Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adoption Model of Falcataria-Based Farm Forestry : A Duration Analysis Approach

Farm forestry is a form of farming systems that provides economic and environmental benefits. The salient feature of this system is the incorporation of commercial perennial plants, in particular forest trees, into farming systems and can take many forms, including timber belts, alleys and widespread tree plantings. While the system in some locations has been well adopted, the farmers or land users in other location are reluctant to adopt them, although the traits of farmers and farm land in both locations are similar. Recent adoption studies of farm forestry were in general applied static approaches which overlooked the dynamic aspect of adoption decisions. Meanwhile, information about dynamics of adoption decision making is necessity in designing extension policies as well as reengineering innovations to align with socio-economic conditions of the farmers. To close this gap, this paper is to examine factors affecting the speed of farm forestry adoption among small-holders using duration analysis. Results show that the speed of adoption were influenced by some variables included age of household head, level of education of household head, off-farm employment and output price. It is found that farmers with older age tend to adopt faster than the younger ones. The speed of adoption were also affected by whether the farmers engaged in off-farm employment or being a member of farmers group. The policy implications of this research are that government should design policies that promote farmers’ participation in off-farm income activities and strengthening farmer groups in addition to extension services and timber markets.
IMPERMEABLE HOT MIX ASPHALT PAVEMENTS

Obtaining adequate density is a major requirement in the construction of hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements. Density is very much related to the air voids. As air voids increase, the density decreases. This study determined the maximum in-place air void for impermeable HMA pavements. A total of 497 core samples were obtained from 57 different ongoing HMA construction projects immediately after rolling. Nine different mix types utilised in this study were fine dense-graded 9.5 mm, 12.5 mm, 19.0 mm and 25.0 mm nominal maximum aggregate size (NMAS) mixes, coarse dense-graded 9.5 mm, 12.5 mm and 19.0 mm NMAS mixes, and Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA) 9.5 mm and 25.0 mm NMAS mixes. Bulk specific gravity of each core sample was determined using both American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) T 166 and vacuum sealing methods, and permeability was determined using American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) PS129-01. This study found that in-place air void content was the most significant factor affecting permeability. The in-place air voids for dense-graded HMA pavements should not exceed 7%.
Does Therapist Guidance Enhance Assessment-Based Feedback as Couple Relationship Education?

Assessment and feedback of relationship strengths and challenges is a widely used brief approach to couple relationship education (CRE). It can be fully automated through the internet, with couples self-interpreting the feedback. This study assessed whether therapist guidance of couples to interpret the report and develop relationship goals enhanced the benefits of the feedback. Thirty-nine couples seeking CRE were randomly assigned to either self-interpretation of an internet-based relationship assessment report (RELATE), or therapist-guided interpretation of the same report (RELATE+). Participants were assessed on relationship satisfaction and psychological distress pre- and post-CRE, and at 6-month follow-up. RELATE and RELATE+ were not reliably different in outcome. Couples in both conditions sustained high relationship satisfaction and showed an overall decline in psychological distress. However, consumer satisfaction was substantially higher for the RELATE+ condition than the RELATE condition.
Living with ALS Perspectives of patients and next of kin

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease without curative treatment. The knowledge of the relationship between patients and their next of kin with respect to quality of life (QoL) is deficient. The overall aim of this thesis is to describe different perspectives of QoL of patients with ALS and their next of kin, and to describe strengths and hindrances in the manageability of their daily lives. The participants were recruited from Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. In the quantitative studies I–III, 35 couples participated. Fourteen patients and thirteen next of kin participated in the qualitative study (IV). Few changes were found over time in studies I and III, but in patients, there was a decreased rating in some of the physical subscales and in general health in the health-related QoL (HRQoL). The ratings in those subscales were worse in patients than in next of kin, even though next of kin also gave a decreased rating in some of the physical and mental subscales. Next of kin estimated individual QoL to be worse than patients did. No changes were found over time in anxiety, depression, or individual QoL. The ratings in discrete pairs were often similar, indicating that if one person felt bad, the other one did also. Even though the pairs gave relatively good ratings of QoL, study II showed that QoL was worse than in a subset of the general population. Study IV found a constant fluctuation between factors that facilitated and hindered the manageability for each individual person, as well as similarities and differences between patients and
The response of benthic foraminifera to pollution and environmental stress in Ria de Aveiro (N Portugal)

anthropic influence, and the effects of the contamination on benthic foraminifera. The initial approach for measuring pollution was done through the load pollution index (LPI), based on As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrations, and determined by total digestion of the sediments (TDS). This information was complemented by conducting a metal fractionation technique (sequential chemical extraction - SCE) in some of the most contaminated samples in order to define the relevance of different metal bearingphases (exchangeable cations adsorbed by clay and co-precipitated with carbonates, absorbed by organic matter and retained in the mineralogical phase) and to evaluate the toxic heavy metal availability. Multivariable statistical analyses were carried out taking into consideration the geochemical results, as well as the biotic (percentage of species/groups of species; foraminifer abundance and diversity) and abiotic variables, such as sediment content in mud, total organic carbon (TOC) and Eh. SCE results show that most of the element concentration in the sediments is retained in the resistant mineralogical phase. However, the higher bioavailability of some toxic elements, such as As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn, found in Laranjo Bay, Aveiro City, Aveiro Harbours and Espinheiro Channel, have a generic negative impact on benthic foraminifera of the Aveiro lagoon. Differential sensitivity of benthic foraminifera to high concentrations of heavy metals may exist. Quinqueloculina seminulum, for instance, seems to be more tolerant to higher bioavailable concentrations of Pb and Cu than Ammonia tepida or Haynesina germanica. Both species were previously considered to be the most heavy metal-tolerant foraminifer species. This study confirmed the use of benthic foraminifera as an important tool for the evaluation of the environmental quality of an ecosystem and for monitoring and restoring it.
Market power consolidation and M&A success: A study of US-American and German utility takeovers

A wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) was observed in the North American and European energy utilities market. We analyze the impact of these M&A transactions on market power, studying 139 takeovers of energy utilities by applying event study methodology. Stock price reactions of acquiring and target firms as well as of their competitors are used to detect changes of market power. While we do not find any significant results pointing in this direction for transactions in the US, our findings indicate that the potential to increase market power is indeed an important motive for takeovers within the German energy utilities market.
Predictors of Indulgence in Procrastinating Behaviour: Demographic Variables and Self-Esteem

The study investigated demographic variables and self-esteem as predictors of indulgence in procrastinating behaviour. It utilized a correlation survey design involving two hundred and forty two sampled male (114) and female (128) civil servants in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Data were collected from the sample using two scales. All the scales were re-validated. Seven hypotheses were tested. The results of simple regression analyses showed that both age and self-esteem independently predicted indulgence in procrastinating behaviour. Likewise, the results of t-test analysis revealed that marital status had significant influence on indulgence in procrastinating behaviour and that the single respondents indulged more in procrastination than married respondents. Further, the results of analysis of variance indicated that educational qualification had significant effect on indulgence in procrastinating behaviour. Multiple regression analysis results revealed that self-esteem, gender, age, marital status, educational qualification, and work experience jointly predicted indulgence in procrastinating behaviour and that only self-esteem and educational qualification independently predicted procrastination. The findings indicate that, self-esteem, and the listed demographic variables are significant predictors of indulgence in procrastinating behaviour among employees in this investigation. The study recommends that management and employers of labour should take cognizance of these predictors in their recruitment, training and development programs to enhance employees‟ output and lessen indulgence in procrastinating behaviour.
Re-evaluation of the Mentelle Basin, a polyphase rifted margin basin, offshore southwest Australia: new insights from integrated regional seismic datasets

Abstract. Vintage 2-D (two-dimensional) seismic reflection surveys from the sparsely explored Mentelle Basin (western Australian margin) have been reprocessed and integrated with a recent high-quality 2-D seismic survey and stratigraphic borehole data. Interpretation of these data sets allows the internal geometry of the Mentelle Basin fill and depositional history to be reanalysed and new insights into its formation revealed. Basin stratigraphy can be subdivided into several seismically defined megasequences separated by major unconformities related to both breakup between India-Madagascar and Australia-Antarctica in the Valanginian-Late Hauterivian and tectonically-driven switches in deposition through the Albian. Resting on the Valanginian-Late Hauterivian breakup unconformity are several kilometre-scale mounded structures that formed during Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous extension. These have previously been interpreted as volcanic edifices although direct evidence of volcanic feeder systems is lacking. An alternative interpretation is that these features may be carbonate build-ups. The latter interpretation carries significant climatic ramifications since carbonate build-ups would have formed at high palaeolatitude, ~60° S. Soon after breakup, initial subsidence resulted in a shallow marine environment and deposition of Barremian-Aptian silty-sandy mudstones. As subsidence continued, thick successions of Albian ferruginous black clays were deposited. Internally, seismic megasequences composed of successions of black clays show previously unresolved unconformities, onlapping and downlapping packages, which reflect a complex depositional, rifting and subsidence history at odds with their previous interpretation as open marine sediments. Southwestwards migration of the Kerguelen hotspot led to thermal contraction and subsidence to the present day water depth (~3000 m). This was accompanied by Turonian-Santonian deposition of massive chalk beds, which are unconformably overlain by pelagic Palaeocene-Holocene sediments. This substantial unconformity is related to the diachronous breakup and onset of slow spreading between Australia and Antarctica, which may have led to the reactivation and inversion of basement faults and was followed by rapid seafloor spreading from the Middle Eocene to the present.
The phonologisation of redundancy: length and quality in Welsh vowels*

‘Phonologisation’ is a process whereby a phonetic phenomenon enters the phonological grammar and becomes conceptualised as the result of categorical manipulation of phonological symbols. I analyse the phonologisation of a predictable phonological pattern in Welsh, with particular attention to identifying criteria for whether phonologisation has occurred. I argue for a model where phonologisation experiences bottom-up and top-down biases. From the bottom up, there is pressure to phonologise phenomena with a categorical distribution; from the top down, there exist formal constraints on featural specification. I focus on the requirement for featural specifications to obey the Contrastivist Hypothesis, which denies that redundant features can be involved in phonological computation, in the context of a framework with emergent features. I suggest that the Contrastivist Hypothesis provides a useful boundary condition for emergent-feature theories, whilst independent phonologisation criteria provide contrastivist approaches with a more solid conceptual underpinning.
Protean careers and the performing arts: antecedents for intrinsic motivation

The professional performing arts industry is typified by a high number of personnel employed on either a short-term or casual basis. Work is often unstable and wages are generally below the average, however, artists receive intrinsic rewards from their work, and this is why they choose to be employed in this field. Artists tend to manage their own careers, and have what is called a "protean career", whereby employment choices are made based on previous experiences and the resulting work is meaningful to the employee. The present study set out to explore three independent variables, namely organisational commitment, organisational identification and job satisfaction, and the influence these variables have upon the artists' levels of intrinsic motivation. Exploratory factor analyses conducted in the initial stages of the study revealed two further independent variables, 'attitudinal motivation' and 'identification with colleagues'. A stepwise multiple regression was conducted and revealed significant relationships between organisational identification, identification with colleagues, job satisfaction and the dependent variable, intrinsic motivation. Managers of arts organisations need to be aware that increases in the levels of identification and job satisfaction amongst their artistic personnel will lead to increases in the levels of intrinsic motivation they experience. This, in turn, can lead to better performances by the artists, which is likely to provide a range of benefits for arts organisations including a higher quality of artistic output and enhanced reputation.
Depletion of predatory fish by fishing in a temperate reef ecosystem leads to indirect effects on prey, but not to lower trophic levels

Indirect effects of fishing extending 2 or more trophic levels have been observed in a range of ecosystems, but they are not ubiquitously present, and identifying the circumstances in which they occur (or do not occur) is a key challenge for ecologists. We compared a fully protected sanctuary (no fishing allowed) with 2 other types of management zones (one in which all types of fish- ing were allowed and another in which only recreational line fishing was allowed) at Rottnest Island, Australia. We predicted that fishing would result in lower abundance of predatory fish in the 2 fished zones. We further predicted that, if indirect effects of fishing are important, there would be lower pre- dation on sea urchins and turbinid gastropods, higher abundance of these herbivorous invertebrates and lower biomass of macroalgae in both types of fished zones. The abundance of predatory fish and predation on the sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma were higher in the sanctuary than in fished zones. Predation on the sea urchin Centrostephanus tenuispinus was higher and densities of H. ery- throgramma were lower in the sanctuary, but the magnitude of the difference in these measures (and, therefore, the results of statistical tests) was variable among years. However, predation on turbinid gastropods, densities of C. tenuispinus and turbinid gastropods, and the biomass of macroalgae did not differ significantly among management zones. The pattern of higher abundance of predatory fish and higher rates at which prey were consumed in the sanctuary provide evidence for the indirect effects of fishing on the abundance of H. erythrogramma. However, there was no evidence that these indirect effects extend to a second species of sea urchin, or to turbinid gastropods, and no evidence that the effects lead to broad changes in the state of the ecosystem.
Portfolios in Design and Technology Education: Investigating Differing Views

In many professions, portfolios constitute a primary method of documenting proficiency, skill, style and talent by showing examples of actual work. However, the multiple purposes of portfolios in design and technology education have given rise to problems. The conversion of a portfolio into a product has become a significant problem, as have the constraints imposed by examining bodies. This paper will describe a research study that investigated the use of portfolios in professional practice, initial teacher education and secondary design and technology education. Separate focus group interviews were conducted with professional designers, teacher educators and secondary school teachers of design and technology education in both England and Canada. Questions asked of participants focused on definitions and the advantages and disadvantages of using a portfolio, as well as the particular purposes of portfolios in the context of the professional work of each group. Audiotapes of the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Analysis of the data involved thematic analysis and concept analysis. Preliminary analysis of the data has identified that professionals use four types of folio, each for a quite different purpose. These findings have given rise to questions about how these four types of folio could be used to enhance teaching, learning and assessment in design and technology education, and to what extent the adoption of these four types of folio could resolve the conflict between the portfolio as a teaching and learning tool and the portfolio as an assessment instrument.
Title Unique vortex and stripe domain structures in PbTiO 3 epitaxialnanodots

The domain structures of PbTiO3 epitaxial nanodots under the influences of depolarization fields and mismatch strains have been studied using three dimensional phase field simulations. The single-vortex structure and mixed domain configuration, which consisted of zigzag stripe domain and closure dipole flux near the interfaces, were found to be effective in annihilating the depolarization fields in the isotropically tensile and compressive ferroelectric nanodots, respectively. These domain structures were produced by the combined effect of electrostatic and mismatch elastic energies. The width of stripe domain was found to be related to the volume percentage of polarization dipoles along the z-axis, which varied remarkably with the change of compressive mismatch strain. In the case of nanodots under anisotropic mismatch strains, doublevortex domain patterns and stripe domains with nearly straight domain walls were formed. Moreover, the domain structures with electrostatic energy neglected were also studied. * To whom all correspondence should be addressed (aksoh@hkucc.hku.hk) Tel: +852-28598061 Fax: +852-28585415
Functional diversity of photosynthesis during drought in a model tropical rainforest – the contributions of leaf area, photosynthetic electron transport and stomatal conductance to reduction in net ecosystem carbon exchange

The tropical rainforest mesocosm within the Biosphere 2 Laboratory, a model system of some 110 species developed over 12 years under controlled environmental conditions, has been subjected to a series of comparable drought experiments during 2000-2002. In each study, the meso- cosm was subjected to a 4-6 week drought, with well- defined rainfall events before and after the treatment. Ecosystem CO 2 uptake rate ( A eco ) declined 32% in response to the drought, with changes occurring within days and being reversible within weeks, even though the deeper soil layers did not become significantly drier and leaf-level water status of most large trees was not greatly affected. The reduced A eco during the drought reflected both mor- phological and physiological responses. It is estimated that the drought-induced 32% reduction of A eco has three prin- cipal components: (1) leaf fall increased two-fold whereas leaf expansion growth of some canopy dominants declined to 60%, leading to a 10% decrease in foliage coverage of the canopy. This might be the main reason for the persistent reduction of A eco after rewatering. (2) The maximum pho- tosynthetic electron transport rate at high light intensities in remaining leaves was reduced to 71% for three of the four species measured, even though no chronic photo- inhibition occurred. (3) Stomata closed, leading to a reduced ecosystem water conductance to water vapour (33% of pre-drought values), which not only reduced eco- system carbon uptake rate, but may also have implications for water and energy budgets of tropical ecosystems. Addi- tionally, individual rainforest trees responded differently, expressing different levels of stress and stress avoiding mechanisms. This functional diversity renders the individ- ual response heterogeneous and has fundamental implica- tions to scale leaf level responses to ecosystem dynamics.