Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of infant mortality in a backward region of North India: are socio-economic or demographic factors dominant?

Several socio-economic factors have been found to be associated with infant and childhood mortality in the developing countries. However, the relative importance of socioeconomic and demographic factors in influencing infant mortality, varies with the level of socioeconomic development of the nation. Some studies have observed that in a traditional society, demographic factors affect infant mortality more than the socioeconomic factors. In the early stages of development, demographic factors are replaced by socio-economic factors, and in the later stages the effect of demographic factors becomes very small. This paper will explore this hypothesis in a backward region of India (Mewat region of Haryana State), with a view to contributing to a better understanding of the relative importance of socio-economic and demographic factors on infant mortality. The data employed in this study were obtained by conducting a field survey between April 1996 and February 1997 of factors affecting infant and child survival in the Nuh and Taoru blocks of the Mewat region of Haryana State. Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyse the relative effects of demographic and the socio-economic factors. Finally, some policy implications of the findings are suggested. DETERMINANTS OF INFANT MORTALITY IN A BACKWARD REGION OF NORTH INDIA: ARE SOCIO-ECONOMIC OR DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS DOMINANT?
Impact of dust deposition on Fe biogeochemistry at the Tropical Eastern North Atlantic Time-series Observatory site

We would like to thank both reviewers for the time and considerable effort they put into reviewing our manuscript. Although we do not agree with all comments by referee #1, we think that both reviewers comments were very helpful for improving the paper. Especially the review by referee #1 raises a number of points that criticize our model setup. We think that some central criticisms by the reviewer were justified and have adressed the issues raised:
Determinants of access to microfinance: a case study of savings and credit cooperatives of Côte d’Ivoire

Despite the significant development of microfinance in Côte d’Ivoire, a substantial proportion of the population continues to use informal market loans for their financial transactions. Beyond structural constraints commonly put forward in the literature, the factors involved in limiting access to credit and microcredit in particular are many and varied in different contexts. From a survey on household living standards (ENV 2008), this paper attempts to understand the determinants of access to savings and credit cooperatives and other sources of funding which households use for their financial transactions.It appears that the household profiles are quite clearly distinct by the use of different funding sources. Savings and credit cooperatives seem to be inaccessible to workers in the agricultural and non-agricultural informal sector or they rely less on this source for their financial transactions. There also exists a substitution relationship between different funding sources because access to one source significantly reduces the probability of access to another.
A review of applicable methodologies for variable-rate spraying of orchards based on canopy characteristics

Variable rate spray applications using proportional control systems can greatly reduce pesticide use and off-target contamination of environment in orchards. Variable rate spraying of the canopy allows growers to apply pesticides only to the target, only use the correct quantity according to canopy size, season and growth stage and to apply plant protection products in an economic and environmentally sound manner. A major challenge is the reduction of agrochemicals used as Plant Protection Products (PPP) while achieving suitable deposition on the canopy. Spraying efficiency can be improved by reducing the spray losses associated with deposition on the ground and off-target drift. Adjustment of application rate proportional to the size and shape of tree crops has shown high potential for reducing agrochemicals in automatically controlled sprayers. In recent years target detection methods have been developed by using advanced techniques such as vision and laser scanning systems or simpler ultrasound, infrared and spectral systems. These systems have made it possible to develop geometric maps of trees allowing site-specific management of orchards. Variable rate spraying can thus be utilized as a methodology for applying the required amount of PPPs to the canopy while preventing over dosage as well as drift. Utilization of sensors to monitor canopy, distances and location ensures better use of expensive inputs, resulting in a sustainable approach to an important practice. This paper discusses various methodologies available for determination of canopy structural parameters and introduces some applicable commercial systems while pointing out their similarities and differences.
Sport governance after the White Paper: the demise of the European model?

In 1998 the European Commission introduced into the political arena the concept of a ‘European model of sport’ in the build up to the Helsinki Report on Sport, the Commission's first attempt to formulate a comprehensive approach towards sport in the ‘post-Bosman era’. In the recently adopted White Paper on Sport (July 2007), the Commission however considers it ‘unrealistic’ to define a single model of sport for Europe. This article argues that the Commission's departure from its previous position deserves attention because it is an explicit acknowledgement of the transformations in the governing structures of European sport over the last two decades. The article suggests two possible motives for the Commission's new understanding of European sport. First, the Commission is responding to the politicisation and redefinition of the concept of the ‘European Model’ by sport governing bodies, who are attempting to forestall legal intervention by the European courts and the Commission. Second, the Commission is just acknowledging the reality of the new governance of sport. In this respect, the article focuses on professional football to argue that the governance of the sport in Europe is transforming from the old pyramidal and vertical structure to more horizontal configurations of stakeholder networks. The White Paper is just another step in this process, and the Commission has used it to position itself within the network structure. The Commission, it is argued, has opted for a supervisory role, offering governing bodies a degree of ‘supervised autonomy’ where the specific role of federations is recognised in exchange for greater stakeholder representation within governing structures.
Genetic modulation of fetal hemoglobin in hydroxyurea‐treated sickle cell anemia

viruses, Hydroxyurea, and bone marrow stress due to chronic anemia. Interestingly, patients with sickle cell disease share these risk factors and have been also noted to exhibit an increased risk of malignancies, mostly of the hematologic type. Aside from blood donor screening to decrease the risk of transmission of viruses such as HTLV-1, CMV, and Hepatitis C, optimization of iron chelation practices, and leukoreduction of the transfused blood, there are currently no specific recommendations as far as risk factor modification is concerned. There are no screening guidelines for hematologic malignancies in patients with thalassemia. While the association between thalassemia and hematologic malignancies remains in its early stages, it will be important to continue to explore the field and conduct more large scale studies with long-term follow-up. It is also paramount to remain very attentive to new signs and symptoms patients with thalassemia exhibit that may indicate a hematologic malignancy, with the understanding that some of these findings may overlap with those of thalassemia, such as worsening anemia, fatigue, and splenomegaly.
Executive compensation and corporate performance: Evidence from Jordanian commercial banks

Executive compensation has been recognized as an important internal corporate governance mechanism over the last two decades. CEO compensation is widely tested in the context of developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom (for example, see Conyon, 1997; Correa & Lel, 2016; Murphy, 1999; Ozkan, 2011). However, the structure of corporate governance in developing countries is fundamentally different from those firms in developed countries. For instance, corporate governance in developing countries can be viewed as having lower disclosure requirements and investor protection (Claassens et al., 2000). Furthermore, ownership of firms in developing markets is highly concentrated compared to the developed markets. Thus, we expect that the agency problem is much higher in developed markets, as a result, it is important to pay more attention to the level of CEO compensation and link it to the corporate performance. A vast body of literature has found that one of the solutions to agency problem is to employ effective compensation plans in emerging markets (Gallego & Larrain 2012; Lam et al., 2013; Raithatha & Komera 2016; Zou et al., 2015). However, scholars argue that the effectiveness of commonly used compensation plans such as cash bonuses and stock options may not be linked to the corporate performance in emerging corporate governance settings (Ghosh, 2006; Luo & Jackson, 2012). Thus, this research will examine the influence of CEO compensation on corporate performance by using data on thirteen Jordanian commercial banks during the period 2010 to 2017. In particular, this study uses data from annual reports and the website of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), which provides firm-level executive compensation and financial information on publicly-traded firms, respectively. This study makes a contribution towards the existing body of knowledge that is useful to the Abstract
Strategy and Misdirection in Forced Choice Memory Performance Testing in Deception Detection

Summary We examined forced choice memory performance testing in deception detection from a theoretical perspective. Evidence suggests that participants form different strategies to defeat this test. We attempted to describe these strategies within the framework of Cognitive Hierarchy Theory, a theory that distinguishes strategies based on their degree of anticipation of opponents' strategies. Additionally, we explored whether the strategy selection process is malleable. Truth tellers and liars were subjected to a forced choice memory test about a mock crime. Additionally, half of the sample was subjected to a misdirection changing the appearance of the test to that of a polygraph examination. We found detection accuracies and strategies similar to previous experiments and our misdirection manipulation elicited new strategies and behaviour. Theoretical and practical applications are discussed.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS OF MECHANIZED HARVESTING OF CHAMOMILE

Chamomile as a medicinal and aromatic plant is very important as a valuable product in the world market of medicinal plants. Regardless of that, there have been only a few researches so far concerning economic effects of its production. Costs of chamomile harvesting require special attention as these costs, as a rule, account for a major portion in the structure of total costs. The aim of this paper is to show when it is economically justified to substitute hand harvesting by machine harvesting as well as to determine the largest possible investment in purchasing different harvesters for chamomile harvesting. For that purpose were used enterprise budgeting (analytical calculations) of chamomile production, calculations of costs of agricultural machinery, as well as dynamic methods for investment evaluation (present value method). It was determined that it is economically justified to substitute hand harvesting with mechanized harvesting of chamomile on land area of over 2.5, i.e. 4 ha of chamomile, depending on the harvester type. If harvesters are used on land areas smaller than this economical effectiveness of the investments in purchasing them, i.e. their present value, depends on the harvester type and the land area on which chamomile is grown.
Weak-constraint inverse modeling using HYSPLIT-4 Lagrangian dispersion model and Cross-Appalachian Tracer Experiment (CAPTEX) observations – effect of including model uncertainties on source term estimation

Abstract. A Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory version 4 (HYSPLIT-4) inverse system that is based on variational data assimilation and a Lagrangian dispersion transfer coefficient matrix (TCM) is evaluated using the Cross-Appalachian Tracer Experiment (CAPTEX) data collected from six controlled releases. For simplicity, the initial tests are applied to release 2, for which the HYSPLIT has the best performance. Before introducing model uncertainty terms that will change with source estimates, the tests using concentration differences in the cost function result in severe underestimation, while those using logarithm concentration differences result in overestimation of the release rate. Adding model uncertainty terms improves results for both choices of the metric variables in the cost function. A cost function normalization scheme is later introduced to avoid spurious minimal source term solutions when using logarithm concentration differences. The scheme is effective in eliminating the spurious solutions and it also helps to improve the release estimates for both choices of the metric variables. The tests also show that calculating logarithm concentration differences generally yields better results than calculating concentration differences, and the estimates are more robust for a reasonable range of model uncertainty parameters. This is further confirmed with nine ensemble HYSPLIT runs in which meteorological fields were generated with varying planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes. In addition, it is found that the emission estimate using a combined TCM by taking the average or median values of the nine TCMs is similar to the median of the nine estimates using each of the TCMs individually. The inverse system is then applied to the other CAPTEX releases with a fixed set of observational and model uncertainty parameters, and the largest relative error among the six releases is 53.3 %. At last, the system is tested for its capability to find a single source location as well as its source strength. In these tests, the location and strength that yield the best match between the predicted and the observed concentrations are considered as the inverse modeling results. The estimated release rates are mostly not as good as the cases in which the exact release locations are assumed known, but they are all within a factor of 3 for all six releases. However, the estimated location may have large errors.
Do Poverty Dynamics Explain the Shift to an Informal Private Schooling System in the Wake of Free Public Primary Education in Nairobi Slums

With the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in Kenya in 2003, it was expected that the burden on poor households in financing primary education would be reduced substantially. This in turn would increase enrolment in public schools and lead to universal primary education. However, studies have shown that a considerable proportion of households in urban slums continue to enrol their children in pro-poor fee charging informal schools. The reasons presented in the available literature to explain this phenomenon of why poor slum-residing households bypass free public education are varied and some are simply speculative. In this paper, we hypothesise that poverty dynamics can partly explain households' decisions on the type of school in which to enrol their children. The analysis is based on longitudinal data collected by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) using urban demographic surveillance in two slums of Nairobi, Kenya. The data covers the period between 2005 and 2009 with a sample of 6965 pupils spread across 3763 households. Logistic regression methods are applied. The findings reveal that moving in and out of poverty can affect the type of schooling decision a household makes, with one quarter of those moving out of poverty shifting schools. The findings demonstrate that there is both willingness and ability to pay by the slum residents that is driving the utilisation of the private schools. The decisions are not random occurrences, but seem systematic and rational – parents want quality and affordability and a good number of those whose economic situation improved do not seem to believe the public schools, even under FPE, offers quality. The policy implication to be drawn from these findings is that the private schools for the poor should not simply be dismissed as 'informal schools' because it seems they have some features which are attracting parents to choose them and leave the state system. Free primary education policy is being 'rejected' by a good number of parents in the slums and this needs further investigation, as 'excess' demand as suggested in some research papers does not seem to be the only explanation.
A global model simulation of present and future nitrate aerosols and their direct radiative forcing of climate

Abstract. The ammonia cycle and nitrate particle formation are introduced into the LMDz-INCA (Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique, version 4 – INteraction with Chemistry and Aerosols, version 3) global model. An important aspect of this new model is that both fine nitrate particle formation in the accumulation mode and coarse nitrate forming on existing dust and sea-salt particles are considered. The model simulates distributions of nitrates and related species in agreement with previous studies and observations. The calculated present-day total nitrate direct radiative forcing since the pre-industrial is −0.056 W m−2. This forcing corresponds to 18% of the sulfate forcing. Fine particles largely dominate the nitrate forcing, representing close to 90% of this value. The model has been used to investigate the future changes in nitrates and direct radiative forcing of climate based on snapshot simulations for the four representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios and for the 2030, 2050, and 2100 time horizons. Due to a decrease in fossil fuel emissions in the future, the concentration of most of the species involved in the nitrate–ammonium–sulfate system drop by 2100 except for ammonia, which originates from agricultural practices and for which emissions significantly increase in the future. Despite the decrease of nitrate surface levels in Europe and North America, the global burden of accumulation mode nitrates increases by up to a factor of 2.6 in 2100. This increase in ammonium nitrate in the future arises despite decreasing NOx emissions due to increased availability of ammonia to form ammonium nitrate. The total aerosol direct forcing decreases from its present-day value of −0.234 W m−2 to a range of −0.070 to −0.130 W m−2 in 2100 based on the considered scenario. The direct forcing decreases for all aerosols except for nitrates, for which the direct negative forcing increases to a range of −0.060 to −0.115 W m−2 in 2100. Including nitrates in the radiative forcing calculations increases the total direct forcing of aerosols by a factor of 1.3 in 2000, by a factor of 1.7–2.6 in 2030, by 1.9–4.8 in 2050, and by 6.4–8.6 in 2100. These results show that the agricultural emissions of ammonia will play a key role in the future mitigation of climate change, with nitrates becoming the dominant contributor to the anthropogenic aerosol optical depth during the second half of the 21st century and significantly increasing the calculated aerosol direct forcing. This significant increase in the influence that nitrate exerts on climate in the future will at the same time affect regional air quality and nitrogen deposition to the ecosystem.
APPLICATION OF SYSTEMS ENGINEERING CONCEPTS TO ENHANCE PROJECT LIFECYCLE METHODOLOGIES

Large Infrastructure Projects (LIPs) drive economic growth through both their construction phase (e.g., job creation) and their successful outcomes (e.g., better services). Numerous and recurrent unsatisfactory outcomes of LIPs indicate that traditional project management has not necessarily kept pace with new developments — especially with the ever-increasing complexity of the projects. Massive costs and schedule overruns on such projects attest to the severity of this problem. Similarly, instances of substantial changes to the initial project scope suggest that modern project management approaches would require enhancements to be applicable and sustainable in the future. Systems engineering, as a discipline and as a way of thinking, is gaining popularity and acceptance in its applications to LIPs. This is due to the benefits emerging from its ability to manage escalating complexity, particularly in large and complex projects such as transportation (e.g. railways, ports), energy, and water infrastructure projects. This article has considered Systems Engineering principles and concepts (e.g., lifecycle, requirements verification and validation) for incorporation by way of enhancements into a holistic project lifecycle model that improves delivery effectiveness.
Are Portuguese coastal fisheries affected by river drainage

The Portuguese coast is particularly adequate for studies on the impact of climate change on fisheries, as it has faced an increase in both air and sea surface temperature and a decrease in intensity and frequency of rainfall. Ecological responses to climate change have already been observed in Portuguese waters, with consequences in fisheries. Regional climate models have predicted a further decrease in rainfall in Portugal by the end of the century, which will have a strong impact on the runoff into coastal areas. River drainage affects the physical, chemical and biological properties of coastal ecosystems, regulating habitat availability and favouring their productivity. The present study analysed the influence of river drainage on landings of coastal ports in the vicinity of four hydrologically distinct estuaries. Unlike previous results obtained for the Mediterranean, no significant relationships between river drainage and landings were found. Relationships between drainage and landings can be inconsistent among regions and dependent on how strongly a food web relies on nutrients and organic matter of river origin. In the Portuguese coast, an upwelling regime is of particular importance for the richness and diversity of the coastal ecosystem and for fisheries. The complexity of the coastal upwelling phenomenon together with a possible interaction of several other smaller scale factors acting on recruitment of commercial species may mask the effects of river drainage on landings. Nevertheless, as accentuated decreases in rainfall have been predicted for Portugal, the resulting reduction in river drainage may still strongly impact fisheries in the future.