Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Agricultural Credit in Sindh: Issues and Recommendations

The importance of agriculture to the economy is seen in three ways: first, it provides food to consumers and fibers for domestic industry; second, it is a source of scarce foreign exchange earnings; and third, it provides a market for industrial goods. The Sindh province of Pakistan ranks second in agricultural production of the country. The crises in this key sector of the economy are on the rise since 1990's. Presently, the province is facing serious crises such as; speedy land degradation, declining water resources, inadequate supply of seed, fertilizers, pesticides, slow process of mechanization, poor infrastructure, ill-conceived agriculture marketing, taxation policies, environmental, cultural hurdles and constraints in institutional credit system. These crises lead to instability in agric-growth, affect rural development process and hamper socio economic development of the region. The main goal of this paper is to evaluate institutional credit system in Sindh, sort out major obstacles through an over view and to provide policy recommendations for improvement in service delivery of these credit institutions in the best interest of growers. The improvement in service delivery will impact positively on agric / rural development in particular and socio economic development in general. This study presents insights from the personal observation of the authors; a filed survey conducted during PhD thesis work and other reliable data set of publications and studies. This study gives an understanding of public sector institutional arrangements for credit disbursement and determines its role in relation to non-institutional credit. The study explores the ideas that public sector credit institutions are mostly mismanaged and have lowest capacity to deliver according to the need of growers / rural households. Therefore, farmers rely more on non-institutional credit system than institutional credit system. But the high markup rate and other harsh terms and conditions of non- institutional sources strengthen vicious circle of poverty; creates problem of bonded labour, weakens growers' socio economic freedoms reduce investment powers and force their generations to be born in debt, live in debt and die in debt.
Malaria Related Morbidity in Central Reserve Police Force Personnel Located in The North-eastern States of India

Abstract The data on morbidity and mortality attributable to malaria in the Central Reserve Police Force personnel located in the seven states of the Northeast are reviewed retrospectively for the years 1999 to 2001. Maximum number of malaria cases and associated deaths were recorded in Assam followed by Tripura and Manipur in relation to strength of the troops in the respective states. Based on the CRPF Base Hospital records, it was concluded that P. falciparum was the predominant parasite species (= 80% of cases) among indoor/referral cases, and was responsible for much of the mortality associated with cerebral complications. In order to reduce the relative risk of acquiring a malarial infection in the region, the use of Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets (ITMN’s) were advocated in addition to the existing intervention strategies in practice.
Determinants of capital structure: An empirical study of Cement industry of Pakistan

Capital structure is the mixture of debt financing and equity financing. Its choice and determinants related to many different factors. This paper endeavors to answer the very questions of what determines the capital structure of Pakistani listed cement companies. This paper presents several traditional theories discussed on capital structure, such as trade-off theory, agency cost theory and theory of pecking-order. The data of 20 companies for three financial years 2007, 2008, 2009 is taken. The study shows that except size, all other variables have significant relationship with leverage and can be used for making decisions by companies in cement industry. The correlation analysis is used to measure the effects of different variables on the leverage & so finding out the determinants of the capital structure in cement industry.The study helps the management in decision making while setting their leverage ratio, as they will be able to know that up to what extent profitability, growth & tangibility will be affected by decrease or increase in leverage.
Values in the Wind: A Hedonic Analysis of Wind Power Facilities

The siting of wind facilities is extremely controversial. This paper uses data on 11,331 property transactions over nine years in northern New York State to explore the effects of new wind facilities on property values. We use a fixed-effects framework to control for omitted variables and endogeneity biases. We find that nearby wind facilities significantly reduce property values in two of the three counties studied. These results indicate that existing compensation to local homeowners/communities may not be sufficient to prevent a loss of property values. (JEL Q51, Q53)
57Fe Mössbauer Spectroscopic Study of Structural Changes during Dehydration of Nontronite: Effect of Different Exchangeable Cations

Dehydration-induced migration of different exchangeable cations toward the layers of nontronite has been studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy. As interlayer water is removed exchangeable cations migrate toward Fe3+ sites in the tetrahedral sheets of the nontronite (IvFe3+) causing them to distort. The amount of distortion is linearly related to the ionic potential (IP) of the exchangeable cations and is greatest for cations with highest IP. Octahedral Fe3+ sites (VIFe3+) are also affected by migration of cations into the pseudohexagonal cavities. As exchangeable cations move into the pseudohexagonal cavities, interaction with VIFe3+ sites increases. The intensity of the outer VIFe3+ Mössbauer doublet increases with respect to the inner VIFe3+ doublet as the IP of the exchangeable cation increases. It appears that the exchangeable cations play a significant role in determining the thermal stability of nontronite.
Defence reactions of mature Norway spruce (Picea abies) before and after inoculation of the blue-stain fungus Endoconidiophora polonica in a drought stress experiment

Abstract We performed an inoculation experiment using the blue-stain fungus Endoconidiophora polonica at the Rosalia Roof study site, which was set up to study drought effects on Norway spruce susceptibility to attacks by the European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus. Tree resistance parameters such as resin flow rate and extent of hypersensitive wound reaction in the phloem were investigated prior to and after fungal infection. Sample trees with different drought treatments (trees fully covered or semi-covered by roofs, control trees) were inoculated with E. polonica in July 2014. In order to check for areas of phloem necrosis, the outer bark around the inoculation holes was scratched off 6 weeks later. We recorded the amount of resin exudation within 12 hours overnight in August and September 2013 and 2014. Although wound reaction zones did not differ in size between tree collectives of the various treatments, fully covered trees tended to exhibit larger necrotic areas compared to control trees. The least water supplied trees showed lowest resin flow rates prior to fungal inoculation, but were the only group to show significantly enhanced resin flow five weeks after the evaluation of defence reactions. Our results agree with earlier findings that wounding and few fungal inoculations can increase tree resistance in the medium term given not too severe water stress. Further investigations will clarify how water stress affects the availability of non-structural carbohydrates for secondary metabolism, when depletion of resources eventually occurs, and at which point trees are most susceptible to bark beetle attack.
In vitro propagation of the new disease resistant Coffea arabica variety, Batia

Batian is a true breeding commercial coffee variety that was released in Kenya in 2010. It is resistant to coffee berry disease and coffee leaf rust which are the main coffee diseases in Kenya. Coupled with early ripening, good beverage quality and high yields, demand for planting material has surpassed supply. Conventional propagation methods do not provide enough planting materials, hence the need to develop alternative methods. The objective of this study was to develop an effective in vitro protocol for propagating the coffee variety, Batian. Leaf explants were harvested and cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with different concentrations of cytokinins benzyl amino purine (BAP) and thidiazuron (TDZ) separately, 100 mg/l myo-inositol 3% sucrose and gelled with 0.3% gelrite. The results show differences among cytokinins levels in induction of somatic embryos. BAP at 13.3 µM gave the highest mean of embryos per explants, 6.06 ± 1.18 and highest percentage of embryogenic cultures of 58.33%. Development of somatic embryos was achieved on hormone free MS media with highest mean length of 0.32 ± 0.03 mm. Indole butyric acid at 9.8 µM was best for induction of a well-developed root system with a mean length of 1.22 ± 0.09 mm. This protocol opens new prospects for massive propagation of Batian in nine months. Keywords: Batian, somatic embryo, Coffea arabica African Journal of Biotechnology, Vol 13(24) 2414-2419
A new method to determine the complex permittivity and complex permeability of dielectric materials at X-band frequencies

This paper presents a simple waveguide measurement technique to determine the complex permittivity and complex permeability of a dielectric material. The dielectric sample is loaded in the transmission line rectangular waveguide WR90. The S-parameters of the waveguide are measured by Network analyzer and calculated as a function of the complex permittivity and complex permeability using theory of transmissions lines. Using the MatLab Optimization Tools, a simple MatLab scripts is written to look for complex permittivity and complex permeability of a dielectric material so as to match the measured and calculated values of S-parameters. The complex permittivity and complex permeability of Teflon, Nylon and Delrin at the X-band frequencies are then determined.
SUGAR YIELD AND TECHNOLOGICAL QUALITY OF SUGAR BEET AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF NITROGEN FERTILIZATION

Sugar beet fertilization is more specific than other field crops, which is reflected in the fact that to achieve high sugar yield per unit area, with a high root yield is very important and its technological quality. Researches of impact of fertilization on these sugar beet traits in the period of three years are conducted in the stationary field experiment at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad, Serbia, at Rimski Sancevi experimental station. The experiment was carried out on ten fertilization variants with increasing doses of N, P2O5 and K2O, and the object of investigation was a local variety Sara. Root yield was the highest on the fertilization variants with the highest amounts of nitrogen fertilizer, but in any case, the difference in yield was not statistically significant in comparison with variants in which it was applied 100 kg N ha -1 . The sugar content significantly decreased, while the content of harmful nitrogen and sodium significantly increased with increasing doses of N. Refined sugar yield was the highest at the fertilization variant N100P50K50.
Influence of Soy Protein Isolate on Physical and Sensory Properties of Ice Cream

Physical and sensory properties of ice cream samples substituted for 0, 25, 50, 75 or 100% of skimmed milk powder with soy protein isolate (SPI) were investigated. An increase of SPI concentration was shown to increase viscosity and hardness of ice cream samples and also produced darker color in relation to those of control ice cream. Meltdown properties of ice cream samples demonstrated a relationship between decreased meltdown characteristics and SPI levels. Panelists rated in lower scores for smoothness, but higher scores for gumminess with increasing of SPI levels; however, no significant differences (P>0.05) were found for all sensory attributes between the 50% SPI substitution and control ice cream samples.
The prevalence and risk factors of substance use among university students in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Objective: As the age starting using drugs decrease and drug use among young people increase, the prevention programs start to focus on young people who has become most important risk group. The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics and risk factors for cigarette, alcohol and other psychoactive drug (OPD) use among university students in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Methods: A survey was administered to 1323 university students randomly chosen. The questionaire was designed to obtain data about socio-demographic characteristics of the students, the frequency of their cigarette-alcohol and OPD use and beliefs and attitudes of the students about substance use. Results: 398 (30.3%) of the students were from TRNC, 824 (62.7%) from Turkey and 92 (7.0%) from other countries. The life-time use of cigarette was 69.5% and boys smoked more than girls. Students from Turkey smoked cigarette significantly more often. Life-time use of any alcoholic beverages was 81.0% and the students from TRNC used alcohol significantly more than others. Life-time use of any illicit drug was 10.9% and the ratio was higher for boys. Life-time use of cigarette and life-time use of OPD and gender (being male) were found to be positively associated with the tendency to use illicit drugs. Conclusion: Repeating prevalence studies for substance use among university students at certain intervals will be helpful to follow the changes of substance use rates and determine the substances mostly preferred so that prevention programs can be planned more efficiently. OZET (Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg 2014; 15:108-115) Anahtar sozcukler: icme orani anlamli olarak daha yuksekti. Yasam boyu herhangi bir alkollu icecek kullanimi %81.0’di ve KKTC’li ogrenciler digerlerine
SEISMIC RISK ASSESSMENT OF LEVEES*

A seismic risk assessment procedure for earth embankments and levees is presented. The procedure consists of three major elements: (1) probability of ground motion at the site, (2) probability of levee failure given a level of ground motion has occurred and (3) expected loss resulting from the failure. This paper discusses the first two elements of the risk assessment. The third element, which includes economic losses and human casualty, will not be presented herein. The ground motions for risk assessment are developed using a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis. A two-dimensional finite element analysis is performed to estimate the dynamic responses of levee, and the probability of levee failure is calculated using the levee fragility curve. The overall objective of the assessment is to develop an analytical tool for assessing the failure risk and the effectiveness of various levee strengthening alternatives for risk reduction. An example of the procedure, as it applies to a levee built along the perimeter of an island for flood protection and water storage, is presented. Variations in earthquake ground motion and soil and water conditions at the site are incorporated in the risk assessment. The effects of liquefaction in the foundation soils are also considered.
Integrating technology into the teaching-learning transaction: Pedagogical and technological perceptions of management faculty

Despite research and testimony that technology is being used by more faculty, the diffusion of technological innovations for teaching and learning has not been widespread, nor has IT become deeply integrated into the curriculum. Although there are a growing number of faculty who are very enthusiastic about adopting technology because of the potential of newer tools for their students, there is still a large number of faculty who seem hesitant or reluctant to adopt technology for their teaching tasks. Given the size of investment in instructional technology in higher education, the increased demand for distance education in the future, and the demonstrated effectiveness with some educational outcomes, it seems reasonable to investigate why the integration of technology for teaching and learning is so appealing to some faculty, and not to others. The study examines the faculty perceptions about technology enabled constructivist pedagogy Vs the didactic pedagogy followed even today in most of the management education institutes. The study tries to evaluate the perception of management faculty about the impact of instructional technology tools on the teaching process, the perceived benefits and limitations of use of instructional technology tools. Also the study tries to find out that do factors such as age, experience, time for lecture preparation and academic background of the faculty members have an effect on the extent of use of instructional technology tools?
Human Capital and Economic Opportunity : A Global Working Group Working Paper Series

This paper derives the value and the risk of aggregate human capital in a dynamic equilibrium production model with Duffie-Epstein preferences. In this setting the expected return of a risky asset is a function of the asset’s covariance with consumption growth and a weighted average of the asset’s covariance with aggregate wage growth and aggregate financial returns. A calibration of the model matching the historical ratio of wages to consumption in the United States (85% between 1950 and 2007) suggests that the weight of human capital in aggregate wealth is 87%. The results of the calibration follow from the relative size of wages and dividends in the economy and the dynamics of the ratio of wages to consumption, which are counter-cyclical. As a result, human capital is less risky than equity, implying that the risk premium of human capital is lower than that of equity. ∗The financial support of the Financial Markets Research Center, the Batten Institute, the Dean Witter Foundation and the White Foundation is gratefully appreciated. I thank Nigel Barradale, Jonathan Berk, Sebastien Betermier, Mario Capizzani, Jaime Cassasus, Pierre Collin-Dufresne, Stefano Corradin, Andrés Donangelo, Greg Duffee, Esther Eiling, Nicolae Gârleanu, Thomas Gilbert, Barney Hartman-Glaser, Sara Holland, Martin Lettau, Christine Parlour, Nishanth Rajan, Jacob Sagi, Adam Szeidl, Carles VergaraAlert, Johan Walden and seminar participants at Essec, HKUST, IESE, Indiana University, Instituto de Empresa, University of California Berkeley, University of Toronto and Vanderbilt for helpful comments and suggestions. Any errors remain my own. †Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. Email: miguel.palacios@vanderbilt.edu. Phone: +1(510)717-6453. Address: 401 21st Ave South, Nashville, Tennessee, 37203 (USA). http://owen.vanderbilt.edu/palacios
Scanning electron microscopy study of the antennal sensilla of Catocala remissa

Catocala remissa Staudinger (Lepidoptera Noctuidae) is a defoliator of Populus euphratica Olivier. The present study aimed to elucidate the insect-plant and insect-insect chemical communication mechanisms involved with this process by observing the antennae and sensilla of C. remissa using scanning electron microscopy. In both sexes, the antennae were filiform and segmented with the three components: the scape, pedicel, and flagellum. The antennal flagellomeres of males and females were cylindrical and the dorsal surfaces had numerous overlapping scales, whereas most of the sensilla were located on the ventral surfaces. Sexual dimorphism was observed in C. remissa antennae. The male antennae were covered closely with scales whereas the female antennae had a loose covering of scales. Sexual dimorphism in C. remissa also manifested as variations in the distributions and sizes of sensilla. There were six types of sensilla on the antennae flagella: sensilla trichodea (types I, II, and III), sensilla chaetica, sensilla coeloconica, sensilla styloconica (types I and II), sensilla auricillica, and sensilla squamiformia.
The Role of Narrative Intelligence in English Language Teaching, Major and Gender

This research attempt purports to examine the role of narrative intelligence in the success of English language teachers with respect to major and gender. Seven hundred and fifty three English language teachers and learners took part in this study. Scales of narrative intelligence and teacher success were used to garner data in this study. The findings indicated that there exists a significant relationship between teachers� pedagogical effectiveness and their narrative intelligence. Moreover, EFL teachers who majored in English literature showed a higher level of narrative intelligence. In addition, there was no statistically significant difference between male and female teachers in terms of narrative intelligence. Finally, the results were discussed and pedagogical implications were provided in the context of language learning and teaching.
Subsidizing Child Care : A Policy Fitted to Single Mothers ?

Since the early 1990s, the French authorities have made the choice of developing household services by financially supporting home care utilization, in particular of child care services. The purpose of this study is to examine whether this policy is able to solve single mothers’ difficulties in balancing professional activity and family life. The paper estimates on survey data the influence of the cost of child care on female labor market participation, with a distinction between single mothers and other mothers. The empirical results suggest that single mothers’ child care price elasticity of participation is low (-0.13), especially by comparison with married women (-1.27). With half of this care cost subsidized, the predicted probability of employment would rise from 69% to 87% for married women but only from 81% to 83% for single mothers. Estimates also bring to light the major influence of diploma on married mothers participation decision, which may reflect the possibility to choose between employment and inactivity. On the opposite, labor force participation of single mothers seems to be little responsive and then possibly primarily determined by availability of low-cost child care solutions oering a great hours flexibility. The study concludes that specific diculties of single mothers are not about to be eased by the current French policy of household services promotion.