Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Consensus Analysis to Assess Mental Models about Water Use and Management in the Crocodile River Catchment, South Africa

The content, structure, and distribution of mental models can be elicited and measured using a variety of methods. In this article we explore a method for eliciting mental models within the context of water use and management in South Africa. This method is consensus analysis, a technique developed in cognitive anthropology. We used it to analyze qualitative data from semistructured interviews, pilesorts, and questionnaires to test quantitatively the degree of sharing and diversity of mental models within and across social groups. The consensus analysis method focused on comparing the mental models of two key stakeholder groups in the Crocodile River catchment in South Africa, i.e., conservationists and irrigators, to better understand the level of consensus between these groups. We specifically investigated the level of agreement regarding: (1) major water users of the Crocodile River, (2) causes of the current problems with flows in the river, (3) consequences of the river not flowing, and 4) priorities for future use. We discuss the results and examine the strengths and challenges of consensus analysis for eliciting and measuring mental models. We also evaluated the usefulness of this method in assisting natural resource managers to identify strategies for improving integrated management of water resources.
Measures of Environmental Performance

Sustainable development was recognized and accepted easily as a vision for afuture in which the “limits of growth” are respected while the wealth and welfare of humans continues to increase. Governments, companies, communities, and even individuals are now aware that environment needs more consideration and some effort should be invested in protecting or restoring it. Most of these efforts mean higher costs and lower incomes or profit, contradicting the basic tenets of economics. Nevertheless, there is an area where the interests could and should meet. This area is efficiency, and since it could be interpreted from the perspective of environmental outcomes, is ecoefficiency. Reducing water consumption, energy use, amount of waste that is generated, volume of discharged waste water means for a company less costs. In case that these reductions are occurring and production is steady or even increasing, efficiency is improved, along with the environmental performance of the company. The paper explains the rational of eco-efficiency concept and makes comments on a number of quantitative approaches.
Online Communities and the Affordances of Anonymity

In many cases the affordances of an online space have a crucial role in creating the “shape” of an online community including the adoption of cultural norms based on the structural restrictions of a given space. What then becomes a driving factor in producing outcomes—the structure of a technological space, the guiding principle of a cultural value, or the agency of actors? Anonymity in online communities offers a useful lens to explore questions about affordances and online communities, in particular, in relation to political mobilization. This paper is an attempt to articulate how the intricacies of anonymity can generate different types of political outcomes.
Control of Systemic Inflammation and Chronic Diseases—The Use of Turmeric and Curcuminoids

The world suffers an epidemic of both critical illness (CI) and chronic diseases (ChDs), and both groups of diseases increase from year to year, and have done so for several decades. It is strongly associated to the modern, so-called Western, lifestyle: stress, lack of exercise, abuse of tobacco and alcohol, and the transition from natural unprocessed foods to processed, calorie-condensed, and heat-treated foods. There is a strong association between reduced intake of plant fibers and plant antioxidants and increased consumption of industrially produced and processed products especially dairy, refined sugars, and starch products and ChDs. Heating up foods such as milk (pasteurization) and production and storage of milk powder produce large amounts of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and advanced lipid oxidation end products (ALEs), known as potent inducers of inflammation (see further Chapter 20). Numerous plant-derived, but also microbederived, substances, often referred to as chemopreventive agents, have documented anti-inflammatory effects and are believed to reduce speed of aging and preventdegenerativemalfunctionsoforgansandalso development of acute and chronic diseases. Among these are various curcumenoids, active ingredients in turmeric curry foods, and thousands more of hitherto little or totally unexplored substances. This chapter focuses on documented experimental and clinical effects of supplementation of turmeric, various curcumenoids, and pure curcumin. Regrettably, only few clinical studies in human have been performed in contrast to an abundance of studies in experimental animals.
Surface plasmon microscopy measurements of lipid vesicle adsorption on a micropatterned self-assembled monolayer

This paper presents a novel method of measuring the adsorption of egg-phosphatidylcholine (egg-PC) vesicles onto a micropatterned heterogeneous self-assembled monolayer (SAM). Microcontact printing (μCP) was used to make an array of mercaptoethanol patches surrounded by an octadecanethiol (ODT) SAM. Surface plasmon microscopy (SPM) followed the change in the different plasmon minima of the mercaptoethanol and ODT SAMs with respect to lipid adsorption time. Gray scale analysis (GSA) of the two domains showed clear differences in the kinetics of lipid adsorption, which were equated to a very different mechanism of lipid vesicle fusion on microcontact printed (μCP) SAMs compared with homogeneous SAMs. Surface plasmon microscopy combined with GSA has allowed us to spatially deconvolute the adsorption of lipid on a patterned surface, giving a unique insight into the lipid adsorption process. Conventional surface plasmon resonance measurements were made on the homogeneous SAM moieties in order to quantify the g.
The Synthesis of Highly Active Iridium(I) Complexes and their Application in Catalytic Hydrogen Isotope Exchange

A series of robust iridium(I) complexes bearing a sterically encumbered N-heterocyclic carbene ligand, alongside a phosphine ligand, has been synthesised and investigated in hydrogen isotope exchange processes. These complexes have allowed isotope incorporation over a range of substrates with the use of practically convenient deuterium and tritium gas. Moreover, these active catalysts are capable of isotope incorporation to particularly high levels, whilst employing low catalyst loadings and in short reaction times. In addition to this, these new catalyst species have shown flexible levels of chemoselectivity, which can be altered by simple manipulation of preparative approaches. Furthermore, a number of industrially-relevant drug molecules have also been labelled, including the sulfonamide containing drug, Celecoxib. Alongside detailed NMR experiments, initial mechanistic investigations have also been performed, providing insight into both substrate binding energies, and, more importantly, relative energies of key steps in the mechanistic cycle as part of the overall exchange process.
LRO observations of morphology and surface roughness of volcanic cones and lobate lava flows in the Marius Hills

The volcanic domes, cones, sinuous rilles, and pyroclastic deposits of the Marius Hills region of the Moon (~13.4°N, 304.6°E) represent a significant episode of magmatic activity at or near the lunar surface that is still poorly understood. Comparisons between LROC NAC block populations, Mini‐RF data, and Diviner‐derived rock abundances confirm that blocky lava flows comprise the domes of the Marius Hills. 8 µm features measured by Diviner indicate that the domes are not rich in silica and are not significantly different than surrounding mare materials. LROC observations indicate that some of the dome‐building lava flows originated directly from volcanic cones. Many of the cones are C‐shaped, while others are irregularly shaped, and local topography and lava eruptions affect cone shape. In general, the cones are morphologically similar to terrestrial cinder and lava cones and are composed of varying amounts of cinder, spatter, and lava. Many of the cones are found in local groupings or alignments. The wide range of volcanic features, from broad low domes to steep cones, represents a range of variable eruption conditions. Complex morphologies and variable layering show that eruption conditions were variable over the plateau.
Representing and learning relations and properties under uncertainty

The world around us is composed of entities, each having various properties and participating in relationships with other entities. Consequently, data is often inherently relational. This dissertation studies probabilistic relational representations, reasoning and learning with a focus on three common prediction problems for relational data: link prediction, property prediction, and joint prediction. For link prediction, we develop a tensor factorization model called SimplE which is simple, interpretable, fully-expressive, and integratable with certain types of domain expert knowledge. On two standard benchmarks for knowledge graph completion, we show how SimplE outperforms the state-of-the-art models. For property prediction, first we study the limitations of the existing StaRAI models when being used for property prediction. Based on this study, we develop relational neural networks which combine ideas from lifted relational models with deep learning and perform well empirically. We base the joint prediction on lifted relational models for which parameter learning typically requires inference over a highly-connected graphical model. The inference step is usually the bottleneck for learning. We study a class of inference algorithms known as lifted inference which makes inference tractable by exploiting both conditional independence and symmetries. We study two ways of speeding up lifted inference algorithms: 1through proposing heuristics for elimination ordering and 2through compiling the lifted operations to low-level languages. We also expand the largest known class of models for which we know how to do efficient lifted inference. Thus, structure learning algorithms for lifted relational models that restrict the search space to models for which efficient inference algorithms exist can perform their search over a larger space.
Cause Related Marketing and its Impact on Sales: Mediating by Brand Loyalty and Customer Purchase Intention

The objective of this study is to test both CRM and sales are related direct one and examines the impact of CRM campaigns on brand loyalty, consumer purchase intention and ultimately on sales. The questionnaire was distributed among students and employees of different universities and organizations. A total of 629 properly filled questionnaires were processed for analysis. A five point Likert scale was used to assess the respondents’ level of agreement or disagreement. This study concludes that the cause related marketing campaigns have positive influence on the sale activities of companies. This link is also mediated by brand loyalty and consumer purchase intention that eventually have positive effect on sales.
Is There Anything Special About Intergenerational Approaches to Older People with Dementia? A Review

Background: The recent G8 Dementia summit declaration is evidence of the importance that governments around the world are now attaching to the importance of tackling dementia. It is timely and increasingly important to find effective ways of delaying the progression of dementia. With rising life expectancy, caring for older adults with dementia leads to escalating costs related to long-term care and informal care. Although there is a growing literature on psychosocial interventions for people with dementia, there are few studies taking an intergenerational perspective. This study aims to review the evidence on the impacts of intergenerational activities on older adults with dementia. Methods: A literature review was performed to explore the effects of intergenerational activities on older people with dementia. The search included English-language publications that reported original data from January 1986 to mid-2014. Studies were published in a peer-reviewed journal with no country restrictions. Supplementary searches were conducted and a narrative synthesis was performed. Results: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. Overall, it was found that intergenerational approaches had positive impacts on quality of life, stress, more constructive engagement styles exhibited, reduced agitation, improved cognitive functioning, delayed recall and better social interaction. However, mixed results were shown for effects on depression, self-worth and purpose of life in older people with mild to moderate dementia. Conclusion: This review suggests that there is potential for the use of interactive programmes across generations as a cost-effective strategy for slowing down the process of cognitive decline by enhancing social capital and promoting well-being for older adults with dementia. More studies combining qualitative and quantitative analyses based on randomised controlled trials are needed for older adults with advanced stage of dementia in various country contexts.
Matching Grants and Charitable Giving: Why People Sometimes Provide a Helping Hand to Fund Environmental Goods

Matching grants are a prevalent mechanism for funding environmental, conservation, and natural resource projects. However, economists have largely been silent regarding the potential benefits of these mechanisms at increasing voluntary contributions. To examine the behavioral responses to different match levels, this research uses controlled laboratory experiments with generically framed instructions and introduces a general-form matching-grant mechanism, referred to as the proportional contribution mechanism (PCM). Results show that contributions are positively correlated with both the match and the induced value of the public good even when a dominant strategy is free-riding. An implication of this partial demand revelation result is that manifestations of this type of “helping hand” social preference should be counted in benefit-cost analysis.
The distribution of the chaetognath population and its interaction with environmental characteristics in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea

Abstract The Bay of Bengal (BoB) and the Arabian Sea (AS), the two major ocean basins in the north Indian Ocean, share similarities in geographical and meteorological characteristics but differ in hydrographic characteristics and biological production. The BoB is traditionally considered a less productive region than the AS. Chaetognatha, a major taxon of carnivorous mesozooplankton, often rank second in abundance to copepods and thus play a pivotal role in the pelagic food web of this region. We studied the influence of environmental variables on the distribution and the diversity of chaetognaths in these two ocean basins. Of the 21 species observed during the study, Flaccisagitta enflata dominated in the mixed layer to the thermocline, Decipisagitta decipiens from the bottom of the thermocline to 500 m and Eukrohnia fowleri below 500 m. Mesoscale and basin-scale processes such as eddies, gyres and upwelling had a profound influence on the abundance in the upper layer, while the presence of an oxygen minimum zone in the mid-depth layers had a crucial effect on the vertical distribution of the chaetognath population. Despite the variation in the controlling factors on chaetognath populations in the BoB and AS, the patterns of depth-specific abundance were similar.
The Value of Volume in Foreign Exchange∗

We investigate the information content of foreign exchange (FX) volume using a novel dataset from CLS, the leading FX settlement institution. Consistent with theoretical predictions from models containing liquidity trading and private information, we find that FX volume embeds predictive information for both the time series and cross section of currency returns, which generates substantial economic value. A reversal investment strategy that conditions on past daily volume generates an annualized return of over 19% and a Sharpe ratio of 1.82. We show the returns remain high after accounting for bid-ask spreads, and are unrelated to other common currency strategies and risk factors.
Information v. Energy Efficiency Incentives: Evidence from Residential Electricity Consumption in Maryland

We focus on two utility programs intended to reduce energy usage and the associated CO2 emissions—a home energy audit and rebates on the purchase of high-efficiency air-source heat pumps. We use a unique panel dataset from participating and non-participating households to estimate the average treatment effect of participating in either program on electricity usage. We fit models with household-by-season, season-by-year, and household-by-year fixed effects to account for all possible confounders that might be influence energy usage. Since the programs are voluntary, we seek to restore near-exogeneity of the program “treatment” by matching participating households with control households. We deploy coarsened exact matching (CEM; Iacus et al., 2011) as our main matching method. We ask whether it is sufficient to match households based on past electricity usage, or if we gain by adding structural characteristics of the home, including heating system type. We find that the two programs reduce electricity usage by 5% on average. The effects are strong in both winter and summer for the energy audit group but appear to be stronger in the winter for the heat pump rebate group. Adding house characteristics to the matching variables does seem to affect results, suggesting that using past usage alone may not be sufficient to identify the effects of program participation.
Effect of Bt-cottonseed meal feeding on performance, fermentation, ciliates population and microbial hydrolytic enzymes in lamb

Effect of the Bt - or conventional cottonseed meal was assessed as well as the performance, fermentation, ciliate protozoa population and microbial enzyme of lambs. Three feed mixture (FM, forage: concentrate ration of 35: 65) contained groundnut oilmeal (GNM), insect protected Btcottonseed meal ( Bt -CM) or conventional whole cottonseed (C-CM) as protein source, were fed for 123 days to the control, C-CM and Bt -CM group of lambs, respectively. Whole seed meal Bt - and C-CM had similar nutrient composition. The Ca was higher while Zn content was lower in C-CM. Both CM had similar metabolizable energy (MJ/kg DM). Lambs of three groups had similar daily gain, DM intake and nutrient digestibility. Rumen fluid pH and TVFA were similar, while ammonia-N (mg/l) was higher (p<0.001) in control lambs. Cottonseed feeding eliminated (p<0.001) rumen protozoa; protozoa were 101.1, 59.0 and 39.6 ×104/ ml in rumen fluid respectively in control, C-CM and Bt -CM diet fed lambs. Rumen enzymes activities of xyalanase, β-glucosidase and β-xylosidase were similar, while Bt -CM feeding reduced (p=0.010) carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) activity by 47% and increased proteases activity by 22%. The study concludes that inclusion of Bt-CM produced pronounced defaunation with reduced rumen ammonia concentrations, which improved daily gain. Therefore, Bt -CM can be incorporated at 180 g/kg in lamb diet. Keywords: Cottonseed, genetically modified feed, performance, fermentation, rumen enzymes African Journal of Biotechnology , Vol. 13(3), pp. 509-522, 15 January, 2014
Plasticity of N:P ratios in laboratory and field populations of Trichodesmium spp.

We followed changes in N:P ratios in batch cultures of the planktonic marine cyanobac- terium Trichodesmium (IMS 101) grown in 2 different media and in field populations from 4 different oceanic regions. Cultures grown on low P media showed a rapid rise in N:P ratio upon depletion of phosphate. Ratios exceeding 125 were reached in 1 experiment before attaining stationary phase. A transect across the North Atlantic Ocean along 32° N showed a monotonic decrease in the N:P ratio of field collected colonies, dropping from about 60:1 on the western side of the basin to about 30:1 on the eastern side. A second cruise sampled colonies and surface slicks in waters along the north coast of Australia, where ratios of N:P were generally lower than in the North Atlantic, ranging from 11:1 to 47:1 with an average of 22:1. A comparison of rising and sinking colonies collected at 8 stations in the Gulf of Mexico shows a higher mean N:P ratio among sinking colonies than floating colonies. Overall, the average N:P in the Gulf of Mexico was about 68:1. N:P ratios of Trichodesmium around the Hawaiian Islands were very consistent between 2 consecutive years of sampling, with an average colony N:P for both years of about 38:1. Our research demonstrates high variability in the cellular N:P in Trichodesmium both in the laboratory and in the field. Trichodesmium N:P ratio may provide an index to the relative severity of P limitation in these diazotrophs. Geochemical and ecological model- ing efforts which rely on using the N:P ratio of diazotrophs in deriving nitrogen fixation rates should account for the variability of these ratios in situ.
Light-Curve Modelling Constraints on the Obliquities and Aspect Angles of the Young Fermi Pulsars

In more than four years of observation the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi satellite has identified pulsed γ-ray emission from more than 80 young or middle-aged pulsars, in most cases providing light curves with high statistics. Fitting the observed profiles with geometrical models can provide estimates of the magnetic obliquity α and of the line of sight angle ζ, yielding estimates of the radiation beaming factor and radiated luminosity. Using different γ-ray emission geometries (Polar Cap, Slot Gap, Outer Gap, One Pole Caustic) and core plus cone geometries for the radio emission, we fit γ-ray light curves for 76 young or middle-aged pulsars and we jointly fit their γ-ray plus radio light curves when possible. We find that a joint radio plus γ-ray fit strategy is important to obtain (α,ζ) estimates that can explain simultaneously detectable radio and γ-ray emission: when the radio emission is available, the inclusion of the radio light curve in the fit leads to important changes in the (α,ζ) solutions. The most pronounced changes are observed for Outer Gap and One Pole Caustic models for which the γ-ray only fit leads to underestimated α or ζ when the solution is found to the left or to the right of the main α-ζ plane diagonal respectively. The intermediate-to-high altitude magnetosphere models, Slot Gap, Outer Gap, and One pole Caustic, are favoured in explaining the observations. We find no apparent evolution of α on a time scale of 106 years. For all emission geometries our derived γ-ray beaming factors are generally less than one and do not significantly evolve with the spin-down power. A more pronounced beaming factor vs. spin-down power correlation is observed for Slot Gap model and radio-quiet pulsars and for the Outer Gap model and radio-loud pulsars. The beaming factor distributions exhibit a large dispersion that is less pronounced for the Slot Gap case and that decreases from radio-quiet to radio-loud solutions. For all models, the correlation between γ-ray luminosity and spin-down power is consistent with a square root dependence. The γ-ray luminosities obtained by using the beaming factors estimated in the framework of each model do not exceed the spin-down power. This suggests that assuming a beaming factor of one for all objects, as done in other studies, likely overestimates the real values. The data show a relation between the pulsar spectral characteristics and the width of the accelerator gap. The relation obtained in the case of the Slot Gap model is consistent with the theoretical prediction.