Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen as a threat to European water quality

Grizzetti, B. , Bouraoui, F. , Billen, G. , van Grinsven, H. , Cardoso, A. C. , Thieu, V. , Garnier, J., Curtis, C. , Howarth, R. W. and Johnes, P. (2011) Nitrogen as a threat to European water quality. In: Sutton, M. A. , Howard, C. M. , Erisman, J. W. , Billen, G. , Bleeker, A. , Grennfelt, P., van Grinsven, H. and Grizzetti, B. (eds.) European Nitrogen Assessment. Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 379-404. ISBN 9781107006126 Available at http://centaur.reading. ac.uk/20869/
Environmental contamination and bioaccessibility of arsenic and metals around the Dongjeong Au–Ag–Cu mine, Korea

The objectives of this study were to investigate the level of arsenic and metal contamination of soils, crop plants and waters around the Dongjeong Au–Ag–Cu mine, and to assess bioaccessibility of metals in soil and plant using the EHS (extraction of heavy metals in stomach and small intestine) test. The EHS test was used to simulate the conditions in the human stomach and small intestine. In tailings, the mean concentrations of elements from the mine area were As 4070 mg kg−1, Cd 6 mg kg−1, Cu 380 mg kg−1, Mn 7760 mg kg−1, Pb 19 150 mg kg−1, Zn 2590 mg kg−1 and Hg 2.8 mg kg−1. Mountain soils adjacent to the tailings and waste rock piles were significantly contaminated by these elements. Farmland soils contained higher concentrations of As, Cd, Hg, Mn, Pb and Zn than soils at the control area, especially As and Pb which were over permissible levels. Metals were accumulated in crop plants grown on farmland soil near the mine area. The concentrations of metals were higher in leafy plants than in grain plants such as rice grain and red pepper. The concentrations of SO42−, Mn and Zn were elevated in stream water and were influenced by effluents from the tailings and waste rock piles. The concentrations of Cd and Pb in groundwater were higher than the permissible levels for drinking water in Korea. The results of the EHS test showed c. 60% of Cd, 10% of As and 30–40% of Cu, Pb, Mn and Zn were present as a bioaccessible fraction in farmland soils. In crop plants, high percentages of total concentrations of metals except Pb were extracted as bioaccessible concentrations. Bioaccessible concentrations of metals may be valuable for providing the input data for risk assessment at sites subject to anthropogenic soil contamination.
Utility of a single a priori river typology for reference conditions of boreal macroinvertebrates and diatoms.

The ecological quality of river habitats is increasingly assessed using multiple taxonomic groups. As widely recognised, assessments should be based on the reference condition approach where potentially impaired sites are compared to pristine or near pristine reference sites. To enable valid comparisons, natural variability of habitat characteristics and biotic assemblages should be controlled for, by using either an a priori river typology as suggested by the European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) or by some other reference framework. We examined a simple WFD river typology, based on two broad-scale ecoregions, catchment area, and geology, as a basis for reference conditions of macroinvertebrates and diatoms in Finland. The ability of this a priori typology to account for natural variation in assemblage composition was evaluated by comparing it with null models (no typology) and with a posteriori clusters ('optimal' biological typology). The biological clusters were clearly more effective than the WFD typology in partitioning assemblage variation for diatoms, whereas differences among the groupings were less evident for macroinvertebrates. Similarly, the number of observed versus expected type-specific taxa (O/E-ratio) was more precise with the a posteriori clusters than with the WFD typology for diatoms, while there were no clear differences among the groupings for macroinvertebrates. For diatoms, the typology was virtually inefficient in improving the precision of O/E from that of the null model. Strong biogeographical patterns in assemblage composition of both biotic groups were evident between and within the two ecoregions. Variation in macroinvertebrate assemblages was primarily related to geographical location and river size, whereas geographical location and water chemistry were the most important environmental factors for diatoms. Our results suggest that simple a priori typologies could be used as a framework for reference condition in freshwater bioassessment. However, when assessments are conducted using multiple taxonomic groups, typologies should be based on factors important for each individual group.
Challenges in Palliative Care Provision in Ethiopia: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Background The prevalence of chronic illnesses is increasing at an alarming rate in Ethiopia. However, the existing palliative care service is not adequate to address the palliative care need of the patients and their families. This demands the need to explore, among other things, the challenges in palliative care provision. Thus, this article aimed to examine the challenges of palliative care provision in Ethiopia. Methods The study considered Ethiopia as a case and examined the topic using a qualitative exploratory design. The data used in the study were collected through 29 in-depth interviews and 5 focus group discussions with health professionals and other stakeholders and analyzed using thematic analysis technique with ATLAS-ti 7.0 computer software. Results This study explored patient-related, provider-related, health system-related and partnership-related challenges/gaps in palliative care in Ethiopia. Patient-related factors include, delay in seeking medical care, lack of awareness of disease conditions, discontinuation of treatment due to inability to pay, a lack of follow-up care by considering cancer diagnosis as end of life/death and preferring dying at home. Provider-related challenges include lack of awareness of palliative care, lack of pre-service/in-service training for health professionals, absence of palliative care in the curricula of health programs and scarcity of research information on palliative care in Ethiopia. Health-system challenges include lack of drug, reagent shortage, limited chemotherapy and radiotherapy services, and weak facility-community linkage. Finally, lack of collaborators between governmental and non-governmental organizations was seen as a challenge to the provision of palliative care in Ethiopia. Conclusion The study revealed that the challenges to palliative care provision in Ethiopia include patient-related factors, provider-related factors, health facility-related factors and partnership-related factors. Therefore, it is vital to take these challenges into account in order to improve the current palliative care service provision in Ethiopia.
Butanol Production by Clostridium Acetobutylicum in a Continuous Packed Bed Reactor Fed with Cheese Whey

Butanol Production by Clostridium acetobutylicum in a Continuous Packed Bed Reactor Fed with Cheese Whey Francesca Raganati, Giuseppe Olivieri, Maria Elena Russo, Antonio Marzocchella a Dipartmento di Ingegneria Chimica, dei Materiali e della Produzione Indutsriale Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, P.le V. Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli – Italy b Istituto di Ricerche sulla Combustione– Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, P.le V. Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy giolivie@unina.it
The context of REDD+ in Tanzania: Drivers, agents and institutions

Since 2009, CIFOR has implemented the policy component of the Global Comparative Study of REDD+ in fourteen countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Laos, Mozambique, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Tanzania and Vietnam. In analyzing national REDD+ policy arenas and emerging strategies, researchers have developed five areas of work for each country. These include a country profile, media analysis, policy network analysis, strategy assessment and a fifth area of specific policy studies to be determined by emerging research results.This country profile for Tanzania provides an overview on the socioeconomic and political context within which REDD+ policies and processes emerge. It explores the Tanzanian REDD+ policy processes and strategies at the national level, identifying barriers, limits and opportunities in national REDD+ arenas to inform future REDD+ design by providing research-based options for achieving efficient, effective and equitable REDD+ (i.e. the 3Es of REDD+). Both direct and indirect drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are at work, including forest conversion to small-scale agriculture, timber extraction driven by demand from national and international markets, fuelwood and charcoal, and population growth. The prospects for REDD+ rest on improving a number of issues: tenure arrangements, forest governance, reliability of long-term funding, benefit-sharing mechanisms, and technical, human and financial capacity. We recommend the continuation of support towards decentralized sustainable forest management and utilization of the participatory forest management model as an entry point for REDD+ initiatives. Participatory land-use planning practices coupled with improved spatial planning and strengthening mechanisms against illegal activities entrenched in driving forest degradation are needed. In addition, for REDD+ to succeed it will need to challenge and overcome the powerful actors invested in and driving the business-as-usual model.
Response to disturbance

Author(s): Brokaw, N; Zimmerman, JK; Willig, MR; Camilo, GR; Covich, AP; Crowl, TA; Fetcher, N; Haines, BL; Jean Lodge, D; Lugo, AE; Myster, RW; Pringle, CM; Sharpe, JM; Scatena, FN; Schowalter, TD; Silver, WL; Thompson, J; Vogt, DJ; Vogt, KA; Waide, RB; Walker, LR; Woolbright, LL; Wunderle, JM; Zou, X | Abstract: © 2012 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. This chapter describes the responses of the organisms, communities, and ecosystems to the variety of disturbances by utilizing the conceptual model discussed in Chapter 2. It also dwells on the concepts of residuals, legacies, and ecological space in the understanding of disturbances such as background treefalls, hurricanes, floods, drought, landslides, and other human-induced disturbances. Finally, it outlines the variations caused by disturbances and the interactions among these disturbances.
Near‐field postseismic deformation associated with the 1992 Landers and 1999 Hector Mine, California, earthquakes

After the Landers earthquake (M w = 7.3, 1992.489) a linear array of 10 monuments extending about 30 km N50°E on either side of the earthquake rupture plus a nearby off-trend reference monument were surveyed frequently by GPS until 2003.2. The array also spans the rupture of the subsequent Hector Mine earthquake (M w = 7.1, 1999.792). The pre-Landers velocities of monuments in the array relative to interior North America were estimated from earlier trilateration and very long baseline interferometry measurements. Except at the reference monument, the post-Landers velocities of the individual monuments in the array relaxed to their preseismic values within 4 years. Following the Hector Mine earthquake the velocities of the monuments relaxed to steady rates within 1 year. Those steady rates for the east components are about equal to the pre-Landers rates as is the steady rate for the north component of the one monument east of the Hector Mine rupture. However, the steady rates for the north components of the 10 monuments west of the rupture are systematically ∼10 mm yr -1 larger than the pre-Landers rates. The relaxation to a steady rate is approximately exponential with decay times of 0.50 ± 0.10 year following the Landers earthquake and 0.32 ± 0.18 year following the Hector Mine earthquake. The postearthquake motions of the Landers array following the Landers earthquake are not well approximated by the viscoelastic-coupling model of Pollitz et al. [2000]. A similar viscoelastic-coupling model [Pollitz et al., 2001] is more successful in representing the deformation after the Hector Mine earthquake.
Field data comparisons of MEMS accelerometers and analog geophones

Geophones have been the motion sensor of choice in oil and gas exploration surveys for many years and for good reason: they require no electrical power to operate, are lightweight, robust, and able to detect extremely small ground displacements. However, the seismic industry recently has developed considerable interest in microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers, which are similar to those used to sense accelerations for airbag deployment and missile guidance (among many other uses). The MEMS element is tied to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that includes sensor signal conditioning, feedback control, and digitization blocks. The result is a custom-built unit for seismic applications that requires a power supply to operate.
A Versatile Shuffle Resource Units Recomputation Algorithm for Uplink OFDMA Random Access

—IEEE 802.11ax introduces Uplink Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)-based Random Access (UORA), a novel feature for facilitating random channel access in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Similar to the conventional random access scheme in WLANs, UORA employs the OFDMA backoff (OBO) procedure to access the channel’s Resource Units (RUs) and selects a random OBO counter within the OFDMA contention window (OCW) range. The Access Point (AP) can determine and communicate this OCW range to each station (STA). Multiple STAs accessing RUs result in transmission failure due to RU collisions, which occur when specific RUs remain unassessed by any STA, leading to wastage. Efforts to optimize channel efficiency require minimizing both collisions and idle RU despite the challenges arising from UORA’s distributed and random nature. The Fisher-Yates shuffle algorithm introduces a random uniform distribution strategy for managing RU allocations among STAs. The results demonstrate that this approach enables STAs to access RUs in a distributed manner, effectively reducing idle and wasted RUs, especially in scenarios involving a limited number of STAs. Furthermore, this approach effectively mitigates collisions among STAs, even in scenarios with a more significant number of STAs.
U–Pb ages from the Nimish Formation and Montagnais glomeroporphyritic gabbro of the central New Québec Orogen, Canada

Three U–Pb zircon dates were obtained from two igneous suites associated with cycle 2 sedimentation in the central New Quebec Orogen (Labrador Trough). In the Dyke Lake area of the western part of the orogen (Schefferville zone), the Nimish Formation includes a polymictic conglomerate containing quartz syenite cobbles that crystallized at 1877.8 ± 1.3 Ma. These cobbles are petrographically and geochemically linked to the Nimish volcanics, which are intercalated with the Sokoman iron formation. Consequently, the syenite date gives an approximate age for both Nimish magmatism and ironstone deposition in the Schefferville zone. A date of ca. 2.65 Ga obtained from a Nimish trachyte in the same area indicates that zircons in the sample are xenocrysts. Farther east, at Howse Lake (Howse zone), a Montagnais plagioclase-glomeroporphyritic gabbro sill crystallized at 1884.0 ± 1.6 Ma. The Howse Lake sill, which intrudes turbidites of the Menihek Formation, is considered comagmatic with the basalts that cap the form.
Effect of Household Type on the Prevalence of Climacteric Syndrome among Middle-Aged Men

Research on climacteric syndrome among middle-aged men remains scant compared to the research among women. Research is also lacking on climacteric syndrome among older adults living alone, particularly men, who are more vulnerable than females living alone. This cross-sectional study investigated whether the prevalence of climacteric syndrome is associated with the type of household middle-aged men live in and identified the determinants of climacteric syndrome based on the household type. Six hundred middle-aged men living in multi-person households and six hundred living alone were surveyed about general characteristics, diet-related factors, and climacteric syndrome. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-squared test, Fisher’s exact test, and logistic regression. The risk of climacteric syndrome in single-person households was found to be 1.6 times higher than that among multi-person households (p = 0.006). In multi-person households, income and breakfast frequency predicted climacteric syndrome (p < 0.05), while age, breakfast frequency, dinner frequency, and weekly eating out frequency predicted climacteric syndrome in single-person households (p < 0.05). Thus, dietary factors are more closely linked to the prevalence of climacteric syndrome in single-person households than in multi-person households. This highlights the need for climacteric syndrome interventions for middle-aged men, whose health concerns may persist into older adulthood.
The Impact of Social Media Adoption on SMEs’ Performance: A TOE Framework Content Analysis

This content analysis aims to investigate how the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework can be used in the field of business management. The selected articles were confined within TOE framework, social media adoption as the mediator and small and medium sized-enterprises’ (SMEs) performance in Kelantan, Malaysia. A total of 15 articles were regarded as fitting the scope. The articles were analysed using the QSR NVivo 10 software in which coding and categorisation of the attributes according to the list of nodes were performed. As a result, the content analysis suggests that technological, organizational and environmental context sub-dimensions could be considered for the TOE framework in future research. Apart from that, future researchers could refer to the frequency analysis performed on those 15 articles in providing practical recommendations and guidelines for SME managers to effectively leverage social media platforms to enhance performance within the TOE framework. Overall, this research provides a comprehensive and systematic approach to studying the impact of social media adoption on SMEs’ performance.
Time-Variation in the Effects of Push and Pull Factors on Portfolio Flows: Evidence from a Bayesian Dynamic Factor Model

The extent to which push and pull factors aﬀect international capital ﬂows is widely debated. We contribute to this strand of literature by estimating the relative importance of push and pull factors for portfolio ﬂows over a time span, encompassing the global ﬁnancial crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis as well as the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. To do so, we extract common and country-speciﬁc components from fund ﬂow data using Bayesian dynamic factor models with time-varying coeﬃcients and stochastic volatility. Assuming that the common component represents push factors and the country-speciﬁc component pull factors, we show that (i) time-variation matters and (ii) there is a substantial amount of heterogeneity in the importance of factors across regions (advanced versus emerging market economies) and asset classes (equity versus bonds). We ﬁnd that the relative importance of push factors for ﬂows into advanced economies has on average increased over time, particularly for EU countries. With respect to ﬂows into emerging market economies, we ﬁnd very heterogeneous results between individual countries. Moreover, we identify risk measures, US stock market returns, US real interest rates, the US real eﬀective exchange rate and the oil price as important push factors. Pull factors seem to covary with domestic stock market returns, in particular.
Empirical study on the factors influencing the successful aging of the middle-aged and older adult community volunteers

Background The pursuit of successful aging is currently the most important research and policy issue in an aging society. Participating in voluntary services can help middle-aged and older adults recognize the positive value and benefits of social participation, feel a sense of happiness and accomplishment, and improve their overall life satisfaction, which can also contribute to successful aging. This study wants to understand whether the participation motivation and expectation confirmation of middle-aged and older adult volunteering will affect their continuous participation behavior and successful aging because of the satisfaction of actual participation? Objective This study explores the factors related to middle-aged and older adult volunteering participation and their impact on successful aging. Methods Middle-aged and older adult volunteering from the East Taiwan Community Development Association and community care centers were taken as the research objects. Convenience sampling was used to select volunteers who were over 45 years old (inclusive) and have participated in voluntary services over five (inclusive) times in the last 6 months. Respondents completed the questionnaire through self-completion or face-to-face interviews with the interviewer. The measurement tools include engagement motivation, expectation validation, satisfaction, ongoing engagement, and successful aging. Results A total of 536 questionnaires were distributed of which 498 were valid and 38 invalid. The questionnaire recovery rate was 92.91%. Statistical findings include: (1) Those who perceived that their health was good had a better successful aging status than those who perceived that their health was normal. (2) The volunteering participation motivation and expectation confirmation of middle-aged and older adults significantly affected their volunteer participation satisfaction. (3) Participation motivation and expectation confirmation predicted 50.8% of satisfaction. (4) Satisfaction predicted 47.1% of continuous participation. (5) Continuous participation and satisfaction had a predictive power of 65.1% for successful aging. Conclusion This study confirms that the motivation and expectation of middle-aged and older adult to participate in volunteering will affect their continuous participation behavior and successful aging status through satisfaction. The research results can be used as a reference for the practical work plan of volunteering.