Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Saline water and organic matter in the development and quality of Licania rigida Benth. seedlings

Licania rigida Benth. (oiticica) is a native species from the Northeastern Brazil. In this sense, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of irrigation with saline water and organic matter on the growth and quality of oiticica seedlings. The experiments were laid out in randomized complete block using a 5 × 2 factorial design related to electrical conductivity of irrigation water at 0.5, 1.5, 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 dS m-1 in a substrate with and without organic castor bean compost (Ricinus communis) and soil in a volume ratio of 0:1 and 1:1 v/v. Growth in height, stem diameter, leaf number, leaf area, chlorophyll a and b and total chlorophyll indices, shoot and root dry matter and Dickson Quality Index were evaluated. The increase in water salinity inhibited biometric growth, seedlings production of root and shoot biomass, chlorophyll content and Dickson Quality Index. Increase in water salinity, except for root biomass, inhibited biometric growth, shoot biomass accumulation, chlorophyll a, b and total, chlorophyll indexes and quality index of oiticica seedlings. In the results, although the Dickson Quality Index did not decrease with increasing water salinity and did not vary among treatments with and without organic compost, the transplanting of seedlings in the field was found to be suitable. Key words: Salinity, organic compost, oiticica.
Small world theory and the World Wide Web: linking small world properties and website centrality

This qualitative paper aims to point out the incidence of small world characteristics in the World Wide Web. To this end, some theoretical implications of small world theory (SWT) are verified using information from focus groups and in-depth interviews administered to experts and users of the World Wide Web. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to apply small world properties to online social networks while pointing out the key variables of website centrality in that context. Building on this, the paper traces possible contributions for better management of the World Wide Web in terms of the professional use of social media to facilitate information or product and service sharing. The results of the proposed investigation highlight some pivotal aspects of small world properties on the web, as well as on website centrality. The findings are relevant for the application of social media marketing (SMM) and search engine optimisation (SEO).
Factors Motivating Consumers to Engage in Direct Purchasing

Direct marketing is seen as a growing industry in South Africa. In recent years, socio-economic trends, such as changing social patterns and technological advances, have favoured the development of direct marketing. Marketers are entering an era of individualisation in which many of today's consumers are informed buyers. To understand consumers' reasons for direct purchasing, focus has been placed on consumers' buying motives. The purpose of this article is therefore to explore the factors motivating South African consumers to use direct purchasing as a shopping method. Special attention is given to consumers' attitudes toward direct purchasing. The findings of a research survey present the most important motivational factors of direct purchasing. Although the study is of an exploratory nature, hypotheses were formulated based on the available literature and the findings of studies conducted previously in other countries. The main findings indicate that perceived risks are some of the most powerful discriminators between direct purchasers and non-direct purchasers.
English word recognition and word integration skills of native Arabic- and Japanese-speaking learners of English as a second language

This study investigated the effects of first language word-level reading skills on the development of English as a second language (ESL) word-level reading skills. A crosslinguistic analysis indicates that native Arabic and Japanese speakers are likely to encounter different types of ESL word-level reading difficulties. Specifically, native Arab speakers are likely to exhibit difficulties with prelexical ESL word recognition processes, whereas native Japanese speakers are likely to exhibit difficulties with on-line ESL word integration processes that integrate words into phrase/clause structures for comprehension. Results from a lexical decision task showed that a group of Japanese ESL learners had significantly faster and more accurate word recognition skills compared to a proficiency-matched Arab ESL group. In contrast, both groups read words within sentences in a sentence reading task at the same speed, though the Arab ESL group was significantly more accurate in integrating words into larger phrase and clause units and comprehending them than the Japanese ESL group. These results indicate that Arab and Japanese ESL students have different word-level reading difficulties, implicating different learning needs and pedagogical interventions for developing ESL reading proficiency.
Actual and potential salt-related soil degradation in an irrigated rice scheme in the Sahelian zone of Mauritania

Salt-related soil degradation due to irrigation activities is considered a major threat to the sustainability of rice cropping under semi-arid conditions in West Africa. Rice productivity problems related to soil salinity, alkalinity and topographic position were observed in an irrigated rice scheme in southern central Mauritania. Detailed study of soils in a toposequence revealed that highest topsoil salinity and alkalinity were found at the shallow soils (<1.2 m) of the middle and upper slopes. Here, soils have formed in situ from the schist parent rock, which releases carbonate rich salts upon weathering. Within these soils large differences in salinity and alkalinity level occur at short distances, indicating minimal groundwater flow and a strong variation in the geochemical composition of the vertically positioned bedrock. Further downslope, soils have a (partly) colluvio–alluvial origin. Here, sedimentation during annual floods increased soil depth (>2.5 m) and salinity levels remained low due to leaching. Foum Gleita’s irrigation water used is amongst the most alkaline in the Sahel. However, no clear indications of secondary salinization or alkalinization due to irrigation activities were observed. A comparison of historical data revealed no significant changes of topsoil salinity and pH over the last 30 years. The PHREEQC 2.0 model was used to study actual and potential development of soil salinity and alkalinity problems, by simulating excessive concentration of the irrigation water through evaporation. The evolution into a strongly sodic-alkaline solution due to precipitation of Mg-calcite and -silicate minerals did not fit with current composition of ground and surface water, which showed geochemical control of alkalinity at high concentrations. Incorporation of cation exchange processes, using a small (1.0 mmolc per 100 g dry soil) but calcium saturated CEC, resulted in a better fit with field data. Results indicate that the soil’s buffer capacity to Agricultural Water Management 60 (2003) 13–32 * Corresponding author. Tel: þ31-317-482339; fax: þ31-317-483766. E-mail address: piet.vanasten@wur.nl (P.J.A. van Asten). 0378-3774/02/$ – see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 8 3 7 7 4 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 5 5 5 counteract alkalinization processes is large. However, the soil water and salt balance needs to be quantified in order to determine development rate and equilibrium levels of soil salinity and alkalinity for different soil type water management combinations. This study does neither reject the hypothesis that salt-related soil degradation jeopardizes the sustainability of rice cropping in the Sahel, nor does it provide evidence for its verification. However, our results are in line with other studies in west Africa, in that current salt-related production problems are inherited, rather than being induced by irrigated rice cropping. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
The Role of Oral Corrective Feedback Types in the Acquisition of the Grammatical Structures

This study investigated whether the effects of different types of corrective feedback (CF) (simple clarification request, enhanced prompt and elliptical elicitation) would differ on the acquisition of different types of grammatical structures. The target grammatical structures were verb endings (morphological morphemes) in three different English tenses including the simple present third person singular “-s”, the present continuous verb formation marker “-ing”, and the simple past verb ending” -ed”. These targets were chosen because they are rather problematic for EFL learners to acquire. For this purpose, 31 L1 Persian EFL learners at intermediate level were given an opportunity to carry out some tasks and were provided with different types of CF on their erroneous utterances. Data analysis on the output accuracy following feedback on the three grammatical targets showed that the proportion of errors corrected in response to CF in the form of enhanced prompt was more than the proportion of errors corrected in response to the other two types of CF. These results suggest that the more explicit the CF, the more effective it would be in correcting language learners’ erroneous utterances regardless of the type of given grammatical structure.
Order or chaos? Understanding career mobility using sequence analysis and information-theoretic methods

We examine the careers of a nationally representative US cohort of young adults using sequence analysis and information-theoretic techniques to describe these careers’ structure and how this structure might inform differences in wage mobility. We operationalise the career as a sequence of industry-occupation pairs observed quarterly. We investigate how the content of these pairs and their organisation over time relate to future mobility. We perform the analysis across three different mobility groups, one of which is characterised by persistent low-wage work. Contrary to what one might expect, low-wage work is not typified by a lack of structure, even in many of the careers in which the worker is weakly attached to the labour market. Using clustering techniques customised to this problem, we build a typology of careers within three groups of workers defined by their wage mobility. We find significant variation within, as well as similarity across the three groups, enhancing our understanding of careers with different levels of mobility.
The Lanczos and conjugate gradient algorithms in finite precision arithmetic

The Lanczos and conjugate gradient algorithms were introduced more than five decades ago as tools for numerical computation of dominant eigenvalues of symmetric matrices and for solving linear algebraic systems with symmetric positive definite matrices, respectively. Because of their fundamental relationship with the theory of orthogonal polynomials and Gauss quadrature of the Riemann-Stieltjes integral, the Lanczos and conjugate gradient algorithms represent very interesting general mathematical objects, with highly nonlinear properties which can be conveniently translated from algebraic language into the language of mathematical analysis, and vice versa. The algorithms are also very interesting numerically, since their numerical behaviour can be explained by an elegant mathematical theory, and the interplay between analysis and algebra is useful there too. Motivated by this view, the present contribution wishes to pay a tribute to those who have made an understanding of the Lanczos and conjugate gradient algorithms possible through their pioneering work, and to review recent solutions of several open problems that have also contributed to knowledge of the subject.
Factors influencing the temperature sensitivity of PMMA based optical fiber Bragg gratings

The Bragg wavelength of a PMMA based fiber grating is determined by the effective core index and the grating pitch, which, in temperature sensing, depend on the thermo-optic and thermal expansion coefficients of PMMA. These two coefficients are a function of surrounding temperature and humidity. Amorphous polymers including PMMA exhibit a certain degree of anisotropic thermal expansion. The anisotropic nature of expansion mainly depends on the polymer processing history. The expansion coefficient is believed to be lower in the direction of the molecular orientation than in the direction perpendicular to the draw direction. Such anisotropic behavior of polymers can be expected in drawn PMMA based optical fiber, and will lead to a reduced thermal expansion coefficient and larger temperature sensitivity than would be the case were the fiber to be isotropic. Extensive work has been carried out to identify these factors. The temperature responses of gratings have been measured at different relative humidity. Gratings fabricated on annealed and non-annealed PMMA optical fibers are used to compare the sensitivity performance as annealing is considered to be able to mitigate the anisotropic effect in PMMA optical fiber. Furthermore an experiment has been designed to eliminate the thermal expansion contribution to the grating wavelength change, leading to increased temperature sensitivity and improved response linearity.
Towards Washable Electrotextile UHF RFID Tags: Reliability Study of Epoxy-Coated Copper Fabric Antennas

We investigate the impact of washing on the performance of passive UHF RFID tags based on dipole antennas fabricated from copper fabric and coated with protective epoxy coating. Initially, the tags achieved read ranges of about 8 meters, under the European RFID emission regulation. To assess the impact of washing on the performance of the tags, they were washed repeatedly in a washing machine and measured after every washing cycle. Despite the reliability challenges related to mechanical stress, the used epoxy coating was found to be a promising coating for electrotextile tags in moist conditions.
Potential nutritive value of some forage species used as ruminants feed in Iran

A study was conducted to determine rumen degradability ( in sacco ) of dry matter and in vitro gas production of the most important forage species grown in Iran, to compare forage species according to calculated degradation and in vitro gas production parameters, and to establish prediction equations for relative feed value (RFV) from gas production parameters. Thus, six forage species consisting of Lucerne , Eruca sativa , Crocus sativus , Cardaria draba , Setaria Spp. , and Triticum aestivum forages were evaluated. Crude protein (CP) contents in the forages ranged from 139.60 to 246.30 g kg -1 DM. The neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and organic matter (OM) were 273.30 to 596.60, 210.00 to 310.00, and 820.00 to 946.70 g kg -1 DM, respectively. The highest DM degradation and in vitro gas producton parameters were found for E. sativa . Also the relative feed value (RFV), relative forage quality (RFQ), dry mater intake and effective dry matter digestibility calculated for E. sativa was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than other forages. The variation of RFV explained by the gas production parameters ranged (R 2 ) from 0.023 to 0.846. The gas production at 6, 24 and 48 h incubation times explained 0.836, 0.800 and 0.805 of variation of RFV, respectively. There was a negative correlation between in vitro gas production in different time incubation with NDF, ADF and a positive correlation between gas production parameters and CP content of forage species. The study shows that these forages relatively had a good nutritive value in comparison of Lucerne , and therefore, may serve as potential supplements for ruminants in Iran, and it seems that RFV index of six forage species such as used in this present study may be predicted from in vitro gas production parameters. Keywords: Forage species, in vitro gas production, in situ degradability, relative feed value
An Attempt to Produce Oat Haploids Using Oat X Maize Hybridization Technique

The aim of the study was to develop oat haploids through crossing between oat as a female and maize as male parent followed by embryo rescue. Four oats genotypes of diverse origin along with popular fodder maize variety J-1006 were crossed at Forage Research farm, PAU, Ludhiana. Various factors influencing the growth and development of crosses like oat genotype, used as female, method of emasculation and time of pollination, type of growth regulators, their concentration and time of application were investigated. The frequency of embryo formation varied significantly between the genotypes studied. The maximum frequency was observed in genotype IC-372489 (37.50) followed by EC-528919 (14.66), IC-372415 (0.65) and IC-372510 (0.29). Embryo production is strongly influenced by the time interval between emasculation and pollination. The auxins tested have significant influence on the number of enlarged ovaries and embryos. Ovaries treated with Dicamba were generally bigger in size than the ovaries treated with 2,4-D. A higher number of embryos were obtained when oat x maize florets were treated with auxins (both 2,4-D and Dicamba) after 2 days of pollination than after 1 and 3 days.
Women in Accounting Information Systems Research: An Account from Self-Reflection

Very little evidence exists to explain why only a few women have undertaken career as academic researcher in information systems. John Lucas (1973) suggests that the feminist debate may lead to the application of certain concepts of justice, equality, and humanity. This being so, a central question for this paper is “Why is the academic management industry far from being gender neutral? ” The author perceives that society as it stands, is still unfair to women, and that this unfairness should be addressed. This paper also deals with and brings up unanswered questions as to whether discrimination against suitably qualified women for such positions could ever be defended according to the current principles of social justice. On the other hand, there are explanations of the phenomena premise on Maccoby’s (1998) findings on same sex aggregation, and the latest research of Robert Munroe and Kimball Romney indicate (2006) that Maccoby’s findings are not challenged by cross-cultural results. Hence, the same sex preference is a universal phenomenon.
Classifying spaces for families of subgroups for systolic groups

We determine the large scale geometry of the minimal displacement set of a hyperbolic isometry of a systolic complex. As a consequence, we describe the centraliser of such an isometry in a systolic group. Using these results, we construct a low-dimensional classifying space for the family of virtually cyclic subgroups of a group acting properly on a systolic complex. Its dimension coincides with the topological dimension of the complex if the latter is at least four. We show that graphical small cancellation complexes are classifying spaces for proper actions and that the groups acting on them properly admit three-dimensional classifying spaces with virtually cyclic stabilisers. This is achieved by constructing a systolic complex equivariantly homotopy equivalent to a graphical small cancellation complex. On the way we develop a systematic approach to graphical small cancellation complexes. Finally, we construct low-dimensional models for the family of virtually abelian subgroups for systolic, graphical small cancellation, and some CAT(0) groups.
ON THE RELATION BETWEEN GROSS OUTPUT– AND VALUE ADDED–BASED PRODUCTIVITY MEASURES: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOMAR FACTOR

In this paper I consider the relation between gross output– and value added–based total factor productivity (TFP) measures. It appears that, without any (micro-)economic theory being required, a conditional relationship between TFP indices can be derived, in which the Domar factor plays an important role. At the same time it turns out that gross output– and value added–based TFP indicators (difference-type measures) always coincide. In the Divisia index framework and maintaining the classical assumptions (profit maximization and a production technology that exhibits globally constant returns to scale), it appears that both TFP indices measure technological change, albeit in a dual way. In establishing this result, no separability assumptions are involved. Both indices are in general path-dependent. Path independence of the gross output–based TFP index requires that the technology exhibit Hicks input neutrality, whereas path independence of the value added–based TFP index requires Hicks value-added neutrality. These two concepts of neutrality are, however, not dual.
Sampling Strategies for the Collection of Cultural Data: An Extension of Boas's Answer to Galton's Problem1

Les recherches en sciences sociales et comportementales doivent definir de facon conventionnelle des criteres de reference afin de pouvoir elaborer une theorie statistique generale. Cependant de nombreuses recherches font appel a des criteres ou facteurs culturels, ce que les anthropologues nomment ethnographie. La demarche ethnographique necessite une enquete aupres d'informateurs qui vont definir de leur propre point de vue les criteres culturels qui formeront ensuite, pour le chercheur, ses donnees ethnographiques. Les AA. posent la question de la methodologie dans le traitement statistique des donnees culturelles, donnees qui ne peuvent echapper a une construction sociale et culturelle toujours mouvante dans le temps et selon les informateurs. A partir d'une enquete sur les relations familiales aux Etats-Unis, les AA. ont applique deux modeles d'interpretation (analyse statistique classique puis analyse culturelle) qui leur ont permis de differencier l'experience de vie d'une part et les donnees culturelles d'autre part.
Ips typographus (L.) and Thanasimus formicarius (L.) populations influenced by aspect and slope position in Artvin-Hatila valley national park, Turkey

This study investigated the effects of aspect (north and south) and slope position (top slope: 1100 - 1700 m and bottom slope: 1700 - 2200 m) on Ips typographus (L.) and its major predator Thanasimus formicarius (L.) populations and body length and weight of the pest I. typographus (L.) in oriental spruce [Picea orientalis (L.) Link. ], dominated stands in Artvin-Hatila Valley National Park, Turkey for two years (2006- 2007). A total of 120 pheromone traps were used to assess the population levels of both insect species. The results of the study were as follows: 1. ) I. typographus (L.) population on each aspect was significantly higher at the top slope stands than the other sites whereas T. formicarius (L.) population was higher at the bottom slope stands on the north-facing site. 2. ) There was no correlation between the number of T. formicarius (L.) and I. typographus (L.) caught by pheromone traps. 3. ) Body length and weight of I. typographus (L.) were significantly higher on south aspect and at the top slope on each aspect.