Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving HWRF Track and Intensity Forecasts via Model Physics Evaluation and Tuning

We have appreciated for some time that microphysical assumptions can dramatically influence tropical cyclone (TC) intensity (e.g., Lord et al. 1984; Braun and Tao 2000; Wang 2002; Zhu and Zhang 2006). Fovell and Su (2007) were among the first to show that cloud processes could materially influence TC motion over periods as short as two days. Using a “semi-idealized” strategy (i.e., employing operational models with dramatically simplified initial conditions), Fovell et al. (2009) demonstrated that different microphysical parameterizations (MPs) tend to generate different storm structures, particularly with regard to the azimuthally-averaged winds in the TC’s outer core region, located 200 km or more from the center. These outer winds can influence motion via the “beta drift” (e.g., Holland 1983; Fiorino and Elsberry 1989). Indeed, Cao et al. (2011) found that the outer wind structures that evolved in their simulations depended much less on the initial condition than on the model physics being employed. This sensitivity to the MP, however, emerged owing to how hydrometeors in different schemes interacted with radiative processes, i.e., cloud-radiative forcing (CRF). Fovell et al. (2010a) demonstrated that the motion and structural variation in their MP ensemble disappeared when clouds were made transparent to radiation in their semi-idealized simulations employing the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model’s Advanced Research WRF (ARW) core. MP schemes differ with respect to the amounts and relative distributions of hydrometeors, such as cloud ice, snow,
Correlation between Critical Thinking and Lifelong Learning Skills of Freshman Students

University freshman students’ critical thinking (CT) and lifelong learning (LLL) skills are often taken for granted. This can lead to tertiary education that is built on a weak foundation. In this paper, results of a small-scale study conducted to identify freshman students’ CT and LLL readiness levels and the correlation between them are explored. Participants included 87 freshman students with a mean age of 19 studying at a university in Abu Dhabi. Data were collected using two instruments developed by other researchers. Results indicate that students’ overall CT score are at the lower end, while their LLL score are slightly above the average. Female students’ CT and LLL scores are higher than male students’ score with differences at statistically significant levels. Also, there is a weak positive correlation between students’ overall CT and LLL scores. However, there is a moderate positive correlation between female students’ scores for CT and LLL. Recommendations are made in order to enhance students’ CT and LLL skills and strengthen the relationship between them.
Salt-tolerant Pseudomonas extremorientalis Able to Stimulate Growth of Silybum marianum under Salt Stress

The effect of root-colonizing Pseudomonas extremorientalis TSAU20 on the root and shoot growth and biomass was determined in the medicinal plant Silybum marianum (milk thistle) under salinated conditions. Four salinity levels (25, 50, 75 and 100 mM) were maintained in a gnotobiotic system using NaCl salt. Shoot and root growth were reduced as much as 42% and fresh weight as much as 31% at 100 mM NaCl. Inoculation of salt-stressed milk thistle with P. extremorientalis TSAU20 significantly improved root length (90%), shoot length (66%) and total fresh weight (64%) at 100 mM NaCl compared to control plants. P. extremorientalis TSAU20 also increased the root and shoot length and dry weight of milk thistle in non-saline (0.8 dS m), slightly saline (EC 2.3 dS m) and saline (EC 7.1 dS m ) soil. The root length increased by 49%, shoot length by 67% and dry weight by 21%. The strain was able to survive in the rhizosphere of plants. The results presented here make it possible for recommending root-colonizing, auxin-producing P. extremorientalis TSAU20 to alleviate salt stress of milk thistle grown under conditions of soil salinity. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The viability of computer-mediated interaction and face-to-face oral interaction in vocabulary recognition and production

Abstract T he pres ent s tudy w as conducted to inves tigate the effect of computermediated interaction and face-to-face oral interaction on the recognition and production ofvocabulary by Iranian learners of E nglis h. T o this end, 1 28 male and female high and low proficiency level learners of E nglis h participated in the s tudy. Recognition and production of target w ords w ere as s es s ed by receptive and productive, oral and w ritten meas ures . Four independent tw o-w ay A NO V A procedures w ere us ed to analys e the data. Res ults s how ed that the computer-mediated interaction group at both levels (advanced & elementary) outperformed the face-to-face oral interaction group on both w ritten and oral vocabulary recognition and production tes ts . It als o turned out that although the low -proficiency level learners ' w ritten vocabulary recognition w as affected by computermediated interaction more than that of the high-proficiency level learners , the latter experienced greater gains in w ritten vocabulary production. T he findings s how that C omputer-mediated interaction can be advantageous to vocabulary teaching and learning.
ON THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF BOLIVIA

The relationship of economic growth with financial development and trade openness is analyzed with annual time-series data for Bolivia during the 1940-2010 period. The analysis is an advance over previous work in several ways. First, the hypothesis of a long-run relationship between these variables is tested using bivariate cointegrated systems and employing the methodology of cointegration analysis. Second, causality tests utilizing standard Granger regressions and ECM models are carried out to determine the direction of causality between indicators of economic growth and financial development, and economic growth and trade openness. Lastly, the study comprises a period of seventy years, a first for a study of this kind on Bolivia. The empirical results demonstrate that there is indeed a long-run equilibrium relationship, and that unidirectional Granger causality runs from the indicators of financial development and trade openness to economic growth.
Measuring the Liquidity Profile of Mutual Funds

We measure the liquidity profile of open-end mutual funds using the sensitivity of their daily returns to aggregate liquidity. We study how this sensitivity changes around real-activity macroeconomic announcements that reveal large surprises about the state of the economy and after three relevant market events: Bill Gross's departure from PIMCO, Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund's suspension of redemptions, and the effect of Lehman Brothers' collapse on Neuberger Berman. Results show that, following negative news, the sensitivity to aggregate liquidity increases for less-liquid mutual funds, like those that invest in the stocks of small companies and in high-yield corporate bonds. The effect is more pronounced during stress periods, suggesting that a deterioration in the funds' liquidity could amplify vulnerabilities in situations of already weak macroeconomic conditions.
EFFECT OF AD LIBITUM OR RESTRICTED FEEDING WITH OR WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTAL LYSINE AND METHIONINE ON BROILER CHICKEN PERFORMANCE By

One hundred and forty four of one-day Hubbard broiler chicks were used to study the effect of ad libitum or restricted feeding with or without lysine and methionine supplementation on performance, carcass parts and abdominal fat of broiler chickens. All chicks were randomly distributed into 3 groups, (control and 2 groups). Each group included sex replicates of 8 chicks. The three groups were as follows: Birds in group1 (FF) was fed ad libitum from 1 to 42 days of age. Birds in groups 2 and 3 (FR and FRLM) were subjected to a broken feed restriction, whereby the restriction was imposed for 2 days (20% of ad-libitum), then lifted for 2 days at 7 to 42 days of age without or with supplemental lysine (0.2%) and methionine (0.1%), respectively. The obtained results could be summarized as follows: At 6 weeks of age, the boilers of FF group had significantly higher BW (P≤0.05) than those of FR and FRLM groups. No significant differences in the overall mean of body weight gain were detected among all groups. The FR and FRLM groups had better (P≤0.05) cumulative feed conversion (FCR) ratio by about 8.0 and 9.9% than that of FF group respectively, without significant differences between the two groups. No deaths occurred among the different groups at all ages. The FF group had significantly higher (P≤0.05) abdominal fat percentage than that of FRLM and FR groups, while FRLM group had significantly lower (P≤0.05) abdominal fat percentage than that of FR group. The FRLM group had significantly higher (P≤0.05) carcass percentage and lower (P≤0.05) back and wings percentages thane those of FF and FR groups. The groups of FR or FRLM attained higher economical efficiency by 20 %, respectively as compared to FF group. Hassanien and El-Sagheer, 2006. Egyptian Poultry Science Journal, Vol. 26, (I): 367-387. 368 It is concluded that, although ad libitum feeding program resulted in higher BW, however it was economically less efficient than that of feed restriction with or without lysine and methionine supplementation. Also, the feed restriction with or without lysine and methionine supplementation had an equal value of economical efficiency, Nevertheless, lysine and methionine supplementation resulted in higher carcass percentage and lower abdominal fat. (
Empirical Evidence of Corporate Governance on Firms Performance in Dhaka Stock Exchange

The research paper examined the practices of corporate governance and the relationship of specified practices with the performance of firms listed at ‘Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE)’. There is five parameters that have been used to measure the corporate governance and performance of particular firms. The Performance of firms is measured through Return on Assets (ROA) and Earnings Per Share (EPS) and a total number of directors in the board (BOD Size), NonExecutive Directors (NEDs) proportion to total board and number of NEDs in audit committee were used to measure corporate governance. The data analyzed through the Pearson Correlation, Johansen Cointegration, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Granger Causality in order to specify the particular direction of the relationship and cointegration between the variables of the study. According to the empirical evidence, it is concluded that the increase in BOD size, NEDs proportion to total board and NEDs in audit committee, the EPS of firms also increases and there is a weak or no correlation of BOD size, NEDs proportion to total board and NEDs in audit committee with ROA although there is long-term cointegration between all variables as well as no granger causality is found. The study concluded that the policies, procedures, and code of corporate governance may affect the financial performance of the organizations.
No . 54 THE BASICS OF A NETWORK ECONOMY

Using a simple general equilibrium model with an endogenously evolving communications network, we demonstrate the basic characteristics of a network-based economy. First, we characterize the first-best solutions, compare them with the solutions under a laissez-faire economy, and show that in a laissez-faire economy, the communications network contracts and causes subsequent distortions to wages, firm size, and the number of firms. Second, we examine the effects of representative policies, such as a subsidy for the price of communications services, an income transfer, and a subsidy to firms, and evaluate these policies in terms of the total social surplus. ∗ I would like to thank Tatsuo Hatta, Takuo Imagawa, Marvin Kraus, Yoshitsugu Kanemoto, Hideo Konishi, Hajime Miyazaki, and David Wildasin for helpful suggestions and discussions. I also benefited from discussions when presenting an earlier version of the paper at Boston College, the Ohio State University, and the University of British Columbia. Of course, I am solely responsible for any remaining errors and omissions. The financial aid from the Seimeikai foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
Autonomous Tool Construction Using Part Shape and Attachment Prediction

—This work explores the problem of robot tool construction - creating tools from parts available in the environment. We advance the state-of-the-art in robotic tool construction by introducing an approach that enables the robot to construct a wider range of tools with greater computational efﬁciency. Speciﬁcally, given an action that the robot wishes to accomplish and a set of building parts available to the robot, our approach reasons about the shape of the parts and potential ways of attaching them, generating a ranking of part combinations that the robot then uses to construct and test the target tool. We validate our approach on the construction of ﬁve tools using a physical 7-DOF robot arm.
Under the Conditions of Non-Agenda Ownership: Social Media Users in the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential Elections Campaign

Owing to its history and challenging circumstances, social networks community in Ukraine is a very interesting polygon for the study of communications in the constantly changing environment, especially in the political discourse. This unique environment requires three dimensions to ascertain the political position of its participant. But 2019 presidential elections made this object even more spectacular. The winner of elections comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyi reached 73% of votes without any issue ownership, with empty agenda, and this influenced the electoral content of social networks and their authors behavior. We saw, that the issue ownership by other candidates succeeds in making their issues more salient in social networks. But the new phenomena, the non-agenda ownership, overcome any ideological influence, especially under the conditions of punishment mechanism applied to old politicians. Analyzing social media content and users behavior in the period between two rounds of elections, we found considerable overlaps between this campaign and the 2016 Trump campaign. We approved the widespread of filter bubbles, negative campaign messages, fake news and conspiracy theories. Active and powerful core of Ukrainian Facebook that was responsible for the Revolution of dignity now became less significant and even turns into the huge filter bubble of active people. We also proved that manipulations and fake news in the environment of private groups may be as much powerful as in a case of classical communication based around the opinion leaders.
The Role of Marketplace Lending in Credit Markets: Evidence from Bank Mergers

We develop a model of competition between banks and a marketplace lender to motivate empirical tests using local market data on U.S. banks and the largest marketplace lending platform. Employing mergers of large, multimarket banks as an exogenous credit supply shock, we find that marketplace lending absorbs unmet demand for consumer credit following a decline in the availability of bank credit. Merger-induced bank branch closings lead to an increase in marketplace loan requests and loan acceptance rates, particularly for debt consolidation loans to lower-risk consumers. We also find that marketplace lending mitigates credit distress in local economies affected by mergers. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.
Life-history variation in a hybrid species complex of Daphnia *

Life-history variation was examined among members of the Daphnia longispina group, which consists of D. galeata, D. hyalina, D. cucullata, and hybrids. Factorial experiments were conducted at two temperatures (14 ~ and 20 ~ C) and two food concentrations (0.2 and 1.0 mg C 1-1). Differences in life-history features (size at maturity, age at first reproduction, size of first clutch, offspring size in first clutch) under the different environmental conditions were assessed among eight Daphnia clones, which represented members of this species complex. Significant differences between parentals and hybrids for most life-history features were observed under various treatments; generally, hybrid clones showed intermediate life-history traits when compared with parentals. When comparisons were made among clones within a given species (i.e.D. galeata, D. galeata x cucullata, D. cucullata), clonal differences were also noted for certain life-history traits. The data are discussed with reference to the formation and maintenance of hybrid species complexes in nature.
A Wide Lens: Combining Embodied, Enactive, Extended, and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings - 13th international conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL 2019)

With the growing integration of technology in the classrooms, learners can now develop collaboration skills by applying them across diverse contexts. While this represents a great opportunity, it also brings challenges due to an increased need to support individual learners across multiple learning activities. We propose a technology-enhanced learning ecosystem called UbiCoS that supports learner help-giving during face-to-face collaboration and across three different digital learning environments: an interactive digital textbook, an online Q&A forum, and a teachable agent. In this paper, we present a first step in the development of UbiCoS: five co-design sessions with 16 learners that give insight into learners’ perceptions of help-giving. The findings provided us with technology-related and curriculum-related design opportunities for facilitating learner interaction across multiple platforms.
The Effects of Bank Capital Buffers on Bank Lending and Firm Activity: What Can We Learn from Five Years of Stress-Test Results?

We use bank-firm matched data from regulatory filings (FR Y-14) to study how the capital buffers that large U.S. banks must satisfy to “pass” the quantitative component of the Federal Reserve’s CCAR stress tests impact banks’ C&I lending and firms’ C&I loan volumes, overall debt, investment spending, and employment. We find that larger stress-test capital buffers lead to material reductions in bank C&I lending. A 1 p.p. larger capital buffer results in a 2 p.p. lower (four-quarter) growth rate of utilized loans and a 11⁄2 p.p. lower growth rate of committed loans. The effects on firm loan volumes are larger, when we look at the loans that firms obtain from banks subject to stress tests. A firm that borrows from banks that on a weighted-average basis face a 1 p.p. larger stress-test capital buffer, experiences a 4 p.p. lower rate of growth in utilized loans and a 3 p.p. lower rate of growth of committed credit lines. However, when we consider firms’ overall debt volumes we find no impact of higher stress-test capital buffers, suggesting that firms can find other sources of credit to substitute for the reduction in loans that they face from banks subject to stress tests. We also find that firm investment and employment are largely unaffected by the capital buffers implied by stress tests. Because in the U.S. the consequences for banks of not meeting their stress-test capital buffers are similar to those of not satisfying an activated countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB), our findings are informative for the effects of the CCyB. Our results suggest that activating the CCyB in the U.S. would likely reduce the lending of the banks to which the CCyB applies, but would likely not impact the overall debt volumes, investment, and employment of the firms that borrow from these banks. JEL classification: G21, G28
Syntactic development in early foreign language learning: Effects of L1 transfer, input, and individual factors

Abstract This study explores parallels and differences in the comprehension of wh-questions and relative clauses between early foreign-language (FL) learners and monolingual children. We test for (a) effects of syntactic first-language (L1) transfer, (b) the impact of input on syntactic development, and (c) the impact of individual differences on early FL syntactic development. We compare the results to findings in child second language (L2) naturalistic acquisition and adult FL acquisition. Following work on adult FL acquisition, we carried out a picture-based interpretation task with 243 child FL learners in fourth grade at different regular, partial, and high-immersion schools in Germany plus 68 monolingual English children aged 5 to 8 years as controls. The child FL learners display a strong subject-first preference but do not appear to use the L1 syntax in comprehension. Input differences across different schools affect overall accuracy, with students at high-immersion FL schools catching up to monolingual performance within 4 years of learning. Finally, phonological awareness is implicated in both early FL learning and naturalistic child L2 development. These findings suggest that early FL development resembles child L2 acquisition in speed and effects of individual factors, yet is different from adult FL acquisition due to the absence of L1 transfer effects.
AND SYNTHESES Isolation by environment

The interactions between organisms and their environments can shape distributions of spatial genetic variation, resulting in patterns of isolation by environment (IBE) in which genetic and environmental distances are positively correlated, independent of geographic distance. IBE represents one of the most important patterns that results from the ways in which landscape heterogeneity influences gene flow and population connectivity, but it has only recently been examined in studies of ecological and landscape genetics. Nevertheless, the study of IBE presents valuable opportunities to investigate how spatial heterogeneity in ecological processes, agents of selection and environmental variables contributes to genetic divergence in nature. New and increasingly sophisticated studies of IBE in natural systems are poised to make significant contributions to our understanding of the role of ecology in genetic divergence and of modes of differentiation both within and between species. Here, we describe the underlying ecological processes that can generate patterns of IBE, examine its implications for a wide variety of disciplines and outline several areas of future research that can answer pressing questions about the ecological basis of genetic diversity.
The Potential of Social Media Analytics for Improving Social Media Communication of Emergency Agencies

A growing number of people use social media to seek information or coordinate relief activities in times of crisis. Thus, social media is increasingly deployed by emergency agencies as well to reach more people in crisis situations. However, the large amount of available data on social media could also be used by emergency agencies to understand how they are perceived by the public and to improve their communication. In this study, we examined the Twitter communication about the German emergency agency "Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe" by conducting a frequency, sentiment, social network and content analysis. The results reveal that a right-wing political cluster politically instrumentalised an incident related to this agency. Furthermore, some individuals used social media to express criticism. It can be concluded that the use of social media analytics in the daily routine of emergency management professionals can be beneficial for improving their social media communication strategy.