Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling snow accumulation on Greenland in Eemian, glacial inception, and modern climates in a GCM

Changing climate conditions on Greenland influence the snow accumulation rate and surface mass balance (SMB) on the ice sheet and, ultimately, its shape. This can in turn affect local climate via orography and albedo variations and, potentially, remote areas via changes in ocean circulation triggered by melt water or calving from the ice sheet. Examining these interactions in the IPSL global model requires improving the representation of snow at the ice sheet surface. In this paper, we present a new snow scheme implemented in LMDZ, the atmospheric component of the IPSL coupled model. We analyse surface climate and SMB on the Greenland ice sheet under insolation and oceanic boundary conditions for modern, but also for two different past climates, the last glacial inception (115 kyr BP) and the Eemian (126 kyr BP). While being limited by the low resolution of the general circulation model (GCM), present-day SMB is on the same order of magnitude as recent regional model findings. It is affected by a moist bias of the GCM in Western Greenland and a dry bias in the north-east. Under Eemian conditions, the SMB decreases largely, and melting affects areas in which the ice sheet surface is today at high altitude, including recent ice core drilling sites as NEEM. In contrast, glacial inception conditions lead to a higher mass balance overall due to the reduced melting in the colder summer climate. Compared to the widely applied positive degree-day (PDD) parameterization of SMB, our direct modelling results suggest a weaker sensitivity of SMB to changing climatic forcing. For the Eemian climate, our model simulations using interannually varying monthly mean forcings for the ocean surface temperature and sea ice cover lead to significantly higher SMB in southern Greenland compared to simulations forced with climatological monthly means.
Relative Efficiency of ALS and InSAR for Biomass Estimation in a Tanzanian Rainforest

Forest inventories based on field sample surveys, supported by auxiliary remotely sensed data, have the potential to provide transparent and confident estimates of forest carbon stocks required in climate change mitigation schemes such as the REDD+ mechanism. The field plot size is of importance for the precision of carbon stock estimates, and better information of the relationship between plot size and precision can be useful in designing future inventories. Precision estimates of forest biomass estimates developed from 30 concentric field plots with sizes of 700, 900, …, 1900 m 2 , sampled in a Tanzanian rainforest, were assessed in a model-based inference framework. Remotely sensed data from airborne laser scanning (ALS) and interferometric synthetic aperture radio detection and ranging (InSAR) were used as auxiliary information. The findings indicate that larger field plots are relatively more efficient for inventories supported by remotely sensed ALS and InSAR data. A simulation showed that a pure field-based inventory would have to comprise 3.5-6.0 times as many observations for plot sizes of 700-1900 m 2 to achieve the same
PENGARUH PENDAPATAN ASLI DAERAH DAN PENDAPATAN TRANSFER TERHADAP HUBUNGAN ANTARA BELANJA MODAL DENGAN BELANJA PEMELIHARAAN DALAM ANGGARAN DAERAH

Objective of this study is to empirically test whether local original income and transfer revenue give infl uence to the relation between capital expenditure andmaintenance expenditure in regional government budget. First test showed that reallocal original income give positive effect toward this relation in present year andmaintenance expenditure in next year. This result shows that real local original incomeis considered variable by local government in arranging budget of maintenance inrelation with capital expenditure policy. Second test showedthat transfer revenue haveno positive effect to the relationship between present year capital expenditure andmaintenance expenditure in next year. This result explaining that transfer revenue isnot considered variable during determination of next year maintenance expenditureby local government in relation with present year capital expenditure. This study giveempiric evidence of fl ypaper effect in relation between revenue and regional budget,which suggests that people tend to be effectively spend their revenue that comes from their own effort, than income from other party.
The Performance, Pervasiveness, and Determinants of Value Premium in Different US Exchanges: 1985-2006

Using AMEX, NASDAQ and NYSE stock market data for the period 1985–2006, this paper sheds further light into the value premium and the discussion of whether the value premium is driven by risk or behavioral factors. The paper utilizes a more comprehensive set of data and tests than previous studies and a research methodology that minimizes potential data snooping problems and confounding inferences. We document a consistently strong value premium in all markets examined, which persists in both bull and bear markets, as well as in recessions and recoveries. We show that the value premium is not driven by a few outliers, but it is pervasive as the overwhelming majority of stocks in the value portfolio have positive returns, and the majority of the industries in our sample have positive value premiums. The value premium, in general, remains positive and statistically significant over time. Our results are consistent with, but, in general, stronger than, those of other US studies. Previous studies’ results seem to be driven primarily by AMEX and NYSE stocks, as NASDAQ stocks experience much stronger value premium than other markets. In terms of explaining the drivers of the value premium, having looked at this question from many angles, we conclude that the evidence is mixed. It seems that both risk and mispricing may play a role in explaining the value premium, although the scale of the evidence seems to tilt more to the side of mispricing. The paper’s conclusions both with regards to the value premium and its drivers hold up well to various robustness tests.
Future-based On-line Integrated HW/SW Partitioning and Co-scheduling for Reconfigurable Computing Systems

Reconfigurable computing systems allow executing tasks in a true multitasking manner. Such systems share the reconfigurable device and processing unit as computing resources which leads to highly dynamic allocation situations. To manage such systems at runtime, a reconfigurable operating system is needed. The main part of this operating system is resource management unit which performs HW/SW partitioning, co-scheduling and placement of hardware tasks at run-time. In this paper, we present a technique for on-line integrated HW/SW partitioning and co-scheduling. We focus on on-line, real-time and nonpreemptive systems. The main characteristics of our method are future-awareness scheduling and strong nexus between partitioning, scheduling and placement. A large variety of experiments have been conducted on the proposed algorithm using synthetic and real tasks. Obtained results show considerable benefits of this algorithm.
The Great Moderation

American Economic Review), have a nice piece in VoxEU, " Does the Great Recession really mean the end of the Great Moderation? " , making the case that the " Great Moderation " that began around 1985 is not, in fact, over—but instead that: the current recession, while clearly severe by historical standards, does not imply a return to the levels of volatility observed in the 1970s. Most likely, the current episode will be remembered as a violent storm in otherwise temperate times. I think that the right answer to this question is not "no" but "maybe"—or, rather, that the right answer to that question depends on whether you think that it is volatility in real GDP growth or volatility in employment changes that ought to be primary in our thinking about the business cycle. If GDP is our focus, Coibion and Gorodnichenko look to be correct. If employment is our focus, they may not be.
How Does Distance Education Compare With Classroom Instruction? A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature

A meta-analysis of the comparative distance education (DE) literature between 1985 and 2002 was conducted. In total, 232 studies containing 688 independent achievement, attitude, and retention outcomes were analyzed. Overall results indicated effect sizes of essentially zero on all three measures and wide variability. This suggests that many applications of DE outperform their classroom counterparts and that many perform more poorly. Dividing achievement outcomes into synchronous and asynchronous forms of DE produced a somewhat different impression. In general, mean achievement effect sizes for synchronous applications favored classroom instruction, while effect sizes for asynchronous applications favored DE. However, significant heterogeneity remained in each subset.
Sticky Gecko Feet: The Role of Temperature and Humidity

Gecko adhesion is expected to be temperature insensitive over the range of temperatures typically experienced by geckos. Previous work is limited and equivocal on whether this expectation holds. We tested the temperature dependence of adhesion in Tokay and Day geckos and found that clinging ability at 12°C was nearly double the clinging ability at 32°C. However, rather than confirming a simple temperature effect, our data reveal a complex interaction between temperature and humidity that can drive differences in adhesion by as much as two-fold. Our findings have important implications for inferences about the mechanisms underlying the exceptional clinging capabilities of geckos, including whether performance of free-ranging animals is based solely on a dry adhesive model. An understanding of the relative contributions of van der Waals interactions and how humidity and temperature variation affects clinging capacities will be required to test hypotheses about the evolution of gecko toepads and is relevant to the design and manufacture of synthetic mimics.
Vagueness , Ambiguity and Perceptual Bistability

1. Introduction. While vagueness and ambiguity have been opposed in the semantic domain (vagueness is often described as meaning underdetermination, ambiguity as meaning overdetermi-nation, see Fine 1975; moreover, vagueness is fundamentally a property of concepts, ambiguity a property of stimuli or expressions), Raffman has made the suggestion that within soritical series, borderline cases typically pattern as ambiguous stimuli (Raffman 1994). More precisely, Raffman has put forward the idea that for borderline cases, the instability of our judgements may be akin to the kind of instability we experience in the perception of bistable figures (like the Necker cube, or Jastrow's duck-rabbit). For instance, Raffman considers a series of color shades making a smooth transition from red to orange and notes that " borderline cases are cases for which looking red and looking orange are very much alike ". One observation she makes is that while the color's quality appears to change as the judgment flips, there is also a more basic sense in which the stimulus remains constant. Her conclusion is that " such an effect may amount to a kind of Gestalt switch: there is a similar respect in which (for example) the duck-rabbit " looks the same " while yet " looking different " as it species fluctuates " (Raffman 1994: 53). Though highly suggestive, Raffman's comparison between the kind of instability experienced in vagueness and the kind of instability experienced with bistable figures has not been an object of close study. In the first part of this paper, I propose to tighten up the connection between vagueness and bistability by undertaking a comparison between sorites series and what I call " Fisher series " , namely series of ambiguous figures gradually altered. In the second part, I discuss two consequences of this analogy. The first concerns the ontology of vagueness and the potential inadequacy of epistemicist accounts (see Williamson 1994); the second concerns the nature of the uncertainty characteristic of vagueness.
Transgenic Rat Model of Huntington's Disease: A Histopathological Study and Correlations with Neurodegenerative Process in the Brain of HD Patients

Rats transgenic for Huntington's disease (tgHD51 CAG rats), surviving up to two years, represent an animal model of HD similar to the late-onset form of human disease. This enables us to follow histopathological changes in course of neurodegenerative process (NDP) within the striatum and compare them with postmortem samples of human HD brains. A basic difference between HD pathology in human and tgHD51 rats is in the rate of NDP progression that originates primarily from slow neuronal degeneration consequently resulting in lesser extent of concomitant reactive gliosis in the brain of tgHD51 rats. Although larger amount of striatal neurons displays only gradual decrease in their size, their number is significantly reduced in the oldest tgHD51 rats. Our quantitative analysis proved that the end of the first year represents the turn in the development of morphological changes related to the progression of NDP in tgHD51 rats. Our data also support the view that all types of CNS glial cells play an important, irreplaceable role in NDP. To the best of our knowledge, our findings are the first to document that tgHD51 CAG rats can be used as a valid animal model for detailed histopathological studies related to HD in human.
Family Capitalism and Corporate Governance of Family-controlled Listed Companies in Indonesia

This article discusses corporate governance of family-controlled companies at two levels. At the more general level, it examines the family capitalism paradigm for corporate governance of family businesses, supplementing the managerial capitalism paradigm in Anglo-American corporate governance systems, and the alliance capitalism paradigm prevailing in the Japan and German corporate governance systems. At the more specific level, the article explores family capitalism in the Indonesian context. In particular, it focuses on the question as to how family relationships and family values can influence the corporate governance of companies listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX). Part II of this paper discusses corporate governance of family-controlled companies and introduce the family capitalism paradigm. In Part III, I sketch the formal legislative framework of Indonesian corporate governance. Part IV undertakes an empirical study to reveal the extent of family relationships among members of the corporate boards of public companies listed on the JSX. In the absence of better alternatives, I use the somewhat rudimentary method of identifying common surnames among board members. To facilitate longitudinal comparison, I use published data for two calendar years: 1997 (prior to the onset of the 1997-1999 Asian financial crisis) and 2001 (when many Asian economies had started to recover or had already recovered from the crisis). Using this methodology, I found that 59.8% of the 259 listed companies in 1997 had two or more family board members. The figure was 40.7% out of the 307 listed companies in 2001. In Part V, I discuss the potential impact of family relationships and family values on the corporate governance of family-controlled companies in the Indonesian context. In particular, I focus on the Indonesian concept of kekeluargaan (family spirit or brotherhood) which is referred to in the 1945 Constitution. Assuming that family capitalism in Indonesia operates on an organisational logic which is influenced by family values, I highlight three aspects of corporate governance which may be affected. First, the notion of a company being a separate legal entity may be blurred. This may explain the cases of expropriation of company assets by majority shareholders in Indonesia. Secondly, personal accountability of board members may be downplayed. Thirdly, supervision and authority within the two-tier board structure of Indonesian companies may be less than optimal given a hierarchical family culture.
The impact of alpha lipoic acid on developmental competence of mouse vitrified pre-antral follicles in comparison to those isolated from vitrified ovaries

Background: Cryopreservation of ovarian tissues and pre-antral follicles is a promising prospect for preservation of women fertility. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro developmental competence of mouse vitrified pre-antral follicles in comparison to isolated pre-antral follicles derived from vitrified ovaries in the presence of alpha lipoic acid (ALA). Materials and Methods: Pre-antral follicles derived from fresh, vitrified-warmed ovarian tissues and vitrified–warmed pre-antral follicles were cultured individually with or without ALA, followed by adding hCG to induce ovulation. The follicle growth, oocyte maturation, and embryo development were assessed. Results: The diameter and development of follicles, oocyte maturation and embryo development rates were significantly higher in ALA supplemented groups compared to the respective ALA-free conditions groups. Aforementioned parameters were significantly higher in vitrified-warmed follicles in comparison to follicles derived from vitrified-warmed ovaries. Conclusion: These findings support a superior performance of pre-antral follicles when vitrified rather than when isolated from vitrified ovaries with regard to increasing the rates of developmental parameters. Moreover, ALA improves the in vitro maturation of pre-antral follicles in vitrified and non-vitrified samples. This article extracted from M.Sc. thesis. (Sahar Hatami)
Late Maturation of Adult-Born Neurons in the Temporal Dentate Gyrus

Hippocampal function varies along its septotemporal axis, with the septal (dorsal) pole more frequently involved in spatial learning and memory and the temporal (ventral) pole playing a greater role in emotional behaviors. One feature that varies across these subregions is adult neurogenesis. New neurons are more numerous in the septal hippocampus but are more active in the temporal hippocampus during water maze training. However, many other aspects of adult neurogenesis remain unexplored in the context of septal versus temporal subregions. In addition, the dentate gyrus contains another functionally important anatomical division along the transverse axis, with the suprapyramidal blade showing greater experience-related activity than the infrapyramidal blade. Here we ask whether new neurons differ in their rates of survival and maturation along the septotemporal and transverse axes. We found that neurogenesis is initially higher in the infrapyramidal than suprapyramidal blade, but these cells are less likely to survive, resulting in similar densities of neurons in the two blades by four weeks. Across the septotemporal axis, neurogenesis was higher in septal than temporal pole, while the survival rate of new neurons did not differ. Maturation was assessed by immunostaining for the neuronal marker, NeuN, which increases in expression level with maturation, and for the immediate-early gene, Arc, which suggests a neuron is capable of undergoing activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. Maturation occurred approximately 1–2 weeks earlier in the septal pole than in the temporal pole. This suggests that septal neurons may contribute to function sooner; however, the prolonged maturation of new temporal neurons may endow them with a longer window of plasticity during which their functions could be distinct from those of the mature granule cell population. These data point to subregional differences in new neuron maturation and suggest that changes in neurogenesis could alter different hippocampus-dependent behaviors with different time courses.
Treatment of glioma by engineered interleukin 4-secreting cells.

The ability of interleukin-4 (IL-4) to mediate an antitumor response to human gliomas was studied in vivo in nude mice. To allow the effect of IL-4 to be exerted over a relatively short distance and at an optimal concentration, a transfected tumor cell line expressing a high level of IL-4 was used in mixed tumor transplantation assays. There was a significant inhibition of growth of the U87 human glioma line when the IL-4-secreting cell line, LT-1, was implanted s.c. with the glioma in 5 nude mice when compared to contralateral control tumors consisting of the U87 glioma and IL-4-negative control cells. In addition, there was a prolongation of survival when U87 along with IL-4-secreting cells were implanted intracerebrally in 12 nude mice compared to 12 control nude mice implanted with U87 and IL-4-negative control cells and 11 control animals receiving U87 alone. Histological analysis 4 days after i.c. inoculation revealed the presence of a dramatic eosinophil infiltrate and tumor necrosis. The absence of viable glioma cells as well as resolution of inflammation 19 days after treatment suggests the potential for complete tumor regression without ongoing inflammatory sequelae resulting from cytokine treatment.
The Enrollment Effects of Merit‐Based Financial Aid: Evidence from Georgia’s HOPE Program

Introduced in 1993, Georgia’s HOPE Program sponsors a merit‐based scholarship for students attending in‐state colleges and a grant for those entering technical schools. There are no income restrictions. Comparing Georgia with other southeastern states over the 1988–97 period, HOPE increased freshmen enrollment by 5.9%, or 2,889 students per year, which amounts to only 15% of freshmen scholarship recipients. Four‐year colleges account for most of the gain; a reduction in students leaving the state explains two‐thirds of the 4‐year‐school effect attributable to freshmen who have recently graduated from high school. White and black enrollments increased because of HOPE.
Intraspecific genotypic variability determines concentrations of key truffle volatiles

Aroma variability in truffles has been attributed to maturation (Tuber borchii), linked to environmental factors (Tuber magnatum), but the involvement of genetic factors has been ignored. We investigated aroma variability in Tuber uncinatum, a species with wide distribution. Our aim was to assess aroma variability at different spatial scales (i.e. trees, countries) and to quantify how aroma was affected by genotype, fruiting body maturity, and geographical origin. A volatile fingerprinting method was used to analyze the aroma of 223 T. uncinatum fruiting bodies from seven European countries. Maturity was estimated from spore melanization. Genotypic fingerprinting was performed by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Discriminant analysis revealed that, regardless of the geographical origin of the truffles, most of the aroma variability was caused by eight-carbon-containing volatiles (C8-VOCs). In an orchard of T. uncinatum, truffles producing different concentrations of C8-VOCs clustered around distinct host trees. This clustering was not associated with maturity, but was associated with fungal genotype. These results indicate that the variation in C8-VOCs in truffles is most likely under genetic control. They exemplify that understanding the factors behind aroma variability requires a holistic approach. Furthermore, they also raise new questions regarding the ecological role of 1-octen-3-ol in truffles.