Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Spatial Patterns of Sediment Transport and Delivery for Soil and Water Conservation Programs

Soil erosion has tremendous impacts on most river systems throughout the United States. Such non-point pollution results from land-use and agricultural practices and leads to sedimentation downstream, a decrease in the transport capacity of streams, an increase in the risk of flooding, filling of reservoirs, and eutrophication. This paper uses a spatially-explicit model to identify the sediment sources and delivery paths to channels and link these sediment supply processes to in-channel sediment transport and storage. The paper analyzes hillslope erosion and deposition rates using the Unit Stream Power Erosion and Deposition model in a GIS to estimate patterns of sediment supply to rivers in order to predict which portions of the channel network are more likely to store large amounts of fine sediments and thus are most sensitive to the effects of on and off-site soil erosion. This study focuses on the Pitman Creek Basin, a predominantly agricultural sub-basin in the Upper Green River in Kentucky. Results indicate that while much of the eroded sediments are redistributed within the hillslope system, a large proportion is also delivered to the channel. Sediment delivery to the stream is estimated using buffers defined in accordance with currently implemented conservation practices. These predictions have been tested by sampling the fine sediment content of the streambed at key locations along the channel network and comparing the observed patterns to those predicted by the soil erosion model. Overall, high intensity erosion tends to occur at contact between different vegetation covers, on barren lands and croplands, and 15-25% slopes poorly protected by vegetation, thus highlighting several erosion hot spots.
Can Alpha Be Captured by Risk Premia?

This article explores the roles of risk premia strategies in institutional equity portfolios, not only as potential replacements for existing passive beta investments, but for certain active mandates as well. The authors quantify the degree to which active equity manager returns (alpha) can be captured by using long-only factor portfolios, as reflected by the MSCI Risk Premia indices. Using 10 years of historical data from January 2002 to March 2012, the authors find that risk premia can account for a substantial portion of alpha: as much as 80%. They also propose a portfolio construction framework for incorporating active managers who deliver the highest alpha, once risk premia are accounted for.
Evaluation of the Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator Chemistry-Climate Model

Abstract. Chemistry climate models are important tools for addressing interactions of composition and climate in the Earth System. In particular, they are used for assessing the combined roles of greenhouse gases and ozone in Southern Hemisphere climate and weather. Here we present an evaluation of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator-Chemistry Climate Model, focusing on the Southern Hemisphere and the Australian region. This model is used for the Australian contribution to the international Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative, which is soliciting hindcast, future projection and sensitivity simulations. The model simulates global total column ozone (TCO) distributions accurately, with a slight delay in the onset and recovery of springtime Antarctic ozone depletion, and consistently higher ozone values. However, October averaged Antarctic TCO from 1960 to 2010 show a similar amount of depletion compared to observations. A significant innovation is the evaluation of simulated vertical profiles of ozone and temperature with ozonesonde data from Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica from 38 to 90° S. Excess ozone concentrations (up to 26.4 % at Davis during winter) and stratospheric cold biases (up to 10.1 K at the South Pole) outside the period of perturbed springtime ozone depletion are seen during all seasons compared to ozonesondes. A disparity in the vertical location of ozone depletion is seen: centered around 100 hPa in ozonesonde data compared to above 50 hPa in the model. Analysis of vertical chlorine monoxide profiles indicates that colder Antarctic stratospheric temperatures (possibly due to reduced mid-latitude heat flux) are artificially enhancing polar stratospheric cloud formation at high altitudes. The models inability to explicitly simulated supercooled ternary solution may also explain the lack of depletion at lower altitudes. The simulated Southern Annular Mode (SAM) index compares well with ERA-Interim data. Accompanying these modulations of the SAM, 50 hPa zonal wind differences between 2001–2010 and 1979–1998 show increasing zonal wind strength southward of 60° S during December for both the model simulations and ERA-Interim data. These model diagnostics shows that the model reasonably captures the stratospheric ozone driven chemistry-climate interactions important for Australian climate and weather while highlighting areas for future model development.
Comparative study of two hardware development boards for implementation of PCA-based algorithms in structural damage detection

Compact and even portable devices integrated with Structural Health Monitoring systems are a promising solution to overcome issues regarding to practical implementation in real structures. This paper compares the computational capabilities of two Linux based development platforms for implementing structural monitoring algorithms. The Beagle Bone Black and Odroid-U3 single-board computers are studied. Attractive features as open-source software availability, easy configuration, low power requirement and hardware flexibility design, facilitate the use of these hardware platforms as an embedded system to contribute in recent advances obtained in the field of SHM and damage detection. From these devices, in this paper, storage capabilities, memory requirements, computational complexity and time processing consuming are analyzed and compared to evaluate benefits of embedding structural damage detection algorithms. In this work, a Piezo - diagnostics approach based on guided waves methods is embedded. The main components of the proposed damage identification system consist of a piezo actuator active system, a computational core (BBB or Odroid-U3 hardware), and a modelling block based on statistical features estimated by means of principal component analysis. The embedded algorithm was validated by using experimental data gathered from a steel carbon pipe section. Measurements from piezoelectric devices attached to the surface structure are used to distinguish damaged and undamaged conditions. Fifteen damage classes are seeded in the specimen by adding masses at different locations on the surface, where 200 experiments per damage are conducted. The feasibility to implement an automated real time diagnostic system is demonstrated. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/147
Integrated Information Skills Instruction: Does It Make a Difference?

Todd has conducted several studies of the effect of integrated information skills instruction on Australian high school students, and the work reported here is part of his ongoing research agenda in this area. Not surprisingly, he reports that such instruction has a positive impact on students’ mastery both of subject-matter content and of information-seeking skills; even more intriguing are his insights into the details related to these results. Todd’s studies lay the foundation for a basic argument that integrated information skills instruction should be provided for all students and that policies, strategic plans, and staffing arrangements must be developed to ensure the school library media specialist’s leading role in this effort. In the context of an emerging global information society, information literacy is increasingly presented as a key challenge to educators and to educational authorities. School library media specialists worldwide have responded energetically to this challenge. Today school library media programs are increasingly based on the assumptions that information skills instruction is a valuable and essential part of the school’s educational program; that these skills emphasize general information problem solving and research processes rather than just skills of location and access to library resources; that these skills should be taught within the context of the school’s curriculum; and that the teaching of these skills can be enhanced by the use of innovative instructional methods. (1) This report documents ongoing research in Sydney, Australia, into the impact of information literacy programs on student learning. In this research, information literacy is defined as the ability to use information purposefully and effectively. Kirk, Poston-Anderson, and Yerbury present it as a holistic, interactive ability encompassing skills in six areas: 1. defining the tasks for which information is needed; 2. locating appropriate sources of information to meet needs;
Coping and Adapting to a Changing Climate: Concepts, Issues and Challenges

The prospect of climatic changes introduces significant challenges to many vulnerable communities. How these communities choose to prepare depends much on their specific sensitivities, economies, and adaptive capacities. This paper presents an overview of key concepts that underlie the consideration and design of effective climate change adaptation strategies, including issues of the scope of adaptation activities, reactive versus anticipatory adaptation, vulnerability assessment, and adaptation timing. Examples include those related to water resources with a focus on issues relating to the uncertainties involved in designing appropriate climate-wise strategies.
In pursuit of ambidexterity: Managerial reactions to innovation–efficiency tensions

Whereas tensions arising from the pursuit of ambidexterity have been documented, how these are interpreted and managed by actors themselves remains largely unexplored. Based on in-depth case research in a large Scandinavian-based telecommunications organization pursuing ambidexterity, we identify a path-dependent process of tension interpretation and tension management at different levels of the organization. Our findings suggest that, in the context of an ambidextrous strategy, actors are actively involved in managing arising tensions based on their differing interpretations of these tensions (where ambidextrous demands are seen as complementary, conflicting or interrelated). We find that these interpretations are influenced by actors’ strategic orientation and organizational level. Our study extends understanding of the pursuit of ambidexterity in practice, offering a pluralist, path-dependent perspective of how actors perceive and deal with ambidexterity tensions.
Recovery of acidified lakes in Finland and subsequent responses of perch and roach populations

1) Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, Evo Fisheries Research Station, Rahtijarventie 291, FI-16970 Evo, Finland (*corresponding author’s e-mail: martti.rask@rktl.fi) 2) Finnish Environment Institute, Natural Environment Centre, P.O. Box 140, FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland 3) Department of Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 65, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland 4) Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, P.O. Box 30, FI-00023 Governement, Finland 5) Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, Itainen Pitkakatu 3, FI-20520 Turku, Finland
Highly Refractory Peridotites on Macquarie Island and the Case for Anciently Depleted Domains in the Earth’s Mantle

Macquarie Island (Southern Ocean) is a fragment of Miocene ocean crust and upper mantle formed at a slow-spreading ridge system, uplifted and currently exposed above sea-level. The crustal rocks on the island have unusually enriched compositions and the strong signature of an enriched source requires low overall degrees of melt depletion in the underlying mantle. Peridotites on the island, however, are highly refractory harzburgites that can be modeled as residues of >20–25% of near-fractional melting from which all the free clinopyroxene was melted out. The peridotites have some of the highest spinel Cr-numbers (0·40–0·49) and lowest orthopyroxene-core Al2O3 concentrations (2·7–3·0 wt %) reported so far for oceanic peridotites. The peridotites were subsequently modified by melt–rock reactions underneath the Miocene ridge system. The refractory character of the peridotites is inconsistent with the slow-spreading ridge setting as well as with the enriched character of the overlying crust, and must indicate a previous depletion event; the peridotites are not the source residue of the overlying ocean crust on Macquarie Island. Osmium isotopic compositions of peridotite samples are very unradiogenic (187Os/188Os = 0·1194–0·1229) compared with normal abyssal peridotites and indicate a long-lived rhenium depletion. Proterozoic rhenium-depletion ages indicate that these rocks have preserved a memory of an old mantle melting event. We argue that the Macquarie Island harzburgites are samples from an anciently depleted refractory mantle reservoir that may be globally important, but that is generally overlooked because of its sterility; that is, its inability to produce basalts. This reservoir may preserve key information about the history of the Earth’s mantle as a whole.
Partitioning of phytoplanktonic organic carbon production and bacterial production along a coastal-offshore gradient in the NE Atlantic during different hydrographic regimes

The rates of primary production of particulate (POC-pr) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC-pr), production of heterotrophic bacteria (BHP), and the abundance of autotrophic and hetero- trophic picoplankton were estimated on 2 cruises in NE Atlantic coastal waters off the Iberian penin- sula. Downwelling conditions prevailed during the spring cruise (1997), while a sequence of marked upwelling-relaxation-weak upwelling was found in late summer (1998). The standing stocks and activities of phytoplankton and bacteria displayed coastal-offshore gradients in both sampling peri- ods. Whereas DOC-pr was similar on both cruises, POC-pr was generally higher in late summer, yielding lower values of percent extracellular release (PER): 6 ± 5% versus 9 ± 4% (mean ± SD) in spring. Short-term changes in hydrographic conditions strongly affected the relative release of pho- tosynthate in late summer. PER tended to decrease with increasing production, with values below 5% at rates higher than 3 mg C m -3 h -1 . Chlorophyll a (chl a) normalized DOC-pr (DOC B -pr) also increased significantly the higher the contribution of picoplankton (< 3 µm) to total chl a concentra- tion, confirming the importance of the size distribution of algae in the relative rates of extracellular release. Although BHP was significantly correlated with chl a, it bore no relationship to primary pro- duction rates, either dissolved or particulate, and released DOC was insufficient to meet estimates of bacterial demand of labile carbon, indicating that the activities of bacterioplankton and phytoplank- ton were uncoupled during the surveys. These results suggest that bacteria were mostly independent of algal DOC for growth in this coastal system.
Social Obstacles to Technology, Technological Change, and the Economic Growth of African Countries: Some Anecdotal Evidence from Economic History

This paper comments on a number of social obstacles to the economic growth and technological change of African economies from the perspective of economic history. Economic history is full of evidence about what held African economies back for years. Some obstacles are of domestic origin such as excessive consumption and luxury masqueraded as public investment. Other obstacles were imposed from outside such as the destruction and weakening of traditional African religions and religious leadership as well as other wide ranging institutions. The combined effects can be summed up in one word: de-institutionalization. De-institutionalization devalued local knowledge (technology) thereby reducing performance. It is not possible to turn the clock back, but current policy is better-off bringing these obstacles into discussion as they stand a good chance of lowering the socalled “Africa dummy” variable common to growth regressions. Future research would also benefit if it sought to adjust conventional economic theory to allow space for the special features of African economies. Market theory is misleading in treating private use rights as antithetical to private ownership rights. For example, the suggestion that land tenure in Africa is anti-growth is inconsistent with the spectacular growth China has experienced even without private property rights.
The Job Demands-Resources model: challenges for future research

Motivation: The motivation of this overview is to present the state of the art of Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model whilst integrating the various contributions to the special issue. Research purpose: To provide an overview of the JD–R model, which incorporates many possible working conditions and focuses on both negative and positive indicators of employee well-being. Moreover, the studies of the special issue were introduced. Research design: Qualitative and quantitative studies on the JD–R model were reviewed to enlighten the health and motivational processes suggested by the model. Main findings: Next to the confirmation of the two suggested processes of the JD–R model, the studies of the special issue showed that the model can be used to predict work-place bullying, incidences of upper respiratory track infection, work-based identity, and early retirement intentions. Moreover, whilst psychological safety climate could be considered as a hypothetical precursor of job demands and resources, compassion satisfaction moderated the health process of the model. Contribution/value-add: The findings of previous studies and the studies of the special issue were integrated in the JD–R model that can be used to predict well-being and performance at work. New avenues for future research were suggested. Practical/managerial implications: The JD–R model is a framework that can be used for organisations to improve employee health and motivation, whilst simultaneously improving various organisational outcomes.
IPO AND CEO TURNOVER: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS ON ITALY AND UK

This work is aimed at investigating the factors that can foster CEO turnover, being acknowledged as one of the most crucial events in a firm’s life. The study examines CEO turnover before and after the IPO process, looking at firms going or recently gone public, with a specific focus on the effect of performance and the institutional context. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of non-financial companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange in the period 2000-2009.
As Principais Dificuldades Encontradas Durante o Processo de Produção de Objetos de Aprendizagem

The production of learning objects is undergoing a period of adaptations and refinements mainly by the insertion of mobile devices in schools and universities, as well as new emerging technologies that enable the elaboration of resources with high interactivity. With the complexity of this scenario, new difficulties have arisen in the production of these resources. In this context, we discuss difficulties encountered in a research that involved literature review and interviews with members of nine Brazilian learning objects production centers. Through analysis, it was possible to point out some solutions to many of the difficulties faced by the centers, including the adoption of methods and techniques of Software Engineering and HumanComputer Interaction, aiming at the qualification of the production of objects. Resumo. A produção de objetos de aprendizagem está passando por um período de adequações e refinamentos principalmente pela inserção dos dispositivos móveis nas escolas e universidades, além de novas tecnologias emergentes que possibilitam a elaboração de recursos com alta interatividade. Com a complexidade deste cenário, novas dificuldades têm surgido na produção desses recursos. Nesse âmbito, discutimos dificuldades encontradas em uma pesquisa que envolveu revisão de literatura e entrevistas com integrantes de nove centros brasileiros de produção de objetos de aprendizagem. Por meio de análises, foi possível apontar algumas soluções para muitas das dificuldades enfrentadas pelos centros, incluindo a adoção de métodos e técnicas da Engenharia de Software e Interação HumanoComputador, visando a qualificação da produção dos objetos.
External knowledge sourcing in the Spanish archaeological sector. Mapping the emergent stage of a business activity

Recent studies of innovation highlight the importance of external knowledge sourcing. Existing empirical works are based on national surveys and specific industries. The present study contributes to the analysis of strategies for sourcing external knowledge, based on a specific case study and moment in time: the Spanish archaeological sector and its emergence as a new business activity. Our results show that external knowledge sourcing involves diverse mechanisms, agents and two main strategies: cooperation and knowledge acquisition. In an expanding knowledge-based sector emerging in an uncertain context and whose sources of knowledge are scattered, innovation strategy should focus on the search for external knowledge –cooperation and acquisition strategies-, rather than on internal sources.
Performance effects on servers using containers in comparison to hypervisor based virtualisation

The current direction of web-based software is evolving has brought many challenges regarding locations, scalability, maintainability and performance. In most of the cases tiny differences in performance are not really important since the user base of the software may not be remarkably high. However, when the user base of the system expand and the stress of the system has high peaks, smaller things start to have meaning in the software and infrastructure. This paper addresses the performance differences between todays usual web software deployment solutions, containers and VMs. This study is based on literature review, which has been conducted by studying previous studies about the topic. The main focus in the study is Linux Container based containerization solutions such as Docker, and traditional hypervisor based virtual machines such as KVMs. The main categories of performance this paper is addressing to are memory, CPU, network, disk I/O, database applications, DevOps and overall system performance. The categorizing is based on the studies reviewed in this paper which obviously results in slight overlapping on some categories. In the end of this paper the results are summed up and some implications for them are presented.
The Effect of Deposit Insurance on Risk Taking in Asian Banks

This paper uses a panel database of 401 banks in 31 Asian countries over the period from 2000 to 2010 to examine the effects of deposit insurance on banks’ risk-taking incentives. We find that risk-taking incentives vary with bank size and risks. In addition, differentiated premiums may not accurately reflect the level of risk that a bank poses. In the presence of a deposit insurance scheme, the pattern of the non-linear relationship between bank size and risk-taking significantly changes. Our results suggest that market discipline exercised by banks is stronger in the presence of mandatory deposit insurance scheme. Government-funded deposit insurance funds allow Asian banks to take a higher risk. A risk-based deposit insurance scheme functions more effectively in the countries with good regulatory framework and institutional quality.