Interannual Abundance Fluctuations of Two Oceanic Squids in the Pacific Ocean Can Be Evaluated Through Their Habitat Temperature Variabilities

Neon flying squid (Ommastrephes bartramii) and jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) are two commercially essential oceanic squids in the Pacific Ocean. An in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of their annual and interannual abundance fluctuations under environmental and climate variabilities can ensure ration and suitable management. Thus, the annual and interannual abundance fluctuations of the stock of the western winter-spring cohort of O. bartramii and D. gigas off Peru Exclusive Economic Zone (PEEZ) waters and their association with habitat temperature variabilities are explored in this study based on the historical Chinese Squid-jigging fishery data from 2003 to 2020. The habitat temperature variabilities were defined as the effective principal components of the SST at the squids’ two important habitats (spawning and feeding ground) through life histories according to the principal component analysis. The Hodrick—Prescott filter analysis was conducted to quantify the annual and interannual fluctuations of abundance and habitat temperature variabilities. Furthermore, the generalized additive model (GAM) was employed to investigate their associations. The results demonstrated different but not synchronous trends of abundance for O. bartramii and D. gigas. Regarding O. bartramii, the interannual abundance first decreased (2003∼2013) and then increased (after 2014). For D. gigas, the interannual abundance kept decreasing within 2003∼2020. Their annual trends have presented large fluctuations over years. The results of GAM indicated that using habitat temperature variabilities only can trace the abundance trend of O. bartramii and D. gigas at an interannual but not annual scale. Further studies verified that Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is a crucial factor affecting the interannual abundance trend of these two squids through the habitat temperature variabilities. However, this study indicates that the habitat temperature variabilities not only are related to other large-scale factors, which are not investigated currently at an interannual scale, but also, are combined with other small- or middle-scale factors at an annual scale on their impacts to the abundance fluctuations of these two squids. Therefore, in order to better explain the mechanisms of annual and interannual abundance fluctuations of O. bartramii and D. gigas under environmental and climate variabilities, the importance of combining other potential factors into consideration is highlighted.

Integrating the Eigendecomposition Approach and k-Means Clustering for Inferring Building Functions with Location-Based Social Media Data

Understanding the relationship between human activity patterns and urban spatial structure planning is one of the core research topics in urban planning. Since a building is the basic spatial unit of the urban spatial structure, identifying building function types, according to human activities, is essential but challenging. This study presented a novel approach that integrated the eigendecomposition method and k-means clustering for inferring building function types according to location-based social media data, Tencent User Density (TUD) data. The eigendecomposition approach was used to extract the effective principal components (PCs) to characterize the temporal patterns of human activities at building level. This was combined with k-means clustering for building function identification. The proposed method was applied to the study area of Tianhe district, Guangzhou, one of the largest cities in China. The building inference results were verified through the random sampling of AOI data and street views in Baidu Maps. The accuracy for all building clusters exceeded 83.00%. The results indicated that the eigendecomposition approach is effective for revealing the temporal structure inherent in human activities, and the proposed eigendecomposition-k-means clustering approach is reliable for building function identification based on social media data.

Rus detachment in Dammam Dome, Eastern Saudi Arabia: a new soft-sediment structure as a ‘sensitive stress sensor’ for the Zagros collision

This paper describes in detail hydroplastic structures, which are ‘odd’ kinematic indicators in the basal part of the Eocene Middle Rus Formation. Such structures were previously ignored or falsely interpreted. These hydroplastic structures are found in the massive limestone exposures on the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) campus. They occur in relation to a principal displacement zone along the boundary/interface between the Lower/Middle Rus, which is referred to as the Rus soft-sediment detachment. The structures are fist-sized vugs associated with carrot- or comet-trail imprints (VCT structures) which were previously translated calcite geodes that have been weathered out. VCT structures show transport/slip towards the NNW (345°) and are found on flat to low-dipping surfaces classified as Y, R and P shears with respect to the orientation of the Rus detachment. Palaeostress analysis indicates an Andersonian transtension stress regime, though it does not facilitate the activation of the Rus soft-sediment detachment. Detachment activity occurred due to the negative effective principal stress σ3′ and the abnormally low frictional coefficient caused by fluid pressure. The soft-sediment Rus detachment can be considered a ‘sensitive stress sensor’ for the Zagros collision since it indicates the Arabian platform’s instability in the wider area of the Dammam Dome during the Late Eocene. This instability is attributed to the inception of the Zagros collision, which was previously considered to occur during the Oligocene based on the well-established pre-Neogene unconformity.

Periodic Table of the Elements, History, Education and Evaluation

The periodic tables of transition metal thiophosphates MPS3, transition metal dichalcogenides MX2 and other materials, the origin of chemical elements and toxic trace elements in dried mushrooms are provided. The effective nucleus-electron attraction is proportional to the effective nuclear charge (Zeff) and inversely proportional to the effective principal quantum number (n*). The periodic arch is one of many modern visual displays that have been developed to augment the traditional periodic table of the chemical elements. The table is related with the multiparameter optimisation of N atom, nuclear magnetic resonance and everyday life. Educational activities are developed with evaluation.

In Search of Effective Principal Appraisal

<p>The board of trustees of each New Zealand state and integrated school is responsible for the performance appraisal of its principal. Empirical data on the effectiveness of the appraisal for principals and boards is scarce. This research set out to describe principal appraisal within a region containing approximately one tenth of New Zealand schools. A survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the 2006 appraisal was completed by the principal and/or chair of just under half the schools in the region. The results suggest four critical success factors: the way in which the appraiser is selected and their personal qualities; the fairness and clarity of the process; the specific expectations that principals and chairs have of the outcome; and the completeness and congruity of principals' and chairs' understanding of appraisal. The reported experiences were mostly positive. However, understanding and resourcing of effective practice was found to be limited. A professional external appraiser and good interpersonal chemistry are dominant contributors to a satisfying appraisal experience. A functioning process with adequate resourcing and time for evidence gathering and evaluation, appear to be important appraisal prerequisites but do not guarantee a satisfying outcome. Unsatisfying appraisal experiences can be traced to a lack of clear understanding of appraisal aims and practice, together with resources to support their development. It is further compounded by the transient nature of boards. Four key action programmes are suggested to address shortcomings and recommendations are outlined for key stakeholders.</p>

In Search of Effective Principal Appraisal

<p>The board of trustees of each New Zealand state and integrated school is responsible for the performance appraisal of its principal. Empirical data on the effectiveness of the appraisal for principals and boards is scarce. This research set out to describe principal appraisal within a region containing approximately one tenth of New Zealand schools. A survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the 2006 appraisal was completed by the principal and/or chair of just under half the schools in the region. The results suggest four critical success factors: the way in which the appraiser is selected and their personal qualities; the fairness and clarity of the process; the specific expectations that principals and chairs have of the outcome; and the completeness and congruity of principals' and chairs' understanding of appraisal. The reported experiences were mostly positive. However, understanding and resourcing of effective practice was found to be limited. A professional external appraiser and good interpersonal chemistry are dominant contributors to a satisfying appraisal experience. A functioning process with adequate resourcing and time for evidence gathering and evaluation, appear to be important appraisal prerequisites but do not guarantee a satisfying outcome. Unsatisfying appraisal experiences can be traced to a lack of clear understanding of appraisal aims and practice, together with resources to support their development. It is further compounded by the transient nature of boards. Four key action programmes are suggested to address shortcomings and recommendations are outlined for key stakeholders.</p>

Description and Quantification of Sexual Dimorphism of Pubic Body Shape in Hispanic Populations Using Elliptic Fourier Analysis

Sex estimation is important in the creation of a biological profile for unidentified human remains, as positive identification cannot occur until the decedent’s biological traits have been determined and the range of possible matches has been narrowed. The pubic bone is cited as one of the best indicators of sex due to the constraints of childbirth. Current methods that use the pubic bone for sex estimation, however, rely on poorly defined and subjective observations that are susceptible to inter-and intraobserver error. Additionally, many of the methods currently in use are based on North American populations and thus may not necessarily model the variation seen in other populations around the globe. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of variation in pubic bone shape in Hispanic populations by separating the influences of sex, ancestry, and age at death. A total of 164 pubic bones from North American Hispanic and Chilean individuals were compared to 287 pubic bones from individuals of Euro-American ancestry from North American collections, using Elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) of photographs, principal component analysis, and ANCOVA. EFA generated five effective principal components that collectively describe approximately 95% of the variation in the shape of the pubic body. Sex, age at death, and ancestry were all found to significantly influence shape but explained only 25% of the overall variation. The remaining 75% is likely influenced by variables that cannot be controlled for in anthropological analysis, underscoring how little variance in skeletal morphology is actually explainable.

Classification of soybean frogeye leaf spot disease using leaf hyperspectral reflectance

In this study, the feasibility of classifying soybean frogeye leaf spot (FLS) is investigated. Leaf images and hyperspectral reflectance data of healthy and FLS diseased soybean leaves were acquired. First, image processing was used to classify FLS to create a reference for subsequent analysis of hyperspectral data. Then, dimensionality reduction methods of hyperspectral data were used to obtain the relevant information pertaining to FLS. Three single methods, namely spectral index (SI), principal component analysis (PCA), and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), along with a PCA and SI combined method, were included. PCA was used to select the effective principal components (PCs), and evaluate SIs. Characteristic wavelengths (CWs) were selected using CARS. Finally, the full wavelengths, CWs, effective PCs, SIs, and significant SIs were divided into 14 datasets (DS1–DS14) and used as inputs to build the classification models. Models’ performances were evaluated based on the classification accuracy for both the overall and individual classes. Our results suggest that the FLS comprised of five classes based on the proportion of total leaf surface covered with FLS. In the PCA and SI combination model, 5 PCs and 20 SIs with higher weight coefficient of each PC were extracted. For hyperspectral data, 20 CWs and 26 effective PCs were also selected. Out of the 14 datasets, the model input variables provided by five datasets (DS2, DS3, DS4, DS10, and DS11) were more superior than those of full wavelengths (DS1) both in support vector machine (SVM) and least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) classifiers. The models developed using these five datasets achieved overall accuracies ranging from 91.8% to 94.5% in SVM, and 94.5% to 97.3% in LS-SVM. In addition, they improved the classification accuracies by 0.9% to 3.6% (SVM) and 0.9% to 3.7% (LS-SVM).

Effective principle leadership behaviors to improve the teacher performance and the student achievement

The principal’s role as a leader is crucial in improving the teacher performance and student achievement. However, it still remains unknown what kinds of school leadership behaviors that are effective to improve teacher performance and student achievement. This study aims to determine the level of significance of the effect of (1) the quality of principal's leadership behaviors on teacher performance, (2) the quality of principal's leadership behaviors on student achievement, and (3) the teacher performance on student achievement.This study is a quantitative descriptive research. The study population was 317 teachers with 281 teachers as the samples. The data collection technique was carried out through questionnaires, participant observation, and teacher performance appraisals. The data analysis technique used the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of this study showed a significant (5%) influence between: (1) the quality of the principal's leadership behaviors on the teacher performance where the estimated rate was 0.89 with the value of -t = 3.23> 1.96. The higher the quality of the principal's leadership behaviors had become, then it increased the quality of the teachers’ performance; (2) the quality of the principal's leadership behaviors on the level of student achievement where the estimated rate was 0.77 with the value of -t = 2.86> 1.96; and (3) the level of teacher performance on the level of learning achievement where the estimated rate was 0.92 with the value of -t = 4.45> 1.96. The structural model of learning outcomes showed that the loading factor of report cards had a greater effect of 0.995 when it compared to the school exam scores with an effect of 0.897. Effective principal leadership behaviors were limited to (a) the relationship between leaders and followers, (b) task structure, and (c) position power.