Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physicochemical and Structural Properties of an Oxisol under the Addition of Straw and Lime

Liming represents a common agricultural practice for abating soil acidity. Nevertheless, elevated amounts of agricultural lime in Oxisols, with or without cultural residue addition, could alter soil physicochemical properties and impact soil structure. In this context, the physical, chemical, and structural behaviors of an Oxisol under the addition of lime and straw were assessed. Lime doses (0, 3.9, 7.8, and 15.6 Mg ha–¹) were either applied on the surface or incorporated into the 0- to 5-cm soil layer. Straw applications followed the same procedure with quantities of 0, 4, 12, or 16 Mg ha–¹. The effects on the soil profile were evaluated through physicochemical (specific surface area, ζ potential, and pH), physical (density, penetration resistance, water dispersible clay, and total porosity), and micromorphological properties (surface area, volume, connectivity, size, and pore anisotropy) 1 yr after soil incubation in polyvinyl chloride cylinders 30 cm long and 14.5 cm in diameter. Lime application on the surface or into the 0- to 5-cm layer increased soil pH to values above 7.0 and the electronegative potential of soil colloid surface, promoting clay dispersion. Water-dispersed clay migrated in the soil profile, causing pore obstruction, and higher soil density and penetration resistance. In addition, excessive lime decreased specific surface area, anisotropy degree and the connectivity of the soil pore system. Straw addition promoted a slight increase of colloids electronegative potential but did not alter soil physical properties.
Construct equivalence of the OPQ32n for Black and White people in South Africa

Orientation: The construct equivalence of the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ32n) for black and white groups was investigated. Research purpose: The objective was to investigate the structural invariance of the OPQ32n for two South African population groups. Motivation for the study: The OPQ32n is often used for making a variety of personnel decisions in South Africa. Evidence regarding the suitability of personality questionnaires for use across South Africa’s various population groups is required by practitioners for selecting appropriate psychometric instruments. Research design, approach and method: Data were collected by means of a questionnaire and the results were analysed using quantitative statistical methods. The sample consisted of 248 Black and 476 White people from the SHL (South Africa) database. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the structural equivalence of the OPQ32n scale scores for these two groups. Main findings: A good fit regarding factor correlations and covariances on the 32 scales was obtained, partially supporting the structural equivalence of the questionnaire for the two groups. The analyses furthermore indicated that there was structural invariance, with the effect of the Social Desirability scale partialled out. Practical/managerial implications: The present study focused on aspects of structural equivalence only. The OPQ32n therefore passed the first hurdle in this particular context, but further investigation is necessary to provide evidence that the questionnaire is suitable for use in personnel decisions comparing the population groups. Contribution: Despite the positive findings with regard to structural equivalence and social desirability response style, it should be borne in mind that no assumptions regarding full scale equivalence can be made on the basis of the present findings.
Modeling the response of subglacial drainage at Paakitsoq, west Greenland, to 21st century climate change

Although the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is losing mass at an accelerating rate, much uncertainty remains about how surface runoff interacts with the subglacial drainage system and affects water pressures and ice velocities, both currently, and into the future. Here, we apply a physically based, subglacial hydrological model to the Paakitsoq region, west Greenland, and run it into the future to calculate patterns of daily subglacial water pressure fluctuations in response to climatic warming. The model is driven with moulin input hydrographs calculated by a surface routing model, forced with distributed runoff. Surface runoff and routing are simulated for a baseline year (2000), before the model is forced with future climate scenarios for the years 2025, 2050, and 2095, based on the IPCC's Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). Our results show that as runoff increases throughout the 21st century, and/or as RCP scenarios become more extreme, the subglacial drainage system makes an earlier transition from a less efficient network operating at high water pressures, to a more efficient network with lower pressures. This will likely cause an overall decrease in ice velocities for marginal areas of the GrIS. However, short‐term variations in runoff, and therefore subglacial pressure, can still cause localized speedups, even after the system has become more efficient. If these short‐term pressure fluctuations become more pronounced as future runoff increases, the associated late‐season speedups may help to compensate for the drop in overall summer velocities, associated with earlier transitioning from a high to a low pressure system.
Wage determination and wage inequality inside a Russian firm in late transition: Evidence from personnel data - 1997 to 2002

We use personnel data from a Russian firm for the years 1997 to 2002 to study the determinants of wages during transition. Our findings indicate that remuneration is not predetermined by formal rules and a stable institutionalized structure of wages, but rather that local labor market conditions have a strong impact on wage setting at the firm level. In particular, we document that real wages fall substantially during a period of high inflation and worsening local labor market conditions. Relative wage decreases are most pronounced for employees who initially earned the highest rents. The process of rent extraction leads to a strong compression of real wages and real compensation at the firm.
Working Paper No . 7 How does geographical mobility of inventors influence network formation ? 2013

The goal of this paper is to assess the influence of spatial mobility of knowledge workers on the formation of ties of scientific and industrial collaboration across European regions. Co-location has been traditionally invoked to ease formal collaboration between individuals and firms, since tie formation costs increase with physical distance between partners. In some instances, highly-skilled actors might become mobile and bridge regional networks across separate locations. This paper estimates a fixed effects logit model to ascertain precisely whether there exists a ‘previous co-location premium’ in the formation of networks across European regions.
Regression Quantiles

A simple minimization problem yielding the ordinary sample quantiles in the location model is shown to generalize naturally to the linear model generating a new class of statistics we term "regression quantiles. " The estimator which minimizes the sum of absolute residuals is an important special case. Some equivariance properties and the joint asymptotic distribution of regression quantiles are established. These results permit a natural generalization to the linear model of certain well-known robust estimators of location. Estimators are suggested, which have comparable efficiency to least squares for Gaussian linear models while substantially out-performing the least-squares estimator over a wide class of non-Gaussian error distributions.
Running head : Testing responses of wheat crop models to heat stress Title : Testing the responses of four wheat crop models to heat stress at anthesis and grain filling Author :

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1111/gcb.13212 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Received Date : 27-Jun-2015 Revised Date : 16-Dec-2015 Accepted Date : 22-Dec-2015 Article type : Primary Research Articles
Coworker complementarity

How important is working with people who complement one’s skills? Using administrative data that record which of 491 educational tracks each worker in Sweden absolved, I quantify the educational fit among coworkers along two dimensions: coworker match and coworker substitutability. Complementary coworkers raise wages with a comparable factor as does a college degree, whereas working with close substitutes is associated with wage penalties. Moreover, this coworker fit does not only account for large portions of the urban and large-plant wage premiums, but the returns to own schooling and the urban wage premium are almost completely contingent on finding complementary coworkers.
On the spot-futures no-arbitrage relations in commodity markets*

In commodity markets the convergence of futures towards spot prices, at the expiration of the contract, is usually justified by no-arbitrage arguments. In this article, we propose an alternative approach that relies on the expected profit maximization problem of an agent, producing and storing a commodity while trading in the associated futures contracts. In this framework, the relation between the spot and the futures prices holds through the well-posedness of the maximization problem. We show that the futures price can still be seen as the risk-neutral expectation of the spot price at maturity and we propose an explicit formula for the forward volatility. Moreover, we provide an heuristic analysis of the optimal solution for the production/storage/trading problem, in a Markovian setting. This approach is particularly interesting in the case of energy commodities, like electricity: this framework indeed remains suitable for commodities characterized by storability constraints, when standard no-arbitrage arguments cannot be safely applied.
SMEs and Certified Management Standards: The Effect of Motives and Timing on Implementation and Commitment

Existing research on certifiable management standards (CMS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) tends to focus on large companies and is characterised by disagreement about the role of these standards as drivers of CSR. We contribute to the literature by shifting the analytical focus to the behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that subscribe to multiple CSR related standards. We argue that, in respect of motive and commitment, SMEs are not as different from large companies as the literature suggests, as they are guided by similar institutional and economic motives. Results, based on ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified SMEs in Greece, demonstrate that later adopters are more susceptible to coercive and mimetic motives and are less likely to commit fully to the CMS requirements, while earlier adopters react to normative motives and considerations of internal efficiency gains and tend to carry out CMS requirements with greater diligence.
The instability of the correlation structure of the S&P 500

Using weekly returns of S&P 500 constituents, we study the time-varying correlation structure during the period of 2006 to mid-2011. Contrary to most of the previous correlation studies of many assets, we do not use rolling correlations but the DCC MV-GARCH model with the MacGyver strategy proposed by Engle (2009). We find empirical evidence that the correlation structure tends to change significantly during the periods of high volatility and market downturns.
Thinking processes used by high-performing students in a computer programming task

Computer programmers must be able to understand programming source code and write programs that execute complex tasks to solve real-world problems. This article is a transdisciplinary study at the intersection of computer programming, education and psychology. It outlines the role of mental processes in the process of programming and indicates how successful thinking processes can support computer science students in writing correct and well-defined programs. A mixed methods approach was used to better understand the thinking activities and programming processes of participating students. Data collection involved both computer programs and students’ reflective thinking processes recorded in their journals. This enabled analysis of psychological dimensions of participants’ thinking processes and their problem-solving activities as they considered a programming problem. Findings indicate that the cognitive, reflective and psychological processes used by high-performing programmers contributed to their success in solving a complex programming problem. Based on the thinking processes of high performers, we propose a model of integrated thinking processes, which can support computer programming students.
Differential Probability Functions for Investigating Long-term Changes in Local and Regional Air Pollution Sources

ABSTRACT Conditional probability functions are commonly used for source identification purposes in air pollution studies. CBPF (conditional bivariate probability function) categorizes the probability of high concentrations being observed at a location by wind direction/speed and investigate the directionality of local sources. PSCF (potential source contribution function), a trajectory-ensemble method, identifies the source regions most likely to be associated with high measured concentrations. However, these techniques do not allow the direct identification of areas where changes in emissions have occurred. This study presents an extension of conditional probability methods in which the differences between conditional probability values for temporally different sets of data can be used to explore changes in emissions from source locations. The differential CBPF and differential PSCF were tested using a long-term series of air quality data (12 years; 2005/2016) collected in Rochester, NY. The probability functions were computed for each of 4 periods that represent known changes in emissions. Correlation analyses were also performed on the results to find pollutants undergoing similar changes in local and regional sources. The differential probability functions permitted the identification of major changes in local and regional emission location. In Rochester, changes in local air pollution were related to the shutdown of a large coal power plant (SO2) and to the abatement measures applied to road and off-road traffic (primary pollutants). The concurrent effects of these changes in local emissions were also linked to reduced concentrations of nucleation mode particles. Changes in regional source areas were related to the decreases in secondary inorganic aerosol and organic carbon. The differential probabilities for sulfate, nitrate, and organic aerosol were consistent with differences in the available National Emission Inventory annual emission values. Changes in the source areas of black carbon and PM2.5 mass concentrations were highly correlated.
Empirics of Tort

This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of the literature on the economic analysis of tort law. In sixteen chapters, the specialist authors guide the reader through the often vast literature in each domain providing a balanced and comprehensive summary. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of the field, further refinements to economic models and relevant conclusions and lessons for the policymaker.
Asymmetric Dynamical Behavior of Thermochemical Plumes and Implications for Hawaiian Lava Composition

9 The Hawaiian Kea and Loa volcano trends have commonly been interpreted as directly 10 reflecting a compositional zonation within the Hawaiian plume stem, inherited from the 11 lowermost mantle. As this zonation is often associated with variations in mafic material, and as 12 such materials, especially eclogites, impact mantle flow, this study aims to characterize the 13 ascent and melting of bilaterally-zoned thermochemical plumes. Our geodynamic models predict 14 that plumes bearing ≿12% eclogite tend to stagnate as a deep eclogitic pool (DEP) in the mid15 upper mantle where phase changes lead to a maximum in eclogite excess density. This behavior 16 can explain recent seismic-tomography results, and predicts thermal asymmetry of material 17 rising out of the DEP to feed the hotspot. Thermal asymmetry is caused by the effects of 18 ambient-mantle flow or plume-stem zonation on DEP dynamics, and ultimately boosts peridotite 19 melting on the melting zone’s hotter side. This hotter side is hence less dominated by melting of 20 mafic materials, despite being fed by equally or more such materials than the cooler side. These 21 results suggest that the Kea side of the Hawaiian Plume is equally or more eclogitic than the Loa 22 side, opposite to previous interpretations. Care should thus be taken in mapping geographical 23 variations in lava chemistry into the deep mantle. 24
Search for weak neutrino point sources using angular autocorrelation analyses in IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a cubic kilometer neutrino telescope located in the Antarctic ice. Recently, IceCube has measured a diffuse all-sky all-flavor astrophysical neutrino flux above 30 TeV. However, the origin and production of these particles still remain unknown. Given the observed flux, the absence of observations of bright point-sources could be explained by a large population of weak sources. This scenario can be tested using autocorrelation methods. We present here the results of two independent analyses on two different neutrino samples based on 6 and 7 years of IceCube data. The first sample is optimized for events coming from the Northern Hemisphere, while the second one is an all-sky sample. Experimental results are obtained by analyzing these samples using a multipole expansion and a two-point angular correlation technique, respectively. In addition, flux upper limits for extended sources and the Cygnus region have been calculated.
Title : Modulation of the CCR 6-CCL 20 Axis : A potential therapeutic target in inflammation and cancer

Dr Rajaraman Eri Associate Professor & Head of Discipline of Biomedical Sciences Cell Stress, Inflammation and Immunity research Associate Head (Learning & Teachingl) School of Health Sciences, College of Health and Medicine University of Tasmania Office: Health Sciences Building (Newnham-C), 2nd Level, Room M217 Mail: School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania, Locked bag 1322, Launceston TAS 7250, Australia Tel: +61 3 6324 5467/0430029656Fax: +61 3 6324 5555Email: rderi@utas.edu.au Web: http://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/health/Raj-Eri http://www.utas.edu.au/health/research/groups/cell-stress,inflammation-and-immunity Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 17 September 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201809.0291. v1
Designing Craft Research: Joining Emotion and Knowledge

ABSTRACT This paper considers how both craft and research can be joined in the enterprise of craft research. The rationale is that craft research is still relatively new compared to mainstream design research and that craft, being linked to the creation of artefacts as a source of experience and emotion, is not usually associated with research and the production of knowledge. The paper discusses the emerging need for creative research in the crafts based on sensibilities of material understanding and human values, which contrast with the current strictures of research. Drawing on current models of design research and knowledge, the paper proposes experiential knowledge as the unifying conceptual underpinning of both. The outcome and contribution of the paper is a better understanding of the relationship of craft and research, and of the value of research for advancing craft as a discipline that is viable and relevant for the future.
Security Issues Analysis on Online Banking Implementations in Nigeria

A study of the Nigerian internet banking system was conducted. The study analyzed the levels of internet banking with an in-depth analysis of their security needs and associated issues. A particular reference was made on the attacks and vulnerabilities in the current systems. Next, is an analysis of the current defense mechanisms and how successful they have been in counteracting the occurrence and effects of Internet banking attacks in Nigeria. We established from the study and research, that the current defense mechanisms have not been very effective, as they still have vulnerabilities which have been exploited by attackers severally.
Probabilistic Graphical Models 10-708 , Spring 2017 18 : An Overview of Deep Learning building blocks

First we start with motivation: Why is DL so popular these days? There is a lot of investment in DL (e.g., DeepMind, DNNResearch, etc.). It’s always in the news every month. And rightfully so, because DL has won numerous pattern recognition competitions using only minimal feature engineering. These models have been around since the 1960s, but there has recently been new tricks discovered to make DL models successful, such as: using more hidden units; better online optimization; new non-linear activation functions; etc.
Past and present genetic diversity and structure of the Finnish wolf population

Many species and populations have perished as a consequence of human actions. During the last ~200 years, large carnivores have been almost completely extirpated from Western Europe. Largescale wolf hunting started in Finland around the 1850s, and the population size quickly collapsed. The population was very small until the mid-1990s, when wolves started to regularly reproduce in Finland again. The wolf is an endangered species in Finland, and the biggest threat to the species’ survival is excessive hunting. In this doctoral thesis study, I inspected the genetic structure and diversity of the Finnish wolf population using neutral genetic markers. Almost 300 wolves from the contemporary Finnish population and over 50 wolves from the north-western Russia were analyzed with genetic methods. Additionally, the genetic history of the population was examined with the help of over 100 museum samples. The modern Finnish wolf population proved to be genetically as diverse as the non-endangered Eastern European and North American wolf populations. However, the genetic diversity decreased significantly during the study period (1995–2009), and was at its lowest level in the final phase of the examination. In tandem, the inbreeding coefficient rose to a relatively high level. Genetic sub-structures were observed due to social structures within wolf packs. The mean dispersal distances of wolves were approximately only 100 km. The Finnish wolf population is divided into neighbourhoods of related individuals, and their size substantially decreased during the study period. This pattern, together with the growth of the inbreeding coefficient, suggests that lost alpha individuals in wolf packs are replaced by their offspring. This study demonstrated that Russian and Finnish wolf populations are nowadays genetically differentiated. Gene flow between the populations is low, despite the geographic interconnection. Only a few possible immigrants from Russia into Finland were detected in the study. The effective size of the Finnish wolf population proved to be small, and was mainly below the often-considered critical size of 50. Historical analysis revealed that the Finnish wolf population was formerly genetically more diverse, more continuous with the Russian wolf population, and had a more than 90% larger effective size. On the basis of this study, the genetic status of the Finnish wolf population is worrying and needs to be monitored. The population should be substantially larger than today and/or the amount of gene flow higher, so that the population viability could be considered secured even in the short term.