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This study examines the literacy rate of 204 countries all over the world focusing on both male and female population with ages 15 years old and above. The source indicates that of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women. Data also reveal that extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions: Afghanistan, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Sahelian Africa, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate. Using fractal statistical analysis, it was found out that there is a varying pattern or complexity in the literacy rates among the male and female populations of the 204 countries; the fractal dimension of literacy rate of male is higher compared to the female. Based on the findings, it is concluded that since there are several countries with extremely low literacy rates, then the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating illiteracy by 2015 cannot be achieved. The study recommends that the governments should look into the fractality of the other indicators of human development and prosperity of the countries.

Fractional and fractal derivatives are both generalizations of the usual derivatives that consider derivatives of non-integer orders. Interest in these generalizations has been triggered by a resurgence of clamor to develop a mathematical tool to describe “roughness” in the spirit of Mandelbrot’s (1967) fractal geometry. Fractional derivatives take the analytic approach towards developing a rational order derivative while fractal derivatives follow a more concrete, albeit geometric approach to the same end. Since both approaches alleged to extend whole derivatives to rational derivatives, it is not surprising that confusion will arise over which generalization to use in practice. This paper attempts to highlight the connection between the various generalizations to fractional and fractal derivatives with the end-in-view of making these concepts useful in various physics applications and to resolve some of the confusion that arise out of the fundamental philosophical differences in the derivation of fractional derivatives (non-local concept) and fractal derivatives (local concept).

Grain sizes of Martian sand dunes are critical sedimentological data on sand provenance and transport pathways. Thermal inertia values are used to characterize the grain sizes of dune sand. Most early characterizations involved single dune fields. Recent work based on global data sets has provided more wide‐spread dune sand locations, though these data sets include the non‐sandy interdune areas. To provide a more accurate grain size characterization, we leverage a global thermal inertia data set, a global dune database and a global imaging mosaic to develop a freeware‐based methodology for deriving grain sizes. This methodology involves delineation of sand‐only areas within dune fields and collection of thermal inertia values from those areas. We consider a unimodal histogram of values with a mode <∼350 thermal inertia units (J m−2 K−1 s−1/2) to imply an effective exclusion of non‐sand surfaces. Application of this methodology to dune fields for which thermal inertia values have been previous derived shows our results fall within the envelope of those values. We apply our methodology to tropical dune fields on Mars for which Dust Cover Index data imply dust‐free surfaces. Conversion of these thermal inertia values to sand grain sizes yields a range of sand classifications of fine sand to granules. Comparison of sand size classifications with geographic location shows grain size ranges that are distinctive by location, consistent with local sourcing. This work points toward geographically diverse sand formation mechanisms yielding diverse grain sizes, while providing a freeware‐based and thus widely accessible method for expanding the derivation of these critical data. Plain Language Summary: Knowing the sizes of sand grains on Mars provides information on the history of that sand, such as where it came from and how far it has traveled to where it is now. Sand grains of different sizes respond to heat differently, with larger sand grains heating up and cooling down more slowly than smaller grains or dust. This response to heating—termed "thermal inertia"—has been used for decades to estimate the grain sizes of dune sand on Mars. However, previous methods have been focused on only a few dune fields at a time. To increase the amount of grain size data we can collect from sand dunes on Mars, we have developed a freeware‐based approach using global data sets and software that are accessible to anyone. Applying our approach to all the dunes for which grains sizes based on thermal inertia were previously derived, we show that our values are similar to those from the previous work. Applying our approach to 75 dune fields on Mars, we see different dune fields have different grain sizes, which suggests different sand formation mechanisms in these different locations. Thus, our freeware‐based approach provides an accessible opportunity to learn about sand characteristics and sand histories across Mars. Key Points: We develop and test a fully freeware‐based method for estimating grain sizes of Martian dune sand and apply it to tropical dune fieldsOur grain size values fit within the envelope of grain size values from decades of previous work, indicating the validity of our methodOur results also reveal geographic variability in grain sizes, indicating geospatial variability in sand‐forming mechanisms on Mars [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate trends in incidence and histological distribution of oesophageal carcinoma in Kingston and St Andrew (KSA), Jamaica, over the 30-year period 1978-2007. Methods: All oesophageal carcinomas registered in residents of KSA during the study period were extracted from the Jamaica Cancer Registry, and the following were collected for each case: gender, age, basis of diagnosis, year of diagnosis, histological subtype and subsite. The data were used to calculate age-specific incidence rates and age-standardized incidence rates (ASRs). The results were compared to those from other countries. Results: Oesophageal carcinoma was more common among males than females, and both genders showed decreasing incidence over the 30-year period. The highest ASRs (males, 4.0 per 100 000; females 2.6 per 100 000 per year) were recorded in the 1978-1982 reporting period and the lowest (males, 1.7 per 100 000 per year; females 0.6 per 100 000 per year) in the 2003-07 period. The leading histological subtype among both genders was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and this subtype showed a decrease in incidence in both genders over the period of review. Adenocarcinomas, the second commonest histological subtype, showed a decrease in ASR over time in females and a rise in males. Conclusion: Incidence rates of oesophageal carcinomas overall have decreased in KSA, Jamaica, and this trend is mirrored by the SCC subtype. However, while adenocarcinoma ASR is decreasing in females, it is increasing in males. These data support the need for investigation into the risk factors for oesophageal adenocarcinoma in Jamaica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Social marketing is increasingly being seen as a potentially effective means of pursuing health education practice generally and within various specific areas such as mental health and wellbeing and more broadly in tackling health inequalities. This paper aims to report and reflect on the authors' experiences of undertaking a health education initiative in a rural National Health Service (NHS) health board in Scotland that utilised social marketing methodology and sought to develop wider capacity and ensure implementation in two topic areas: breast-feeding prevalence and being overweight and obesity among young people. Design/methodology/approach: Case study insights were gathered from service users and professionals using various methods (key informant interviews/focus groups; face-to-face stakeholder workshops; action-planning events; on-line survey; desk based research; complemented by general reflection from Social Marketing Sustainability Steering Group meetings). Findings: The project broadly achieved the goal of deploying social marketing principles and developing capacity in informing progress in each of the case studies and on occasions, initiatives were able to determine a relatively profound understanding of audiences and deliver activity on the ground within a large rural health board. Originality/value: Developing social marketing capacity is possible, though longer term sustainability is dependent on addressing a series of challenges, such as creating conducive long term planning mechanisms, gaining management support and securing on-going resources. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Monitoring temperature-dependent events is critical for understanding their dynamics since these events have an impact on both animal and human habitation. It is common to see analysis of heat index and sea level that are described separately although these events have a direct connection to temperature. Often these analyses are less effective and less reliable in describing its dynamics vis-à-vis redundancy, flexibility, accounting of uncertainties and optimization. Since both are temperature-dependent events, a unified stochastic model with memory was derived. These events can be effectively described with a collective memory function ..., modifying the Brownian motion. A good match between the empirical and theoretical MSDs for both heat index and sea level was obtained with memory parameters μHI = 1.0460 and μSL = 1.0894, respectively. With μ > 1, heat index and sea level exhibited long-term memory characteristics which have important implications for large timescale prediction. Similarly, analyses using a unified model are simplified and may provide the interrelatedness of these events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamical cores used to study the circulation of the atmosphere employ various numerical methods ranging from finite‐volume, spectral element, global spectral, and hybrid methods. In this work, we explore the use of Flux‐Differencing Discontinuous Galerkin (FDDG) methods to simulate a fully compressible dry atmosphere at various resolutions. We show that the method offers a judicious compromise between high‐order accuracy and stability for large‐eddy simulations and simulations of the atmospheric general circulation. In particular, filters, divergence damping, diffusion, hyperdiffusion, or sponge‐layers are not required to ensure stability; only the numerical dissipation naturally afforded by FDDG is necessary. We apply the method to the simulation of dry convection in an atmospheric boundary layer and in a global atmospheric dynamical core in the standard benchmark of Held and Suarez (1994, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1994)075〈1825:apftio〉2.0.co;2). Plain Language Summary: Numerical models cannot explicitly represent all degrees of freedom that characterize atmospheric flows due to limitations in computing power. One must allocate the available computational degrees of freedom to reduce the degradation of the solution. In this work, we explore the use of the discontinuous Galerkin numerical method, a hybrid approach that combines the accuracy of spectral methods with the flexibility of finite volume methods. We apply it to idealized dry atmospheric simulations and show that the method is robust and incorporates physical principles to best account for unresolved processes. Key Points: The Flux‐Differencing Discontinuous Galerkin (FDDG) method is a robust numerical discretization for geophysically relevant configurationsFDDG allows for a computationally stable total energy formulation of the compressible Euler equations with gravity and rotationFDDG simulates a dry convective boundary layer and the atmospheric general circulation using only numerical dissipation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) producers harvest over 2.4 million metric tons each year. Salmon feed producers are now including higher levels of alternative proteins due to fish meal production limits and consumer demand for more efficient and sustainable ingredients. We examined the effects of histidine in smolt (~355 g/fish) and juvenile (~600 g/fish) North American St. John River strain Atlantic salmon. Salmon were fed graded levels of histidine (0.5, 0.7, 0.9, 1.1, 1.3, and 1.5%) to determine optimum levels necessary to support growth. In the first trial, only percent gain was ranged between 157 to 225%, while thermal growth coefficient (TGC) 1.6–2.0, and FCR ~1 were similar. In the smolt first trial, the final percent gain ranged between 157 and 225%, thermal growth coefficient (TGC) was 1.6–2.0, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was approximately 1.0. Regression analysis indicated that maximum growth occurred at a dietary histidine level of 0.9% (p =.0012). In the juvenile trial, percent weight gain ranged 35–45%, TGC ranged from 1.4 to 1.9, and FCR ranged from 1.1 to 1.3; these responses were not different between diets. Cataracts were observed in only 3 fish between both studies (3% of the total population). Using regression analysis, both studies suggest histidine levels of at least 0.9% of the diet adequately support Atlantic salmon growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]