Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distance no impediment for funerals : death as a uniting ritual for African people - a pastoral study : original research

An African funeral is a very social event for the entire community in which the deceased lived. Regardless of whether the deceased was a Christian or not, death has always been a reunion for long-separated relatives, believers and non-believers. Nowadays, tents, cars and the gathering of multitudes of people demonstrate how death can bring people together, irrespective of distance and relationships. Of course, this is not to deny the fact that death can be a cause of division between relatives and friends. Nonetheless, the funeral itself is also a uniting factor; many people come together, regardless of distance, to pay their last tributes to the deceased and to provide the bereaved family with emotional support. In this article, I argue that death, amongst other things, is a uniting factor that is able to bring people, who are separated by distance and other factors, together. The aim of this article is to discuss how death invites people into a family, regardless of bad blood, flawed relationships and separation.
Performance of a Highway Embankment Constructed over Landfill Material

This paper presents settlement data over a period of 12 years for two portions of a highway embankment constructed over landfill material. Construction was completed in 1989 and included dynamic compaction to limit post construction settlement. A preload / surcharge was used over a separate portion of one of the highway embankments as an alternative foundation improvement technique for the purpose of comparison and evaluation of the effectiveness of the two methods. Elevation measurements taken over a period of 12 years are presented for comparison of post construction settlement of both dynamically compacted and surcharged sections of the highway embankments.
The Spillover Effects of Restatement Tone for Industry Investment

This study explores the spillover effects of the tone of restatement press releases for the investments of rival firms. Our results show that changes in rivals’ investments after a restatement are significantly positively associated with the tone of restatement press releases, and that this association weakens over time as the restatements recede into the past. Moreover, we document that the association between changes in rivals’ investments and restatement tone varies cross-sectionally with how the restatement is framed, and with rivals’ corporate governance and financing mechanisms. Our study suggests that tone of restatement press releases provides information relevant for rivals’ investments.
An Intersectional Analysis of the Composite Index of Anthropometric Failures in India

Background: Nutritional inequality in India has been estimated typically using stunting, wasting and underweight separately which hide the overall magnitude and severity of undernutrition. We used the Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) that combines all three forms of anthropometric failures to assess the severity of undernutrition and identify the most vulnerable social groups and geographical hotspots.Method: CIAF was constructed using child anthropometric data from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4, 2015-16). We considered 24 intersecting sub-groups based on intersections across four main axes of inequality i.e., caste [Scheduled Tribe (ST), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other], economic position (poor and non-poor), place of residence (rural and urban) and gender (male and female) (eg. ST-Poor-Rural-Female). Cross-tabulation and logistic regression were done to assess the odds of CIAF among intersecting groups and to identify the most vulnerable sub-groups. Concentration curve was plotted to visualise economic position inequality in child undernutrition across caste categories. Choropleth maps were constructed and descriptive analysis of the district-level prevalence of CIAF was performed to identify the geographic clustering of undernutrition.Results: Overall 55.32% of children were undernourished by CIAF and 6.62% of children have simultaneous three anthropometric failure. In sub-group analysis, children from ST and SC caste have a higher risk of undernutrition irrespective of other axis of inequality. Compared with CIAF, economic position inequality was amplified for simultaneous-three-failures among all caste categories. Economic position inequalities within caste are more for other caste and SC categories than with ST. Economic position, caste and gender based inequality in all three failures is more consistent in rural areas than with urban areas. Based on the analysis of the high prevalence in the co-occurrence of two or three failures, 111 districts from 12 of 29 states in India were identified across four geographic clusters.Conclusions: The study shows social and eco-geographical clustering of multi-dimensional anthropometric failures and indicates the need for focused nutritional interventions among SC and ST community in general and ST children from the poor households. Furthermore, governance interventions that target entire regions across districts and states combined with decentralised planning are needed.
Effect of puff drying on seedless grape fruits quality criteria compared to convective air drying

The goal of the present study is to investigate the effect of explosion puffing and convection air drying on the physical, chemical and sensory properties of dried seedless grape, and cost of operation. The obtained results showed that, the drying rate of puff drying method (PD) was faster than that of convection air drying method at the corresponding drying condition of (60°C and 1.5 m/s air velocity). The seedless grape samples dried by PD were the best for the most of physico-chemical quality properties such as color index, texture, rehydration ratio, and shrinkage rate compared to similar samples dried by AD that required a longer time. The seedless grape dried by PD method had the highest amount of total phenolic compounds (276.73 mg/100g DM) than that in convection air drying. The highest value of total carotenoids (84.44 mg/100g DM) was found in seedless grape dried by PD method. The PD drying process lead to retention of total flavonoids in dried seedless grape samples at a wide rate depending on the drying time compared to the AD drying methods. The PD technique exhibited the ability to obviously quench the DPPH radical compared to the AD method. In conclusion, the seedless grape samples dried by PD exhibited good sensory properties and better acceptability. PD can meet the four major requirements in drying foods: short time of operation, energy efficiency, cost of operation, and quality of dried products which indicates that puff drying is a good choice for grape processing.
INTERACTING BINARIES WITH ECCENTRIC ORBITS. III. ORBITAL EVOLUTION DUE TO DIRECT IMPACT AND SELF-ACCRETION

The rapid circularization and synchronization of the stellar components in an eccentric binary system at the onset of Roche lobe overflow is a fundamental assumption common to all binary stellar evolution and population synthesis codes, even though the validity of this assumption is questionable both theoretically and observationally. Here we calculate the evolution of the orbital elements of an eccentric binary through the direct three-body integration of a massive particle ejected through the inner Lagrangian point of the donor star at periastron. The trajectory of this particle leads to three possible outcomes: direct accretion onto the companion star within a single orbit, self-accretion back onto the donor star within a single orbit, or a quasi-periodic orbit around the companion star, possibly leading to the formation of a disk. We calculate the secular evolution of the binary orbit in the first two cases and conclude that direct impact accretion can increase as well as decrease the orbital semimajor axis and eccentricity, while self-accretion always decreases the orbital semimajor axis and eccentricity. In cases where mass overflow contributes to circularizing the orbit, circularization can set in on timescales as short as a few percent of the mass-transfer timescale. In cases where mass overflow increases the eccentricity, the orbital evolution is governed by competition between mass overflow and tidal torques. In the absence of tidal torques, mass overflow results in direct impact can lead to substantially subsynchronously rotating donor stars. Contrary to assumptions common in the literature, direct impact accretion furthermore does not always provide a strong sink of orbital angular momentum in close mass-transferring binaries; in fact, we instead find that a significant part can be returned to the orbit during the particle orbit. The formulation presented in this paper together with our previous work can be combined with stellar and binary evolution codes to generate a better picture of the evolution of eccentric, Roche lobe overflowing binary star systems.
The Asset Growth Anomaly and the Role of Limits to Arbitrage

Several studies have documented that companies that increase capital investments or grow their total assets subsequently earn substantially lower risk-adjusted returns. While some studies attribute this phenomenon to investors' initial underreactions to overinvestments pursued by managers who are empire building, others attribute it to investors' initial overreactions to shifts in future business prospects implied by asset expansions. This paper examines the role of the limits to arbitrage in the negative effect of capital investment or asset growth on subsequent stock returns. We hypothesize that if the negative effect is due to investors' initial mis-reactions, the effect should be more pronounced when there are more severe limits to arbitrage. Our empirical evidence appears to support our hypothesis.
Winter cover crop management in the production of organic flue‐cured tobacco

HAHN, SAMUEL L. Winter Cover Crop Management in the Production of Organic Flue-cured Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) (Under the direction of Dr. Alex Woodley). In 2016, flue-cured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) was grown on 52% of organically certified farms in North Carolina. The organic production of flue-cured tobacco requires costly organic N management strategies, intensive tillage and bedding, and repeated cultivation for bed maintenance and weed control. This study was conducted to determine if cover cropping could mitigate the significant economic investment of N fertilization in organic tobacco. In 2018 and 2019, the effects of three winter cover crops: hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth); Austrian winter pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense L.); and crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum L.), were compared to typical N management without a cover crop, and investigated for their potential to supplement N to a flue-cured tobacco crop in Rocky Mount and Kinston, NC on a Norfolk sandy loam and a Goldsboro loamy sand, respectively. Tobacco yields were significantly greater under legume cover crop treatments in 2018 and 2019. Crop value ($ ha-1) was significantly greater in legume cover crop treatments in 2019, and did not differ from the control in 2018. In 2019, inseason soil samples showed N mineralized from the cover crop was not discernable in the soil N pool at tobacco topping, a critical marker of a necessary N-free period for the maturation of the leaves. Only hairy vetch at the Kinston location showed elevated soil N at topping compared to the control, however this did not have a negative effect on quality, yield, or value. Cover crops are not traditionally used in tobacco production due to concerns with unpredictability of N supply and extended N mineralization compromising the quality of the cured tobacco leaf. Our research did not support these concerns, and found evidence supporting the potential use of cover-crop N as a cost-effective management strategy with positive environmental externalities in the production of flue-cured tobacco. © Copyright 2020 by Samuel L. Hahn All Rights Reserved Winter Cover Crop Management in the Production of Organic Flue-cured Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.)
The impact of the performance measurement systems in setting the ‘direction’ in the University of Warwick

This paper presents a case study examining the role of performance measurement systems in setting organizational ‘direction’. There is a growing concern in the existing literature to link the development of organizational ‘direction’ with performance measurement systems. Furthermore, the alignment between organizational ‘direction’, strategy and performance measurement is an area of increasing interest for both academics and practitioners. However, there is no adequate research recorded in the literature on the use of the performance measurement systems and the potential impact that performance measurement can have in setting the organizational ‘direction’. This study reports the findings of a case study from one of the leading academic institutions in the UK, the University of Warwick, presenting the main characteristics of its performance measurement system and attempting to explain the connection with setting the university's ‘direction’.
Is Revenue Management to Meet Earnings Benchmarks Informative

We propose and empirically test a new hypothesis that managers rationally choose between specific channels of earnings management to meet earnings benchmarks. Prior research documents that managers are ready to interfere with the neutrality of financial reporting process to report earnings above zero, earnings above last year’s earnings, and earnings above analysts’ forecast. However, there is a controversy over whether this earnings management to meet or beat earnings benchmarks is intended to distort investors’ view by delaying the disclosure of bad news or whether it is intended to communicate managers’ private information about the firm’s strong future performance. We argue that the credibility of the earnings management signal crucially depends on the cost of its imitation. As revenue management is more costly to imitate than cost management, we argue that managers who intend to send a credible signal about their firm’s future performance likely boost revenues rather than depress costs. To test this prediction, we use a recently developed model of discretionary revenues that is arguably more powerful in detecting earnings management than traditional techniques. The empirical results are consistent with our predictions for the most important earnings benchmark – the consensus of analysts’ earnings forecasts – and they are weaker for the less prominent earnings benchmarks. We provide some evidence on the use of revenue management to meet or beat last year’s earnings, and no evidence on the use of revenue management around the zero earnings threshold. Taken together, our results contribute to the information economics and financial accounting literatures by documenting managers’ rational choice between earnings management channels around the most important earnings benchmark, which implies that inflated earnings in those settings communicate managers’ private information rather than obfuscate the firm’s current performance. JEL Classification G32, C58, M41
An approximate theory for the core collapse of two-component gravitating systems

An approximate theory is proposed for the dynamical evolution of the central regions of an isolated, spherical star cluster containing stars of two different masses. This may have relevance as in interpretation of the detailed numerical calculations of large N-body systems by previous investigators, and as an indication of the core collapse of realistic globular clusters. With idealizing assumptions, the full physical system is modeled by a simple set of four ordinary differential equations (for the virial radii and total masses) proposed to incorporate the essential physical features of the system.A characteristic result is that the late stages of core collapse are driven by self-interactions of heavy particles within an inner, self-gravitating sybsystem, with the early stages driven by conductive heat transfer to the light particles. Approximate formulae for different regimes of evolution are derived as functions of the initial mass ratios. In particular, the rapid evaporative regime of heavy particles, leading to complete collapse of the inner region, begins when they have contracted to about 20% of their initial radius, and occurs after a few initial relaxation time scales, depending on the initial mass ratios. Comparison of some of the numericallyevolved models with the detailed Monte Carlo calculations ofmore » Spitzer and co-workers shows good agreement.Also considered is the endpoint evolution of the dense inner core of heavy stars, when binary formation and dissipative processes associated with the finite size of stars (tidal interactions and stellar coalescence) become important. For parameters appropriate to globular clusters with solar type stars, the analysis suggests that the core evaporates down to < or approx. =100 stars before the above processes dominate the final evolution. It seems unlikely that coalesced stars exceeding tens of solar masses can be formed in the first core collapse of globular clusters. « less
Race in the Academy

Despite efforts to diversify the racial and ethnic ranks of acade mia, the percentage of Black, Latino, American Indian, and Asian faculty members remains pitifully low. According to the most recent reports, only 5% of the full-time faculty happened to be African American and Asian, although 2% is Hispanic and less than 1% is American Indian. At predominantly White institutions, which are renowned for their resources, profitable social networks, large endowments, and high levels of prestige, faculty of color are noticeably either absent or limited in their presence. That is because Black, Latino, and Asian faculty are more likely to hold positions at community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities. In addition, research shows that Black faculty as well as their Latino, Asian, and American Indian counterparts tend to be heavily represented among faculty at the lower ranks of lecturers and assis tant professors as well as reporting lower levels of success and job satisfaction. Taken together, these statistics portray a sad story about the status and success of faculty of color in academe. Although much of the research on faculty of color has focused on issues of diversity and retention, there is very limited research that critiques implementation of traditional diversity initiatives in light of the limited presence and success of faculty of color in predomi nantly White institutions. This special issue of Journal of Black
Non-linear and non-stationary hydroclimate variability in France and the Euro-Atlantic area

The works presented in this thesis explore the non-linearity and non-stationarity aspects of the hydroclimate system in France and the Euro-Atlantique area. In part I, «Spatio-temporal scales of hydroclimate variability in France», classifications of precipitation, temperature and discharge time series of 152 watersheds were established, based on non-linear and non-stationary characteristics. In particular, we based our classifications on spectral contents and cross-scale, phase-phase, phase-amplitude interactions. Results show clear homogeneous regions for each variable, but with complex spectral content and cross-scale interactions. Part II, « Spatiotemporal of local and large-scale climate variability», we studied how the watershed modulation altered the spectral correlation between local climate (precipitation, temperature) and discharge. We then studied the large-scale atmospheric patterns linked to discharge, with a combined spatial and temporal spectral analysis. Results show than temperature is the main driver of discharge at the annual scale, but precipitation is the main driver for other time scales. The large scale atmospheric patterns linked to discharge were shown to be time scale dependent and heavily modulated from West to east, with interacting atmospheric components shifting the main time scales of spectral correlation with discharge. Finally, Part III « North Atlantic atmospheric circulation dynamics», introduces a new conjecture linking the geometrical theory of the extremal length (a conformal invariant) and conservative atomspheric systems, such as the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation. We have shown that the time invariance of the extremal length implies conservation in mechanical energy within the atmospheric system, and that the increase/decrease of invariance induces mechanical energy losses/gains. The application of the theory to the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation, shows that depending on the time scale, the dynamics are vastly different, ranging for asymptotically stable to unstable, and that the atmospheric circulation for the last 40 years has seen large changes in its dynamics. Through this thesis, we showed the importance of time scale dependence, interactions between them, and more generally, of non-linearity and non-stationarity. We encourage hydrologist and climate scientists to adopt a combined physics-statistical approach in order to better grasp the complexity of hydroclimate systems.
A unified approach for the structural health monitoring of waveguides

In this article, the simultaneous use of ultrasonic testing and impedance-based technique to monitor the health of structural waveguides is proposed. Methods based on the propagation of guided waves are increasingly used in all those structural health monitoring applications that benefit from built-in transduction, moderately large inspection ranges, and high sensitivity to small flaws. In the meantime, impedance-based method promises to adequately assess the structural integrity of simple and complex structures that include welds and bolts. As both wave-based and impedance-based approaches can utilize piezoelectric transducers (lead zirconate titanate) bonded or embedded to the structure being monitored, this article describes a unified structural health monitoring paradigm where these techniques are employed simultaneously, driven by the same sensing/hardware/software unit. Specifically, we propose to use two lead zirconate titanates controlled by a National Instruments–PXI running in LabVIEW. An ad hoc LabVIEW Virtual Instrument controls signal output and input as well as processing and storage. To assess the feasibility of this unified system, an aluminum plate and a steel pipe were monitored. Damage was simulated by changing the boundary conditions of each structure. The results show that the proposed system is robust and can be developed further to address the challenges associated with the structural health monitoring of complex structures.
Phonological processing and literacy in AAC users and students with motor speech impairments

The purpose of this study was to investigate phonological processing in children and adolescents with congenital motor speech impairments. Thirty-two participants with cerebral palsy and no intelligible speech who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC user group) and 32 students with impaired but intelligible speech (speech-impaired group), aged 7.5 to 17.5, as well as reading-level-matched controls (younger children with normal speech and no physical disabilities) were assessed on a protocol of phonological processing in three areas: retrieval of whole-word phonology, phoneme awareness, and phonological recoding. Phoneme awareness and phonological recoding were assessed from beginning to advanced levels. Reading assessment included two nonspeech measures of word reading. Between-group comparisons indicated that, compared to reading-level-matched controls, both the AAC user and the speech-impaired group scored significantly lower in all areas of phonological processing. Relative strengths a.