Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A reconstruction of Atlantic Central African biomes and forest succession stages derived from modern pollen data and plant functional types

Abstract. New detailed vegetation reconstructions are proposed in Atlantic Central Africa from a modern pollen data set derived from 199 sites (Cameroon, Gabon and Congo) including 131 new sites. In this study, the concept of plant functional classification is improved with new and more detailed plant functional types (PFTs) and new aggregations of pollen taxa. Using the biomisation method, we reconstructed (1) modern potential biomes and (2) potential succession stages of forest regeneration, a new approach in Atlantic Central African vegetation dynamics and ecosystem functioning reconstruction. When compared to local vegetation, potential biomes are correctly reconstructed (97.5% of the sites) and tropical rain forest (TRFO biome) is well identified from tropical seasonal forest (TSFO biome). When the potential biomes are superimposed on the White's vegetation map, only 76.4% of the sites are correctly reconstructed. But using botanical data, correspondence and cluster analyses, the 43 sites from Congo (Mayombe) evidence more affinities with those of central Gabon and so they can also be considered as correctly reconstructed as TRFO biome and White's map should be revised. In terms of potential succession stages of forest regeneration, the mature forest (TMFO) is well differentiated from the secondary forest (TSFE), but inside this latter group, the young and the pioneer stages are not clearly identified due probably to their low sampling representation. Moreover, linked to their progressive and mosaic character, the boundaries between two forest biomes or two forest stages are not clearly detected and need also a more intensive sampling in such transitions.
Short and long-term forecasting using artificial neural networks for stock prices in Palestine: a comparative study

To compare the forecast accuracy, Artificial Neural Networks, Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average and regression models were fit with training data sets and then used to forecast prices in a test set. Three different measures of accuracy were computed: Root Mean Square Error, Mean Absolute Error and Mean Absolute Percentage Error. To determine how the accuracy depends on sample size, models were compared between daily, monthly and quarterly time series of stock closing prices from Palestine.
Self-Esteem in Children with Facial Paralysis: A Review of Measures

Research in surgery has traditionally focused on quantitative results, sometimes ignoring the qualitative impact on patients. The purpose of the present review was to identify appropriate measurement tools to assess the psychosocial domains of children undergoing corrective surgery for facial paralysis. More specifically, the construct of self-esteem was explored. The outcome of the present investigation is the recommendation for Harter-based assessment tools for research purposes and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for clinical use. Using these tools will allow health care professionals to assess the psychosocial issues that are important to children with facial differences and to conduct research on the psychosocial impact of corrective surgery.
Efficacy and safety of trichloroacetic acid 35% versus adapalene 0.1% in treatment of molluscum contagiosum in children

Objective To compare the efficacy and safety of topical trichloroacetic acid (TCA) 35% versus topical adapalene 0.1% in molluscum contagiosum (MC) in children. Methods Sixty children with MCs were divided in two equal groups. Thirty patients in group A received treatment with topical 35% TCA weekly and 30 patients in group B received treatment with topical 0.1% adapalene once daily. The patients were followed till 6 weeks for efficacy and safety. Results The efficacy of TCA and adapalene was observed in 25 (83.3%) and 20 (66.7%) patients, respectively ( p > 0.136). The safety of TCA and adapalene was seen among 21 (70%) and 29 (96.7%) patients, respectively ( p < 0.05). Conclusion The efficacy of TCA was not significantly higher than adapalene. However, adapalene is more safe than TCA.
The Size of Informal Economy in Pakistan

This paper estimates the size of informal economy in Pakistan by using monetary approach with some modifications, electricity consumption approach and MIMIC model. Under monetary approach, we take care of the issue of the stationarity of variables and use autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model instead of simple OLS and add education as an additional factor affecting the size of informal economy along with some other technical improvements in the standard monetary models. The electricity consumption approach and MIMIC models are used for the first time in case of Pakistan. The results show that the informal economy in Pakistan has been about 30 percent of the total economy which declined considerably in 2000s. Currently, about 20 percent of the economic transactions are taking place in the informal sector. Key Words: Informal Economy, ARDL, MIMIC Acknowledgment We appreciate the comments and feedback given by Ali Choudhary, Moinuddin, Amin Lodhi and participants of a seminar in which this paper was presented.
A Look at Local Business Taxes

Cynics have sometimes said that economists cannot agree about anything. An important issue, on which many economists do agree, however, is that, although it is obviously convenient to collect revenues through taxing businesses, there is little justification for taxing them. In the end, all taxes affect people in economic terms. There is little to gain, and potentially much to lose, by confusing the issue and pretending to tax companies, and not people. Of course, it is not always clear exactly which people — owners, workers, or consumers — end up paying business taxes, but somebody definitely will pay. Hiding who really pays the bills is not a good way to ensure accountable public sector decisions. In addition, most forms of business taxation impose economic costs by distorting decisions on such matters as whether to incorporate, the debt-equity ratio, dividend policy, and where and how much to invest. Business taxes also may impose significant costs and barriers to the expansion of new and small firms. Those arguments sometimes may be overstated, for example, when the untaxed allocation of resources is clearly distorted by monopoly or externalities. On the whole, however, they are sufficiently well-founded to persuade many economists that there is little, if anything, to be said on efficiency grounds for taxing corporations in particular and indeed not much to be said for business taxes in general. Moreover, as discussed further in section I, the economic case against those taxes seems even stronger at the local level, than at the national level. The virtual unanimity of professional economic advice on this issue is more than matched, however, by the unanimity with which governments at all levels ignore the advice and impose taxes on businesses. There are many reasons why they do so — some specious, some perhaps justifiable in certain circumstances, and some more generally compelling. Contrary to the conventional economic wisdom sketched above, section II concludes that there often are good reasons why local governments in many instances should impose some form of taxation on businesses operating within their jurisdictions. That decided, the balance of this article turns to the difficult practical question of just how local governments should tax business. Section III first sketches the surprisingly broad panorama of local business taxes found around the world by providing thumbnail sketches of practices in a number of countries. Against that background, section IV sets out some criteria by which local business taxes may be evaluated, and evaluates the various taxes against those criteria. Finally, section V sketches briefly what seem to be the two most promising forms of local business taxation. A brief section VI concludes.
Examination of Sleep Disparities Among a Racially/ethnically Diverse Sample of Adolescents

Racial, ethnic and gender disparities have been found among a variety of health variables, but to date no study has comprehensively examined whether similar differences exist between sleep variables such as duration, efficiency and quality, in early adolescence. There is a general consensus among previous literature that adolescence is a time when a decrease in total sleep time and an increase in sleep problems are observed. Previous literature, however, mainly focused on the influence of puberty to explain these changes. the current study examined if differences exist between 1462 Caucasian, Hispanic/Latino, and African American early adolescents (ages 10-14 years) on sleep duration, efficiency and quality. Results showed that adolescent boys reported significantly longer sleep durations, better sleep quality, shorter sleep onset latencies, and later rise times than girls. Results also showed that sixth graders slept longer than seventh and eighth graders, and that seventh graders woke up much earlier than the other two grades. Lastly, results showed that Caucasian students reported longer sleep onset latencies and lower sleep efficiencies than African American students. Trends were observed for boys having greater sleep efficiencies than girls and for Caucasian students sleeping longer than Hispanic students. Based on the differences observed in our sample, introducing sleep education in middle school is discussed.
Managerial Ownership Concentration and Agency Conflict using Logistic Regression Approach: Evidence from Bursa Malaysia

This paper adopted logistic regression model to examine the relationship between level of managerial ownership concentration and agency conflict which are proxied by level of risk, firms leverage and firms dividend policy. The study covers a period of 5 years from 1997 through 2001. The study is based on the 100 blue-chip stocks, majority of which are derived from CI components. The findings suggest a positive and significant association between level of level of risk at lower level and managerial ownership while a negative and significant association is also evidenced between risk at higher level and managerial ownership concentration. While debt policy which serves as positive monitoring substitute for agency conflict is found to be positive and significant explaining the level of ownership concentration. Furthermore, dividend policies, which also serve as monitoring, substitute to reduce agency conflict between manager and external shareholders do not appear to have any significant impact on managerial ownership. On the other hand, the level of institutional ownership, which serves as external monitoring force, is found to have inverse impact on level of managerial ownership concentration. This is marginally significant at 10 level (p=.12). The findings, in part explain the argument that the managerial ownership help reduce agency conflict between outside equity holders and managers.
The old wasp and the tree: fossils, phylogeny and biogeography in the Orussidae (Insecta, Hymenoptera)

The phylogenetic relationships of the fossil orussid taxa Mesorussus taimyrensis and Minyorussus luzzi are examined by analysing them together with a large data set compiled previously for the extant Orussidae. The fossils are placed in an unresolved trichotomy with the extant Orussidae. The phylogeny is used for evaluating the hypothesis that the ancestors of the family had reduced body size; the results of this analysis are inconclusive. The biogeographical history of the Orussidae is explored. The common ancestor of the family was probably widespread, the initial splitting events taking place prior to or coinciding with the separation of Laurasia from Gondwana. Later putative vicariance events can be correlated with the gradual breakup of Gondwana. However, the biogeographical history of the Orussidae is dominated by speciation within regions and dispersal. The minimum age of the common ancestor of the Orussidae is >180 Myr when estimated from the biogeographical pattern, >95 Myr when estimated from the phylogenetic position of the fossils; the earlier date is considered to be the most likely. © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2004, 82, 139‐160.
The Phonological Sensibility of Nigerian Pre-Varsity English Speakers’ Activation of Heterophones and Pseudohomophones in Reading Comprehension

A very vital aspect of word learning includes phonological discrimination of lexical items. This study investigated the degree by which accurate pronunciation of heterophones and pseudo-homophones could be excitatory to comprehension of English sentences by young Nigerian learners of English. Five sentences, each containing a target word, were presented to 40 pupils to read and interpret. Perceptual, referential and statistical analysis of the data revealed the negative effect of deficit of phonological knowledge on word identification and decoding. It was discovered that phonological sensibility was a vital predictor of correct contextual selection of heterophones and pseudo-homophones. The findings support a model of comprehension in which phonological knowledge is vital.
Genome-Wide Analysis of Sorghum GT47 Family Reveals Functional Divergences of MUR3-Like Genes

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an important bioenergy crop. Its biomass mainly consists of the cellulosic and non-cellulosic polysaccharides, both which can be converted to biofuels. The biosynthesis of non-cellulosic polysaccharides involves several glycosyltransferases (GT) families including GT47. However, there was no systemic study on GT47 family in sorghum to date. Here, we identified 39 sorghum GT47 family members and showed the functional divergences of MURUS3 (MUR3) homologs. Sorghum GT47 proteins were phylogenetically clustered into four distinct subfamilies. Within each subfamily, gene structure was relatively conserved between the members. Ten gene pairs were identified from the 39 GT47 genes, of which two pairs might be originated from tandem duplication. 25.6% (10/39) of sorghum GT47 genes were homologous to Arabidopsis MUR3, a xyloglucan biosynthesis gene in primary cell walls. SbGT47_2, SbGT47_7, and SbGT47_8, three most homologous genes of MUR3, exhibited different tissue expression patterns and were selected for complementation into Arabidopsis mur3-3. Physiological and cell wall analyses showed that SbGT47_2 and SbGT47_7 may be two functional xyloglucan galactosyltransferases in sorghum. Further studies found that MUR3-like genes are widely present in the seed plants but not in the chlorophytic alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Our results provide novel information for evolutionary analysis and functional dissection of sorghum GT47 family members.
Social Cognition and Democracy: The Relationship Between System Justification, Just World Beliefs, Authoritarianism, Need for Closure, and Need for Cognition in Hungary

This research was aimed at examining just-world beliefs, system justification, authoritarianism, and cognitive style in a nationally representative sample (N = 1000) in Hungary, and at relating these phenomena to various demographic and political variables to find out whether the findings in Hungary would differ from its Western counterparts. According to system justification theory, there is a psychological motive to defend and justify the status quo. This theory has been tested several times in North American and Western European samples. The core finding of our study was that Hungarian people, unlike people in Western democracies, did not justify the existing establishment. There was strong pessimism with regard to the idea that the system serves the interests of the people. Members of disadvantaged groups (people with low economic income and/or far right political preference) strongly rejected the system. System justification beliefs were moderately related to just world beliefs, and there was a significant relationship between some aspects of need for closure (need for order, discomfort with ambiguity, and closed-mindedness) and authoritarian beliefs. Need for cognition was only related to one aspect of need for closure: closed-mindedness. The voters of right-wing parties did not display higher levels of authoritarianism than the voters of the left social-democrat party. The role of demographic and political variables, limitations, and possible developments of this research are discussed.
Microzooplankton grazing and nitrogen supply of phytoplankton growth in the temperate and subtropical northeast Atlantic

Serial dilution experiments were conducted on JGOFS-North Atlantic cruise of RV 'Meteor' M36/2 at a 20° W transect in June and July 1996 to assess the role of microzooplankton grazing and nitrogen supply in controlling phytoplankton stocks in the subtropical and temperate northeast Atlantic. Rates of microzooplankton grazing ranged from 0.08 d -1 at 54° N to 0.53 d -1 at 40° N and mean growth rates of phytoplankton ranged from 0.19 d -1 at 54° N to 0.75 d -1 at 40° N. Both rates were positively related to seawater temperature, whereas the apparent growth yield of phytoplankton declined with increasing temperature from 0.19 μg chl a dm -3 d -1 at 54° N to 0.01 μg chl a dm -3 d -1 at 33° N. Complete nitrogen saturation of phytoplankton growth indicated light or non-nitrogenous limitation at the nitracline at 47° N and in the deep chlorophyll maximum at 33° N, whereas in the mixed layer at 47° N and 54° N the ambient nitrogen supply was sub-saturated and yielded 63 and 39% of nitrogen-saturated growth. Nitrogen supply of phytoplankton growth was dominated by external and cellular sources in nitrate-rich waters of the mixed layer at 54° N and at the nitracline at 47° N, whereas nitrogen regeneration dominated at the nitrate-depleted surface waters at 47° N. However, in the deep chlorophyll maxima at 33° N and 40° N phytoplankton growth was primarily maintained by nitrogen regeneration, although external nitrogen was sufficiently available. The recycling efficiency of the microbial community was defined as the ratio of regenerated growth yield to herbivorous grazing loss. Efficiencies of 100% under post-bloom situations indicated tight coupling of predation, nitrogen supply and phytoplankton growth. We suggest that microzooplankton grazing has a high potential for nitrogen supply and biomass control of phytoplankton communities during summer in the temperate and subtropical northeast Atlantic.
City Branding – All Smoke, No Fire?

Abstract Successful corporate branding requires that questions related to communication, publicity, and organizational structures are addressed. An uncritical adoption of approaches known from traditional product branding will inevitably give problems as the properties of tangible commodities and services with their relatively concrete dimensions are absent when the main question is one of values. Furthermore, when the relatively straightforward identification and power structures of corporations and consumers are replaced by the more diversified structures of city government, their populations, and potential visitors, problems seem to multiply in what has become known as city branding. This analysis of the communicational aspects of two Danish provincial towns’ branding efforts examines both their internally and externally directed communication. It demonstrates that an insufficient understanding of - or willingness to face - these differences will inevitably hamper such branding efforts because of the consequential inconsistencies. Finally, paths to more effective city branding are indicated.
Analytical DC Model of Double Channel Dual Material Gate AlmGa1- mN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor, Ultra High Speed Device for Microwave and Radar Applications

We present polarization dependent charge control model for current voltage characteristics of Double Channel Dual Material Gate-AlGaN/GaN HEMT. This model demonstrates complete charge control in upper and lower channel of the device under various gate and drain bias conditions. The model device structure uses GaN material with higher breakdown voltage and polarization induced charge carrier density to achieve higher voltage and current drive capability. Model and simulation results reveal that DCDMG HEMT structure is capable of reducing short-channel effects (SCEs) more effectively as compared to the available conventional devices due to the presence of the step in the channel potential profile which effectively screen the drain potential variation in the device operation. The model accurately derives the top and bottom channels currents by using effective device threshold model for each channels based on analysis of two dimensional electron gas (2-DEG) in each channel. It is observed that work function difference of dual metal gate design is reason behind the screening effect of the drain potential variation near the drain region resulting in suppressed drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL). The model analyses current density in both the channels based on polarization induced 2-DEG density. Due to presence of bottom channel in the device, the effect of current collapse in top channel alone cannot degrade device functionality as it happens in conventional single channel AlGaN/GaN HEMT. This current collapse mainly occurs in the channel closer to the gate while bottom channel being at far distance suffers minimal current collapse hence improving overall device functionality. A good agreement between the results obtained from the model, ATLAS device simulator and published experimental data provides the validity and correctness of the proposed model.
Optimal exponential bounds on the accuracy of classification

We consider a standard binary classification problem. The performance of any binary classifier based on the training data is characterized by the excess risk. We study Bahadur's type exponential bounds on the minimax accuracy confidence function based on the excess risk. We study how this quantity depends on the complexity of the class of distributions characterized by exponents of entropies of the class of regression functions or of the class of Bayes classifiers corresponding to the distributions from the class. We also study its dependence on margin parameters of the classification problem.
Kähler-Einstein metric on an open algebraic manifold

In [10], S. -T. Yau proved that if M is a compact complex manifold with negative first Chern class, then there is a unique Kahler-Einstein metric with negative Ricci curvature up to a constant multiple. The condition "with negative first Chern class" is, by definition, to assume that there is a negative definite real closed (1,1)-form in the de Rham cohomology class of the first Chern class cλ(M). By the fact that for a holomorphic line bundle E on a compact complex manifold M, any real closed (1,1)-form on M belonging to the first Chern class cλ(E) is the curvature form of a Hermitian metric for E multiplied by l/2τr (See [6], pp. 148-150.), it is equivalent to assuming the existence of a volume form on M with negative definite Ricci form. Therefore, it is natural to suspect that in the non-compact version of Yau's theorem, the condition "with negative first Chern class" should be replaced by the existence of a volume form with negative Ricci form ω with some additional conditions to control the behavior of ω at infinity: for example, —ω defines a complete Kahler metric with bounded curvature on noncompact manifold under consideration. (In this paper, a Kahler metric is identified with its Kahler form.) In fact, in [2], S. -Y. Cheng and Yau proved that if Ω is a smooth bounded strongly pseudoconvex domain in C, then there is a complete Kahler-Einstein metric with negative Ricci curvature, which is invariant under biholomorphisms of Ω; the strong pseudoconvexity of Ω implies the existence of a volume form with the above properties. In this case, a model of such manifolds is the unit ball B in C with Poincare-Bergman metric: