Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Climatic influences on recruitment of 3 subspecies of Artemisia tridentata.

Previous research suggested that big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) recruitment occurs in pulses consistent with favorable climatic conditions. In 1997, 75 stem sections were collected from 9 stands of each of the 3 subspecies of big sagebrush in Wyoming along elevation and climatic gradients. Annual growth rings were used to identify the year plants were established. Large cohorts of Wyoming big sagebrush (A. tridentata ssp. wyomingensis Beetle and Young) appeared in 1982, 1981, 1964, 1961, and 1955. Basin big sagebrush (A. tridentata ssp. tridentata Beetle and Johnson) cohorts flourished in 1991, 1986, 1985, 1982, and 1977. Mountain big sagebrush (A. tridentata ssp. vaseyana [Rydb.] Beetle) cohorts prospered in 1985, 1982, 1981, 1979, and 1974. Mean monthly precipitation and temperature records were compared to years with high and low recruitment using logistic regression models at 3 geographic scales (single-stand, regional, statewide). Wyoming big sagebrush recruitment was greatest in years with above-average December and January precipitation occurring after the first growing season (r2 = 0.10, 0.04, P < 0.05). Basin big sagebrush recruitment was most successful in years with above-average March, May, and June precipitation during the first growing season (r2 = 0.06, 0.09, 0.18, P < 0.05). Mountain big sagebrush recruitment was greatest in years with below-average February, April, and May precipitation after the first growing season (r2 = 0.03, 0.04, 0.04, P < 0.05). While variable precipitation patterns appear to contribute significantly to recruitment of big sagebrush, responses among the 3 major subspecies were quite variable. More complex models need to be developed to foster our understanding of the mechanisms affecting big sagebrush establishment. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v54i6_maier
Causality and Collisionless Damping in Plasma

We derive the collisionless Landau damping in a plasma by satisfying the causal requirement that the susceptibility function of the plasma for time t < 0 should be nil. The causality condition should be satisfied by the susceptibility function of a plasma no matter what equations we employ to describe the plasma. Thus we conclude that the fundamental reason of the collisionless damping can be traced to the causality. As an example, we derive the collisionless damping of ion acoustic wave in a plasma by employing fluid equations.
Collecting real-life problems to test solvers for implicit differential equations

To test solvers for implicit differential equations, it is important to have a representative collection of test problems. Such a test set can both decrease the effort for the code developer to test his software in a reliable way, and cross the bridge between the application field and numerical mathematics. In this paper we describe the CWI Test Set for IVP solvers and look at two applications in detail, one from car industry and one from biochemistry. Acknowledgements: This work is supported financially by the ‘Technologiestichting STW’ (Dutch Foundation for Technical Sciences).
Unravelling abiotic and biotic controls on the seasonal water balance 2819 Runoff Storage Precipitation Topography Vegetation Subsurface RadiationBinding forces ForcingState Baseflow

The baffling diversity of runoff generation processes, alongside our sketchy understanding of how physiographic characteristics control fundamental hydrological functions of water collection, storage, and release, continue to pose major research challenges in catchment hydrology. Here, we propose innovative data-driven diagnostic signatures for overcoming the prevailing status quo in catchment inter-comparison. More specifically, we present dimensionless double mass curves (dDMC) which allow inference of information on runoff generation and the water balance at the seasonal and annual timescales. By separating the vegetation and winter periods, dDMC furthermore provide information on the role of biotic and abiotic controls in seasonal runoff formation. A key aspect we address in this paper is the derivation of dimensionless expressions of fluxes which ensure the comparability of the signatures in space and time. We achieve this by using the limiting factors of a hydrological process as a scaling reference. We show that different references result in different diagnostics. As such we define two kinds of dDMC which allow us to derive seasonal runoff coefficients and to characterize dimensionless streamflow release as a function of the potential renewal rate of the soil storage. We expect these signatures for storage controlled seasonal runoff formation to remain invariant, as long as the ratios of release over supply and supply over storage capacity develop similarly in different catchments. We test the proposed methods by applying them to an operational data set comprising 22 catchments (12–166 km2) from different environments in southern Germany and hydrometeorological data from 4 hydrological years. The diagnostics are used to compare the sites and to reveal the dominant controls on runoff formation. The key findings are that dDMC are meaningful signatures for catchment runoff formation at the seasonal to annual scale and that the type of scaling strongly influences the diagnostic potential of the dDMC. Adding discrimination between growing season and winter period was of fundamental importance and easy to implement by means of a temperatureindex model. More specifically, temperature aggregates explain over 70 % of the variability of the seasonal summer runoff coefficients. The results also show that the soil topographic index, i.e. the product of topographic gradient and saturated hydraulic conductivity, is significantly correlated with winter runoff coefficients, whereas the topographic gradient and the hydraulic conductivity alone are not. We conclude that proxies for gradients and resistances should be interpreted as a pair. Lastly, the dDMC concept reveals memory effects between summer and winter runoff regimes that are not relevant in spring between the transition from winter to summer.
On a Family of Finite Moving-Average Trend Filters for the Ends of Series

A family of finite end filters is constructed using a minimum revisions criterion and based on a local dynamic model operating within the span of a given finite central filter. These end filters are equivalent to evaluating the central filter with unavailable future observations replaced by constrained optimal linear predictions. Two prediction methods are considered: best linear unbiased prediction and best linear biased prediction where the bias is time invariant. The properties of these end filters are determined. In particular, they are compared to X-11 end filters and to the case where the central filter is evaluated with unavailable future observations predicted by global ARIMA models as in X-11-ARIMA or X-12-ARIMA. Copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
EFFECTS OF IMAGE AND ADVERTISING EFFICIENCY ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND ANTECEDENTS OF LOYALTY: TURKISH BANKS SAMPLE

The present study examines the relationships between image, advertising efficiency, customer satisfaction, customer expectation, perceived quality, perceived value, customer complaint and customer loyalty. These variables are increasingly recognised as being sources of competitive advantage. However, little empirical research has been conducted to examine these variables simultaneously and their relationships with post-purchase behaviour especially service organizations like banks. The present study was therefore designed to develop an understanding of the relationships between these variables and their influence on loyalty. An integrative model was developed and tested by using data collected from the customers of Turkish banks. The results reveal that bank image and advertising efficiency influence customer loyalty and antecedents of loyalty significantly.
Investigating the dynamic relationships between wild shrimp and cultured shrimp prices

The arrival in the 1980s of cultured shrimp has induced large changes on the World shrimp market. In this new environment, the French Guyana fishery production now competes strongly with some of these farm-produced shrimp. Consequently, this fishery has experienced serious export problems during the last decade. This paper is an attempt to analyse the specific impact of the arrival of cultured shrimp to the World markets on the French Guyana domestic market price and on the fleet activity. More particularly, we analyse the relationship between this market and one cultured shrimp market usually considered as benchmark, the Thai market. We use econometric techniques to test whether these two markets are cointegrated and whether causalities exist between them. For these tests, we rely on the two monthly price series recorded over the period 1986-93. The tests indicate that the two series are non-stationary and co-integrated. Therefore, a long-term relationship exists between the two markets, and the identification of the valid dynamic model requires a two-dimension error correcting model. The analysis of the impulse responses derived from the model indicates that the French Guyana market responds significantly to shocks on the Thai market. In other respects, a significant causality from the Thai market to the French Guyana market has been identified. Finally, we discuss these results by briefly analysis the main consequences they induced for the fishery's dynamics.
Biochemical Composition and Preliminary Qualitative Analysis of Marine ClamGafrarium divaricatum (Gmelin) From Mumbai, West Coast of India

The present work investigates the potential use of the whole tissue of clam Gafrarium divaricatum (Gmelin) as a food source in a coastal region of India. In order to evaluate its food value, a detailed biochemical analysis of the whole tissue has been carried out. The results of biochemical analysis show very high protein content (26.32%), Carbohydrate (11.23%) and lipid (1.29%). The protein consists of 10 essential and 9 non essential amino acids which are as follows (Lysine 14.36%, Histidine 9.02, Methionine 8.92 %) and (Alanine 5.94%, Aspartic acid 4.98, Asparagine 3.79, Tyrosine 3.52 and Proline 3.21%) are the predominant essential amino and non essential amino acids. G. divaricatum consists of 6 different fatty acids out of which 2 are saturated fatty acids (SFA), one monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and three polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). SFA, MUFA and PUFA content was 27.18, 11.02, 12.47, 17.96, 11.38 and 11.38% respectively in fat (1.29 gm/100gm). In addition it contains Vitamins such as Vitamin A (112.3 IU), Vitamin C (24.11 mg/g), D (13.96 IU), B12 (1.98μg/g.), E (1.14 mg/g), K (0.59 mg/g) and B6 (0.31mg/g). Mineral composition of whole tissue showed presence of Calcium 312.74 mg/g, Sodium 89.93mg/g, Magnesium 61.11 mg/g, Potassium 21.38 mg/g as major and Copper 1.43, iron 1.37 and zinc 0.38 mg/g as minor quantity. The test for secondary metabolites shows the presence of alkaloids, phenolics, terpenes, carotenoids and steroids. This shows that the clam species is a good alternative food source to fish and can be very well exploited after its toxicity evaluation. The presence of secondary metabolites will have some medicinal values like hepatoprotective activity and anti oxidant activity which is currently under investigation.
FEMALE LABOR SUPPLY AND FERTILITY. CAUSAL EVIDENCE FOR LATIN AMERICA

In this paper I study the causal relationship between fertility and female labor supply using census data from 14 Latin American countries and the U.S. over the span of three decades (1980, 1990 and 2000). Parental preferences for a gender-balanced family (mixed-sex children) is exploited as a source of exogenous variation in fertility. Although OLS estimates suggest a statistically signi cant negative relationship in the 39 censuses used, instrumental variables approach fails to identify a causal e ect in most of them. The average e ect of moving from a family with two children to more than two is statistically zero for the group of compliers. Considering a pool of married women from Latin America over the span of three decades, a negative causal e ect is found. In any case, despite having a highly accurate rst-stage and indirect evidence consistent with the internal validity of the instrument, the analysis of the quality of the instrument reveals a weak explanatory power of sibling sex composition on fertility. The noisy and imprecise IV estimates for Latin America in the second-stage can be attributed to the problem of weak instruments.
Predicting balance of payments crises for some emerging economies

The study aims at developing an Early Warning System for predicting balance of payments crises for 17 emerging economies, which constitute a relatively homogenous group, over the period 1975-2012. We construct an index of exchange market pressure, based on monthly depreciations of the nominal exchange rate and declines in reserves, to identify crisis episodes. To construct the index we propose a new weighting scheme using principal components analysis, as an improvement over the conventionally used precisionweighting scheme. Probit regressions are used to identify key macroeconomic indicator variables that can predict the onset of a crisis. These include the ratio of M2 to reserves, short-term debt to reserves, export growth, ratio of total reserves to external debt, change in reserves, openness and overvaluation of the real exchange rate. From alternative specifications, we identify the best model based on various accuracy measures. We use criteria such as area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic, Quadratic Probability Score, Pseudo R2 and Kuiper’s Score to evaluate model performance. Empirical results show the warning system exhibits a high degree of accuracy and performs well. The variables identified show significant ability to signal vulnerability of the external sector of the economy. Policymakers can use the early warning system as the core of a larger set of variables on their radar to take pre-emptive measures to avoid crises or dampen their effects.
USING PARABLES TO TEACH MARKETING

A simple story told through a parable can be an effective pedagogical tool for teaching important marketing concepts, ideas, and lessons. By using parables that describe characters, situations, and images that are familiar and easy to understand, students can easily generalize from what is already known to that which is new and novel. This article discusses the theoretical and practical basis for teaching marketing with parables, describes a procedure for using parables in a marketing class within the context of a cooperative learning exercise, outlines a five-step procedure for writing parables to teach important marketing concepts and lessons, and presents four specific parables that can be used in a marketing principles class. Each parable illustrated in this article is a short story about an everyday life experience with which students are familiar.
Pole-Like Road Furniture Detection In Sparse And Unevenly Distributed Mobile Laser Scanning Data

Pole-like road furniture detection received much attention due to its traffic functionality in recent years. In this paper, we develop a framework to detect pole-like road furniture from sparse mobile laser scanning data. The framework is carried out in four steps. The unorganised point cloud is first partitioned. Then above ground points are clustered and roughly classified after removing ground points. A slicing check in combination with cylinder masking is proposed to extract pole-like road furniture candidates. Pole-like road furniture are obtained after occlusion analysis in the last stage. The average completeness and correctness of pole-like road furniture in sparse and unevenly distributed mobile laser scanning data was above 0.83. It is comparable to the state of art in the field of pole-like road furniture detection in mobile laser scanning data of good quality and is potentially of practical use in the processing of point clouds collected by autonomous driving platforms.
Statistical Evaluation and Optimization of Influence of Stirring Speed and Polymer Concentration on Hollow Microspheres of Diltiazem HCl

The purpose of the present study was to develop an optimized gastroretentive drug delivery system of Diltiazem HCl Hollow microspheres by the optimization technique. The Diltiazem HCl microspheres were prepared by non aqueous emulsion solvent evaporation method using different grades of Eudragit (Eudragit RS 100 and Eudragit RL 100) in combination. Response Surface Analysis data was obtained using Software STAT-EASE, design expert, 7.0, Trial Version. A 32 factorial design was employed in formulating the GRDDS with Stirring speed(X1) and polymer concentration (X2) as independent variables and Two dependent variables were particle size and Drug entrapment. The main effect and interaction terms were quantitatively evaluated using a mathematical model. Regression analysis and numerical optimization were performed to identify the best formulation. The result of analysis of variance test for both effects indicated that the test is significant. The best batch exhibited a high entrapment efficiency and particle size.
Abnormal thoracic vertebrae and the evolution of horse husbandry

The question of the origin and evolution of horse husbandry is one of the most interesting and most disputed problems in history. This paper uses palaeopathology to explore this problem. Samples of equid thoracic vertebrae from 4 populations – free living Exmoor ponies, Early Iron Age Scytho-Siberian horses, Medieval Turkic horses and Eneolithic horses – are compared. Preliminary results suggest that the abnormalities of free-living horse caudal thoracic vertebrae differ from those of riding horses and most especially from those of horses ridden with pad saddles. KEYWORDS: HORSE, PALAEOPATHOLOGY, THORACIC VERTEBRAE, ENEOLITHIC, SCYTHO-SIBERIAN, TURKIC RESUMEN: La cuestion acerca del origen y evolucion del caballo domestico es uno de los problemas mas interesantes y controvertidos de la historia. Este trabajo hace uso de la paleopatologia para investigar el problema. En el se comparan muestras de vertebras toracicas de equidos procedentes de 4 poblaciones: poneys silvestres de Exmoor, caballos escito-siberianos de la Edad del Hierro inicial, caballos turcos medievales y caballos eneoliticos. Los resultados preliminares sugieren que las patologias de las vertebras toracicas caudales de los caballos silvestres difieren de los caballos de monta especialmente aquellos que cabalgan con sillas de cojin. PALABRAS CLAVE: CABALLO, PALEOPATOLOGIA, VERTEBRA TORACICA, ENEOLI-TICO, ESCITO-SIBERIANO, TURCO
A Class of Spectral Element Methods and Its A Priori/A Posteriori Error Estimates for 2nd-Order Elliptic Eigenvalue Problems

This paper discusses spectral and spectral element methods with Legendre-Gauss-Lobatto nodal basis for general 2nd-order elliptic eigenvalue problems. The special work of this paper is as follows. (1) We prove a priori and a posteriori error estimates for spectral and spectral element methods. (2) We compare between spectral methods, spectral element methods, finite element methods and their derived -version, -version, and -version methods from accuracy, degree of freedom, and stability and verify that spectral methods and spectral element methods are highly efficient computational methods.
A Requirements-Based Partition Testing Framework Using Particle Swarm Optimization Technique

Modern society is increasingly dependent on the quality of software systems. Software failure can cause severe consequences, including loss of human life. There are various ways of fault prevention and detection that can be deployed in different stages of software development. Testing is the most widely used approach for ensuring software quality. Requirements-Based Testing and Partition Testing are two of the widely used approaches for testing software systems. Although both of these techniques are mature and are addressed widely in the literature and despite the general agreement on both of these key techniques of functional testing, a combination of them lacks a systematic approach. In this thesis, we propose a framework along with a procedural process for testing a system using Requirements-Based Partition Testing (RBPT). This framework helps testers to start from the requirements documents and follow a straightforward step by step process to generate the required test cases without loosing any required data. Although many steps of the process are manual, the framework can be used as a foundation for automating the whole test case generation process. Another issue in testing a software product is the test case selection problem. Choosing appropriate test cases is an essential part of software testing that can lead to significant improvements in efficiency, as well as reduced costs of combinatorial testing. Unfortunately, the problem of finding minimum size test sets is NP-complete in general. Therefore, artificial intelligence-based search algorithms have been widely used for generating near-optimal solutions. In this thesis, we also propose a novel technique for test case generation using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), an effective optimization tool which has emerged in the last decade. Empirical studies show that in some domains particle swarm optimization is equally well-suited or even better than some other techniques. At the same time, a particle swarm algorithm is much simpler, easier to implement, and has just a few parameters that the user needs to adjust. These properties make PSO an ideal technique for test case generation. In order to have a fair comparison of our newly proposed algorithm against existing techniques, we have designed and implemented a framework for automatic evaluation of these methods. Through experiments using our evaluation framework, we illustrate how this new test case generation technique can outperform other existing methodologies.
Achieving Gender Equity at the Workplace: the experiences of working students of the Zimbabwe Open University

The study sought the experiences of working students of the Zimbabwe Open University on ways of achieving gender equity at the workplace. The research was qualitative as the questionnaire used as a data-gathering instrument had open-ended sections that yielded qualitative data. The research employed the descriptive survey design. In this study, a sample of 206 working distance education students was extracted using the stratified random sample in which departments and gender formed the strata. The study found out that gender equity at organisational level could be achieved by creating a gender sensitive environment, attitudinal changes, gender responsive culture, and full participation of women. Above all gender issues at organisational level must not be treated in isolation, but must include empowerment policies, human rights and H.I. V.AIDS. The working students went further to prescribe a gender friendly curriculum, equality before the law and unlimited access to gender sensitive information. The study among others recommended that wide access to gender friendly literature, extensive outreach programmes targeting all sexes, women advancement programmes and a participatory environment at the workplace must be put in place to enable gender equity to prevail at the organisational level.