nutrient composition variables are the nitrogen N, phosphorus P, potassium K, calcium Ca and magnesium Mg concentration, while the fertilizer trials data are the N, P, K and Mg fertilizers and are measured in kg per palm per year. The foliar composition data was presented in the form of measured values whiles the fertilizer data in ordinal levels, from zero to three. Results: Two experiments were conducted to demonstrate the implementation ANN and for both experiment, the result demonstrated that the number of hidden nodes produces an effect to the overall forecast performance of the ANN architecture. From the first experiment, it shows that the number of runs does not affect the ANN performance, but changing the momentum to learning rates, due to shows a significant improvement in the forecast result. The experimental result will be in the form of statistical analysis, the best neural network performance, the residual analysis and the effect on the learning rate on the NN performance. Conclusion: This study showed that modeling of oil palm yield using neural network requires data to be prepared or modified to satisfy the requirement of the parameters involved. This analysis yields the conclusion that only the number of hidden nodes has a significant influence on the NN performance and there is no effect resulting from the number of runs or the momentum term value on the neural network’s performance.
Assessing Avian Predation on Juvenile Salmonids using Passive Integrated Transponder Tag Recoveries and Mark–Recapture Methods

Abstract Many populations of coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch and steelhead O. mykiss are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Until recently, the role of avian predation in limiting recovery of coho salmon and steelhead in central California coastal watersheds has been overlooked. We used recoveries of passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags from Ano Nuevo Island (ANI), a breeding site for several species of piscivorous seabirds, to estimate predation rates on juvenile salmonids and identify susceptible life stages and species responsible for predation. A total of 34,485 PIT tags were deployed in coho salmon and steelhead in six watersheds in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. Tags were deposited on ANI by predators after ingestion of tagged fish. Because tags were not removed from the island and were detected on multiple sampling occasions, we were able to use mark–recapture models to generate a corrected minimum predation estimate. We used POPAN, a variation of the Jolly–Seber model, to gene.
Dietary Phenolic Compounds and Vitamin E Bioavailability Model studies in rats and humans

Frank, J. 2004. Dietary Phenolic Compounds and Vitamin E Bioavailability – Model studies in rats and humans. Doctoral dissertation. ISSN 1401-6249, ISBN 91-576-6453-6. The human diet contains a vast number of dietary phenolic compounds of which vitamin E represents only one class. Vitamin E is a generic name for all substances exerting the biological functions of a-tocopherol. The two quantitatively most important E vitamers are aand g-tocopherol (a-T and g-T). The fat soluble vitamin E i s absorbed and transported in the circulation to the liver where a-T is preferentially resecreted into the bloodstream while the other vitamers are degraded by cytochrome P450 enzymes to the water-soluble carboxyethyl hydroxychroman (CEHC) metabolites excreted in the urine. Thus, a-T blood concentrations are usually 4-10 times higher than those of g-T. Vitamin E is mainly recognized to protect cell components from oxidative damage, but has also been reported to inter alia control gene expression and cellular signalling pathways. This thesis aimed at investigating the effects of dietary phenolic compounds on the bioavailability of vitamin E in model studies. To this purpose, polyphenols were incorporated into standardized, semi-synthetic diets and fed to male Sprague-Dawley rats for 4 weeks. Blood plasma, liver and lung tissue concentrations of a-T and g-T were determined. The sesame lignan sesamin and cereal alkylresorcinols greatly increased the bioavailability of g-T, but not a-T, in all tissues. In contrast, the flaxseed lignan secoisolariciresinol diglucoside reduced the bioavailability of both tocopherols. The flavanols (+)-catechin and ()-epicatechin and the preservative butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) markedly enhanced the bioavailability of a-T in all analysed tissues. Curcumin and the tested anthocyanins and phenolic acids exerted only minor, inconsistent effects in different tissues in the rat model. In order to study the impact of selected polyphenols on the enzymatic degradation of vitamin E, HepG2 cells were incubated together with phenolic compounds in the presence of tocopherols and the formation of metabolites was determined. Sesamin almost completely inhibited tocopherol side-chain degradation and cereal alkylresorcinols inhibited it, dose-dependently, by 20-80%. BHT and (+)-catechin had no effect on tocopherol-w-hydroxylase activity in HepG2 cells. To verify the inhibition of g-T metabolism by sesame lignans in humans, sesame oil or corn oil muffins together with deuterated d6-a-T and d2-g-T were given to volunteers. Blood and urine samples were collected for 72 hours and analysed for deuterated and non-deuterated tocopherols and their metabolites. Consumption of sesame oil muffins significantly reduced the urinary excretion of d2-g-CEHC. Overall, the findings from this thesis show that dietary phenolic compounds alter vitamin E bioavailability in humans and animals through various mechanisms.
Biological control of sheath blight of rice by Trichoderma harzianum using different delivery systems

Differential mode of application (delivery system) of Trichoderma harzianum influenced the biological control potential of the bioagent against sheath blight of rice under both glasshouse and field conditions. Disease severity and incidence were significantly reduced by application of bioagent in all cases except for soil treatment under glasshouse conditions. Among different delivery systems evaluated, a mixed mode of application comprising of soil treatment, root dipping and foliar spray altogether, was found most effective under glasshouse conditions showing significantly reduced values for disease severity ( 29.07per cent) and disease incidence (58.40 per cent) as compared to other treatments. For field application, foliar spray was found superior showing significantly reduced disease severity (40.82 per cent) as compared to other treatments. Grain yield was significantly increased due to bioagent application using any mode under field conditions. Results were more pronounced after second spray at 30 days than the first spray at 15 days. However, among different delivery systems evaluated, soil treatment was found least effective for control of sheath blight of rice under both glass house and field conditions.
Surface clear‐sky shortwave radiative closure intercomparisons in the Weather Research and Forecasting model

The ability of the Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for GCMs (RRTMG) and Goddard shortwave (SW) radiative schemes to reproduce global (GHI), direct (DNI), and diffuse (DIF) fluxes at the surface in clear‐sky conditions is examined within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) modeling framework. The models were forced using measurements of precipitable water and aerosol optical properties from five AERONET sites and were evaluated against high‐quality observations of GHI, DNI, and DIF at four nearby or coincident sites of the SURFRAD network and one at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Central Facility in the contiguous US. In addition, the performance has been intercompared against the Dudhia broadband SW parameterization together with a regressive model to calculate DNI and DIF and the top‐class SMARTS2 SW spectral model. The role of aerosols has been investigated by running the models with and without aerosols. All of them have shown outstanding skill at predicting GHI within the range of the expected observational error, regardless of whether aerosol information is provided as input. When aerosol information is not provided, DNI and DIF are affected by strong biases. In contrast, providing observed aerosols as input solves the bias issue for DNI and nearly does for DIF using the RRTMG scheme. The RRTMG has also proven to have high potential skill for long‐term assessment of clear‐sky GHI, DNI, and DIF irradiance, as long as reliable aerosol inputs are provided. Considering its simplicity, the Dudhia scheme has also shown a remarkable ability for solar resource assessment in clear‐sky conditions.
Reproducible optical noise-like signal generation subjected by digital sequences

We experimentally demonstrate a reproducible broadband optical noise-like signal generation scheme whereby dispersion induced phase modulation to intensity modulation conversion and an electro-optic nonlinear transform are utilized to post process a binary random sequence. A flat spectrum and a symmetrical distribution of the generated analog noise-like signal can be observed. Moreover, Gaussian-like probability distribution function can be obtained by using the central limit theorem. The influences of the digital input and the analog parameters on complexity performance of the generated analogue noise are discussed in detail. Finally, the impact of key parameters on the reproducibility of the system is discussed. The proposed scheme could be a more controllable way to generate broadband optical noise-like signal, and has potential to be applied in various real world applications.
Tropospheric Ozone Increases over the Southern Africa Region: Bellwether for Rapid Growth in Southern Hemisphere Pollution?

Abstract. Increases in free-tropospheric (FT) ozone based on ozonesonde records from the early 1990s through 2008 over two subtropical stations, Irene (near Pretoria, South Africa) and Reunion (21° S, 55° E; ~2800 km NE of Irene in the Indian Ocean), have been reported. Over Irene a large increase in the urban-influenced boundary layer (BL, 1.5–4 km) was also observed during the 18-year period, equivalent to 30% decade−1. Here we show that the Irene BL trend is at least partly due to a gradual change in the sonde launch times from early morning to the midday period. The FT ozone profiles over Irene in 1990–2007 are re-examined, filling in a 1995–1999 gap with ozone profiles taken during the Measurements of Ozone by Airbus In-service Aircraft (MOZAIC) project over nearby Johannesburg. A multivariate regression model that accounts for the annual ozone cycle, El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and possible tropopause changes was applied to monthly averaged Irene data from 4 to 11 km and to 1992–2011 Reunion sonde data from 4 to 15 km. Statistically significant trends appear predominantly in the middle and upper troposphere (UT; 4–11 km over Irene, 4–15 km over Reunion) in winter (June–August), with increases ~1 ppbv yr−1 over Irene and ~2 ppbv yr−1 over Reunion. These changes are equivalent to ~25 and 35–45% decade−1, respectively. Both stations also display smaller positive trends in summer, with a 45% decade−1 ozone increase near the tropopause over Reunion in December. To explain the ozone increases, we investigated a time series of dynamical markers, e.g., potential vorticity (PV) at 330–350 K. PV affects UT ozone over Irene in November–December but displays little relationship with ozone over Reunion. A more likely reason for wintertime FT ozone increases over Irene and Reunion appears to be long-range transport of growing pollution in the Southern Hemisphere. The ozone increases are consistent with trajectory origins of air parcels sampled by the sondes and with recent NOx emissions trends estimated for Africa, South America and Madagascar. For Reunion trajectories also point to sources from the eastern Indian Ocean and Asia.