Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent summer sea ice thickness surveys in Fram Strait and associated ice volume fluxes

Abstract. Fram Strait is the main gateway for sea ice export out of the Arctic Ocean, and therefore observations there give insight into the composition and properties of Arctic sea ice in general and how it varies over time. A data set of ground-based and airborne electromagnetic ice thickness measurements collected during summer between 2001 and 2012 is presented here, including long transects well into the southern part of the Transpolar Drift obtained using fixed-wing aircrafts. The primary source of the surveyed sea ice leaving Fram Strait is the Laptev Sea and its age has decreased from 3 to 2 years between 1990 and 2012. The thickness data consistently also show a general thinning of sea ice for the last decade, with a decrease in modal thickness of second year and multiyear ice, and a decrease in mean thickness and fraction of ice thicker than 3 m. Local melting in the strait was investigated in two surveys performed in the downstream direction, showing a decrease in sea ice thickness of 0.19 m degree−1 latitude south of 81° N. Further north variability in ice thickness is more related to differences in age and deformation. The thickness observations were combined with ice area export estimates to calculate summer volume fluxes of sea ice. While satellite data show that monthly ice area export had positive trends since 1980 (10.9 × 103 km2 decade−1), the summer (July and August) ice area export is low with high uncertainties. The average volume export amounts to 16.78 km3. Naturally, the volume flux estimates are limited to the period when airborne thickness surveys are available. Nevertheless, we could show that the combination of satellite data and airborne observations can be used to determine volume fluxes through Fram Strait and as such, can be used to bridge the lack of satellite-based sea ice thickness information in summer.
Precipitation downscaling under climate change: Recent developments to bridge the gap between dynamical models and the end user

Precipitation downscaling improves the coarse resolution and poor representation of precipitation in global climate models and helps end users to assess the likely hydrological impacts of climate change. This paper integrates perspectives from meteorologists, climatologists, statisticians, and hydrologists to identify generic end user (in particular, impact modeler) needs and to discuss downscaling capabilities and gaps. End users need a reliable representation of precipitation intensities and temporal and spatial variability, as well as physical consistency, independent of region and season. In addition to presenting dynamical downscaling, we review perfect prognosis statistical downscaling, model output statistics, and weather generators, focusing on recent developments to improve the representation of space‐time variability. Furthermore, evaluation techniques to assess downscaling skill are presented. Downscaling adds considerable value to projections from global climate models. Remaining gaps are uncertainties arising from sparse data; representation of extreme summer precipitation, subdaily precipitation, and full precipitation fields on fine scales; capturing changes in small‐scale processes and their feedback on large scales; and errors inherited from the driving global climate model.
Incentive payments, food safety and moral hazard in the supply chain

This paper analyses an incentive payment-based approach to improving food safety in the supply chain. It develops a principal-agent model of the food supply chain in which the principal offers heterogeneous agents a payment to implement costly additional practices to improve food safety. It is shown that the presence or absence of the moral hazard problem affects the balance of benefits and costs from broadening the scope of the system from just lower cost larger agents to include higher cost smaller agents, thereby affecting the optimal design of the system. In particular, broadening the scope of the system to include smaller agents by increasing the size of the incentive payment can ameliorate the moral hazard problem among larger agents to the extent that this more costly approach is socially optimal.
THE CREDIT CONSUMPTION PATTERN IN SOUTH AFRICA: A TREND ANALYSIS

While the developed countries witnessed a significant contraction in credit consumption in response to the financial crisis in 2008, South Africa’s household debt continues to be on the increase. This article is based on empirical research on the relationship between household debt and disposable income, net wealth, interest rates and inflation for the period between 1975 and 2013. Using regression analyses, the study examines the linkage between household debt and consumption spending in South Africa to capture the short-run and long-run dynamics. The results show that there is a significant relationship between household debt and disposable income, net wealth and inflation. Further tests indicate that there is a bidirectional causality running from economic growth to household debt and vice versa. However, it is revealed that there is no direct relationship between household debt and lending rates.
Large Scale Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes

Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991 by Iijima, they have been of great interest both from the fundamental point of view and for future applications. The most eye catching features of this structure are their electronic, mechanical, optical and chemical characteristics, which opens a way to future applications. These properties can even be measured on single nanotubes. For commercial applications, large quantities of purified nanotubes are needed. In this paper, recent research on preparation of carbon nanotubes with special reference to low temperature synthesis of high purity is reviewed. The reported achievements in this area will open up more knowledge on carbon nanostructured materials in many areas of emerging nanoscale science and nanotechnology
Information, ICTs and Small Enterprise: Findings from Botswana

The potential contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to small enterprise development can only be assessed by first understanding current information practices and needs in such enterprises. This paper reports findings from a questionnaire and interview survey of formal sector enterprises in Botswana based on this approach. <br><br>The survey first mapped current enterprise information systems, finding there was a strong reliance on informal systems. It also mapped current information needs. Such needs must be kept in perspective since they may be less important than (though intertwined with) needs for other resources such as finance, skills and new markets. Where information systems are improved, changes to informal, non-electronic systems must be considered alongside changes to formal, ICT-based systems. <br><br>Interventions, whether by entrepreneurs or support agencies, must also be differentiated. The paper therefore concludes by offering an information-related categorisation of enterprise types with different information systems and different intervention requirements.
Why is Portfolio Insurance Attractive to Investors?

This paper examines whether and how the popularity of portfolio insurance strategies can be justified theoretically. The analysis employs three different return generating processes with and without stochastic volatility and jumps. We find that an investor with constant relative risk aversion does not profit from portfolio insurance. For a cumulative prospect theory investor, on the other hand, the investment performance, measured by the certainty equivalent return, doubles from around 5% for buy-and-hold to around 10% due to portfolio insurance. Across all models, both loss aversion and probability weighting turn out to be crucial to explaining the attractiveness of portfolio insurance.
Música como elemento de ação interdisciplinar

Tem-se discutido a musica na literatura devido ao seu hibridismo que abarca a interdisciplinaridade. Discutir musica isoladamente e uma tarefa utopica, uma vez que seu carater interdisciplinar agrupa areas que diversas vezes se sobrepoem como arte, saude, educacao, psicologia, administracao, antropologia, ciencias humanas, dentre outras. Desse modo, o objetivo desse artigo e sintetizar as evidencias cientificas acerca da acao da musica como elemento interdisciplinar. Para alcancar esse objetivo, realizou-se uma revisao integrativa utilizando descritores controlados (musica – musicoterapia – interdisciplinaridade), obtendo-se, como amostra, 50 artigos. A amostra dividiu-se em periodicos nacionais e internacionais; sendo a maioria com Qualis A1, A2 ou B1. As evidencias cientificas apontam; especialmente nas areas da saude e da educacao; que as intervencoes musicais reduzem significativamente indices de ansiedade, estresse e dor; melhoram o condicionamento fisico e os padroes cardiorrespiratorios; minimizam a depressao, potencializando o desenvolvimento humano. Diante dos resultados, pode-se concluir que a musica se mostrou um instrumento eficaz para utilizacao em intervencoes na area da saude e educacao, podendo ser ampliada em outros campos disciplinares, mostrando ampla acao interdisciplinar.
Customer Concentration and Profitability in Private Healthcare Companies

Previous studies suggest that the customer size and range have implications for the company’s performance. In this paper, we investigate the impact of customer concentration on a firm's performance in the framework of healthcare companies. The base of this paper is the questionnaire data of the private Finnish health care companies. We shed light on one corner of diverse and complex combination of the profitability process in the small companies. Thus, we address that the customer, beside other factors, has an influence on a firm’s performance. Especially, in small health care companies as most of this research companies are, one or few big customers is a common form of customer base. We found that the customer concentration of the company positively directs the company’s performance. Furthermore, some of the contextual factors such as desire to grow contributed to the company’s performance too.
Secular changes in tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite composition as markers of the progressive cooling of Earth

Archean tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite associations (TTG) are classically thought to generate through partial melting of hydrous metabasalts. However, the chemical composition of the least differentiated TTG parental magmas evolved from 4.0 to 2.5 Ga. During this interval, the Mg# as well as the Ni and Cr contents increased, which is interpreted as reflecting increased interactions between felsic melts generated by metabasalt melting and mantle peridotite. Similarly, (CaO + Na2O) and Sr also increased over time, thus reflecting an increase in the abundance of plagioclase in the melt residue. The presence or absence of residual plagioclase is interpreted in terms of melting depth. The demonstrated interaction between TTG parental magmas and the mantle rules out their genesis by fusion of previously underplated metabasalt and favors the melting of subducted slab material. At 4.0 Ga, Earth's geothermal gradient was sufficiently high to allow slab melting at shallow depths where plagioclase was stable. Consequently, due to the small thickness of the overlying mantle wedge, felsic magmas interacted little with the mantle. At 2.5 Ga, however, owing to lower geothermal gradients, the melting depth was greater and plagioclase became no longer stable in the thick mantle wedge overlying the subducted slab. As a result, felsic magmas reacted strongly with the mantle peridotite. The changes of TTG composition during Archean time can be thus interpreted as reflecting the progressive cooling of Earth.
A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Analyzing the Effect of Self Congruity on Shopper's Retail Store Behavior

Self congruity is an important concept since it plays a critical role in influencing consumer behavior. Taking the case of retail stores, we conduct a study to determine its effect on consumer satisfaction, overall attitudes, and purchase intentions. A measurement scale was developed to measure the self congruity. The study results indicate that actual self image congruity, ideal self image congruity, social self image congruity and ideal social self image congruity, are related to consumer behavior. Whereas their influence is varied. The paper, also, discusses the implications for store managers.
Process Developments and Materials Characterization in FSW/P

FSW and processing have largely evolved in recent years in terms of process knowledge, materiais processed and industrial apllications. This paper aims at presenting some applications involving FSW and variants of this in distinct applications. Considering process developments friction stir has been studied in an hybrid welding process associated with electric current for welding Al based alloys. In this variant a temperatura increase due to Joule effect was seen to improve he viscoplasticity of base material without affecting metallurgical characteristics, reducing lack of penetration which is detrimental for fatigue resistance [1,2]. Diffusion welding triggered by FSW, named friction stir diffusin welding (FSDW) has also been investigated to join materiais with very distinctive properties as copper to stainless steel preventing the formation of brittle intermetallics and improving joining efficiency using downward force of 5500 N, rotation speed of 1800 rpm and travei speed of 90 mm/min. The same variant was tested to produce sandwich materiais as Al reinforced with NiTi ribbons taking advantage of the high conductive soft Al material and the damping capacity and high mecahnical resistance shown by NiTi. A good embedment of the reinforcing material under appropriate processing conditions was seen due to the viscoplastic material flow around the NiTi. The possibility to produce surface composites and functionally graded materiais by FSP and friction surfacing is another interesting field of research [3,4]. These find applications in components where high surface wear and corrosion resistances are a requirement. The introduction of SiC particles in Al based alloys allowed to produce orthogonal gradients of hardness and high surface resistances. Friction surfacing has also been studied aiming the two applications mentioned: to produce FGMs in non ferrous alloys and to manufacture high resistance coatings in steel. A very remarkable result is the high hardness observed in steel coatings much superior to those obtained with conventional heat treatments, as quenching. A hardness of 700 HV was measured in A1SIH13 coatings due to both the rapid quenching of high temperature material and severe plastic deformation of the process [5]. This solid state materiais processing technology also demands for new nondestructive techniques to assess the materiais integrity and characterize the processed area. Thus, eddy currents have been studied and showed to map the microstructures of distint zones. as well as, to identify LoP defects [6,7].
Toplumumuzda ve Öğretmen Adayları Arasında Öğretmenlik Mesleğine Verilen Değer Üzerine Bir Araştırma

Bu calismada, gecmisten gunumu/. c ogretmen yetistirme olaninda yapilan calismalar, toplumumuzda ogretmenlik meslegine verilen deger ekseninde ozetlenmis, egitim fakultelerindeki yeniden yapilanma projesi cercevesinde orta ogretim ogretmenlik programlarinda ogrenim . goren ogretmen adaylarinin lisans egitimleri Oncesinde ogretmenlik meslegini tercih ederkenki beklentileri ile mezuniyet oncesi dusuncelerinin karsilastirilmasi amaclanmistir Betimleyici arastirma yontemi kapsaminda oze/ durum arastirmasi yaklasimiyla yurutulen calismada bulgular, Karadeniz Teknik Universitesi Fatih Egitim fakultesi OFMA Egitimi Bolumunde ogrenim goren; 28'/ matematik, 20'si fizik, 2.4'u kimya ve \8'i biyoloji programindan olmak uzere toplam 90 ogretmen adaylyla yurutulen yari-yapilandiriimis mulakatlarla elde edilmistir. Arastirma bulgularina dayali olarak, ogretmen adaylarinin buyuk bir cogunlugunun, meslege iliskin beklentilerinin istenilir seviyede karsilanmadigi, gelecek kaygisi tasidigi ve ogretmenlik mesleginin eskiye oranla saygin gorulmedigi sonucuna varilmistir. Bununla birlikte, ogretmen adaylarinin ogretmenlik meslegine yonelik sahip olduklari olumsuz degerlerin, egitim fakultelerinden mezun olma asamasinda basari, sevgi gibi olumlu icerikli deger kavramlarina donustugu anlasilmistir.
The Retention Problem: An Analysis of Enrolment Attrition at a Canadian College

A survey of returning and non-returning students at Scarborough College was undertaken to investigate the problem of declining retention rates at Ontario Universities. This study describes the opportunities available to and chosen by non-returning students, and then seeks to evaluate various hypotheses that have been proposed to account for enrolment attrition. Consistent with prior research, there was no evidence found to support the claim that students are being forced out of university by an inability to afford the costs of their education. Instead, the results suggested that enrolment attrition is produced by a combination of an attenuation of the student's commitment to obtain the degree and the student's awareness of and access to viable alternatives. As a result of a pervasive sense of uncertainty about the market value of a university degree, many students are willing to assay other opportunities. Specifically, those students who went to work appear to have been "pulled out" of university by the availability of a credible job. In addition, the contingencies affecting the commitment of the returning students and the students who transfer to other educational institutions are discussed. The conclusion addresses the relationship between financial circumstances and access to university, and raises questions about future enrolment patterns.
Interactive comment on “ Particle characterization at the Cape Verde atmospheric observatory during the 2007 RHaMBLe intensive ” by K .

Response to the reviews and the comment by A.A. P. Pszenny and W.C. Keene General First of all the author thank both the unknown referees and also A. Pszenny and W.C. Keene for their helpful and constructive remarks for the improvement of the manuscript as a whole by clarified discussions with additions and changes where necessary and a deeper discussion of the analytical observations. The three comments will be addressed one by one in following. A Response to the comments of referee 1:
Antimicrobial activity of solvent extracts from the leaves of Tarchonanthus camphoratus (Asteraceae)

The plant Tarchonanthus camphoratus belongs to the Asteraceae family. Its common name is wild sage or camphor bush. It is widely distributed, but has similar medicinal use throughout its range. It is taken orally or applied externally to relieve bronchitis, asthma, headache, inflammation, chilblains or abdominal pains. The aim of the study was to assess the antimicrobial activity of the extracts from the leaves of this plant. A powdered sample of the leaves weighing 500 g was sequentially extracted with hexane (1.5 L), dichloromethane (1.5 L) and methanol (3 x 1.5 L). The methanolic extract was partitioned between equal volumes (250 ml each) of distilled water and n-butanol. The n-butanol fraction was concentrated under reduced pressure followed by addition of diethyl ether, precipitating 20 g of a dry crude extract. The extract was successively fractionated using hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, acetone, ethanol and methanol yielding 1.6 g, 1.4 g, 1.6 g, 7.0 g, and 1.4 g, 2 g and 4 g respectively of samples soluble in each solvent. Phytochemical tests revealed the presence of terpenoids in hexane, dichloromethane, and chloroform fractions. Ethyl acetate fraction contained terpenoids and phenolics. Tannins, phenolics and flavonoids were present in the acetone and ethanol fractions while tannins, phenolics and saponins were present in the methanol fraction. Antimicrobial activity tests of the extracts soluble in various solvents were then performed on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Salmonella typhi, Candida albicans and Bacillus spp. Ethyl acetate fraction was active against E. coli, P. mirabilis, K. pneumoniae, S. typhi, and Bacillus spp while the methanol fraction was active against E. coli, K. pneumoniae, S. typhi, and Bacillus spp. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration of Ethyl acetate fraction was 80 mg/ml, 67 mg/ml, 57 mg/ml and 200 mg/ml for E. coli, P. mirabilis, Bacillus spp and S. typhi respectively. The inhibitory bioactivity against a variety of bacteria validates the traditional usage of the plant as a remedy for various conditions.
Leptohyphodes inanis (Pictet) and Tricorythodes ocellus Allen & Roback (Ephemeroptera: Leptohyphidae): New stages and descriptions

Abstract Leptohyphodes Ulmer is a poorly known monotypic genus from NE Brazil (Serra do Mar). It is the only known genus in the family Leptohyphidae that shows divided eyes in the male. In the present paper the genus and species are redescribed, based on new material from all the life stages. The eggs and female adults are described for the first time. Also male imagines of Tricorythodes ocellus Allen & Roback are described for the first time, showing markedly plesiomorphic genitalia. Leptohyphodes shows close affinities with the genera Tricorythodes and Haplohyphes. Resumen Leptohyphodes Ulmer es un género monotípico poco conocido del NE de Brasil (Serra do Mar). Es el único género conocido en la familia Leptohyphidae que presenta ojos divididos en el macho. En el presente trabajo se redescribe el género y la especie sobre la base de material nuevo de todos los estadíos del ciclo de vida. Los huevos y hembras adultas son descriptos por primera vez. También se describe por primera vez a los imagos machos de Tricorythodes ocellus Allen & Roback, que muestran genitales masculinos notoriamente plesiomórficos. Leptohyphodes muestra relaciones de parentesco con los géneros Tricorythodes y Haplohyphes.
Agroforestry Contribution to the Improvement of Rural Community Livelihoods in Balaka, Malawi

A cross-sectional study was conducted to identify the contribution of agroforestry on improvement of livelihoods of farmers in Balaka, Malawi with emphasis on (1) identifying the main forest products and services obtained from agroforestry trees, and (2) identifying the impact of agroforestry adoption on livelihoods of farmers. A total of 60 lead farmers from six villages; Joshua, Kapalamula, Malikula, Mpondabwino, Naliluwa and Sosola were used for the study. Data was collected using a standard structured questionnaire administered through face-to-face interviews. The results revealed that farmers identified the following as the main products obtained from agroforestry trees; fuelwood (48.3%), fruits (21.7%), medicine (15.0%) and fodder (15.0%). Fuelwood was ranked the most product obtained from the agroforestry trees indicating the reliance of farmers on the woody products as the main source of energy. The majority (68.3%) of the respondent indicated soil improvement as the main service obtained from agroforestry trees followed by water retention and conservation (20.0%), and then biodiversity conservation (11.7%). The major impact of agroforestry adoption to improvement of livelihoods of farmers identified were; increased income (51.7%), increased crop yield (33.3%) and improved health and nutrition (15.0%). Therefore, agroforestry is significant in improvement of rural community livelihoods. Hence, the present study recommends a strong need to intensify promotion of agroforestry and advocacy to policy makers.