Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-path measurements of pollutants and micrometeorology over Highway 401 in Toronto

Abstract. Traffic emissions contribute significantly to urban air pollution. Measurements were conducted over Highway 401 in Toronto, Canada, with a long-path Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer combined with a suite of micrometeorological instruments to identify and quantify a range of air pollutants. Results were compared with simultaneous in situ observations at a roadside monitoring station, and with output from a special version of the operational Canadian air quality forecast model (GEM-MACH). Elevated mixing ratios of ammonia (0–23 ppb) were observed, of which 76 % were associated with traffic emissions. Hydrogen cyanide was identified at mixing ratios between 0 and 4 ppb. Using a simple dispersion model, an integrated emission factor of on average 2.6 g km−1 carbon monoxide was calculated for this defined section of Highway 401, which agreed well with estimates based on vehicular emission factors and observed traffic volumes. Based on the same dispersion calculations, vehicular average emission factors of 0.04, 0.36, and 0.15 g km−1 were calculated for ammonia, nitrogen oxide, and methanol, respectively.
A Review of Anomaly Detection Techniques and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) on Software Defined Network (SDN)

Software defined network (SDN) is a network architecture in which the network traffic may be operated and managed dynamically according to user requirements and demands. Issue of security is one of the big challenges of SDN because different attacks may affect performance and these attacks can be classified into different types. One of the famous attacks is distributed denial of service (DDoS). SDN is a new networking approach that is introduced with the goal to simplify the network management by separating the data and control planes. However, the separation leads to the emergence of new types of distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks on SDN networks. The centralized role of the controller in SDN makes it a perfect target for the attackers. Such attacks can easily bring down the entire network by bringing down the controller. This research explains DDoS attacks and the anomaly detection as one of the famous detection techniques for intelligent networks.
Basic wood density variations of Parkia velutina Benoist, a long-lived heliophilic Neotropical rainforest tree

Investigations of basic radial wood density (WD) in tropical trees revealed linear patterns and some curvilinear patterns. Studies usually disregard longitudinal variations, which are often considered to be similar to radial variations. This study aimed to show (1) a new radial curvilinear WD pattern, (2) differences in amplitude between radial and longitudinal gradients and (3) to partition WD variations according to different scales in Parkia velutina, an emergent tree found in Neotropical rain forests. We collected full discs from six felled trees and radial cores from 10 standing trees to check WD variability, plus one dominant axis per tree for analysis of height growth rates. This species showed very high growth rates indicative of heliophilic habits. WD varied from 0.194 to 0.642 g/cm3. Such amplitude is rarely observed within the same tree. Radial variation in WD was curvilinear, with an amplitude generally less than the longitudinal amplitude. Consequently, in mature trees, WD values in the crown were higher than those in the outer trunk. WD variations can be highly significant at different scales. The variance partitioning also revealed that the whole WD range of Parkia velutina is more accurately estimated intra-individually when both longitudinal and radial gradient are covered.
Connecting Domains in Concept-Context Learning: A model to analyse education situations

The use of context-concept education alongside existing approaches is valuable. In this article we introduce a threedomain model for concept-context learning that supports both the design process as well as the idea of concept learning. The model shows how practical and abstract knowledge should be combined to improve contextconcept learning. The model acknowledges the dual nature of products and the need to relate practical, concrete experiences to causal explanations. It distinguishes three domains: the social context, the concrete product and the abstract knowledge domain. Here, the model is used to analyze, explain and suggest improvements for training primary school teachers in the Netherlands. The research data from the in-service teacher training show how continuous movement between the three domains is needed to develop creative, socially relevant solutions. The training would be better aimed towards the needs of the learner if the connection between the theory, concrete experiences with products and the social context is made more visible and inviting.
The Impact of Cultural Values on Marketing Ethical Norms: A Study in India and the United States

This research investigates the relationship between the cultural values and the marketing ethics in two diverse countries: India and the United States. The results show that these countries are indeed culturally different, though the gaps have narrowed considerably since Hofstede's (1991) study. Furthermore, the results indicate significant differences in the interpretation of the marketing ethical norms between these two countries. The study concludes with an analysis of how different dimensions of culture influence the different facets of marketing ethical norms for both countries. Such a framework should provide valuable insights that international marketers can use to identify differences in the perception of ethical norms across nationalities and, thus, to design more effective and efficient international marketing and management strategies.
Consumer Tendency to Regret: Validation of a Measurement Scale

This article documents the development and validation of a six-item Consumer Tendency to Regret (CTR) measurement scale. CTR is conceptualized as a situational personality trait in Mowen's 3M hierarchical personality model, and is defined as the propensity of consumers to experience regret following a decision to purchase or not to purchase a product or service. We carried out a qualitative study (n = 35) based on the critical incident method and eight data sets (n = 3.257), and produced a valid and reliable two-dimensional measurement scale, useful both for practitioners of direct marketing and advertisers.
A Heterogeneous Agent-based Asset Pricing Model and Simulation

Behavioral finance models can help to explain several stylized facts in financial markets. As one of the behavioral financial theory, prospect theory describes how „irrational investors‟ making decisions under uncertainty. In this paper, we present a heterogeneous agent-based asset pricing model, where parts of investors determine their demand for risky asset using prospect theory utility function. Time series generated from simulation show many stylized facts that can be observed in actual financial markets, such as abnormal distribution of asset returns, volatility clustering and equity premium. We also find that positive correlation between investors‟ performance and their market share, negative correlation between investors‟ performance and the loss aversion coefficient under certain market condition.
Quenching of the star formation activity in cluster galaxies

We study the star formation quenching mechanism in cluster galaxies by fitting the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the Herschel Reference Survey, a complete volume-limited K-band-selected sample of nearby galaxies including objects in different density regions, from the core of the Virgo cluster to the general field. The SEDs of the target galaxies were fitted using the CIGALE SED modelling code. The truncated activity of cluster galaxies was parametrised using a specific star formation history with two free parameters, the quenching age QA and the quenching factor QF. These two parameters are crucial for the identification of the quenching mechanism, which acts on long timescales when starvation processes are at work, but is rapid and efficient when ram pressure occurs. To be sensitive to an abrupt and recent variation of the star formation activity, we combined twenty photometric bands in the UV to far-infrared in a new way with three age-sensitive Balmer line absorption indices extracted from available medium-resolution (R 1000) integrated spectroscopy and with Hα narrow-band imaging data. The use of a truncated star formation history significantly increases the quality of the fit in HI-deficient galaxies of the sample, that is to say, in those objects whose atomic gas content has been removed during the interaction with the hostile cluster environment. The typical quenching age of the perturbed late-type galaxies is QA \lsim 300 Myr whenever the activity of star formation is reduced by 50% \lt QF ≤ 80% and QA \lsim 500 Myr for QF \gt 80%, while that of the quiescent early-type objects is QA ∼e 1-3 Gyr. The fraction of late-type galaxies with a star formation activity reduced by QF \gt 80% and with an HI-deficiency parameter HI-def \gt 0.4 drops by a factor of 5 from the inner half virial radius of the Virgo cluster (R/R_vir \lt 0.5), where the hot diffuse X-ray emitting gas of the cluster is located, to the outer regions (R/R_vir \gt 4). The efficient quenching of the star formation activity observed in Virgo suggests that the dominant stripping process is ram pressure. We discuss the implication of this result in the cosmological context of galaxy evolution.
Inferences on the effects of selection for feed conversion over meat quality traits in broiler

The intense selection process for economic traits conducted by the poultry breeding programs has been caused several changes in broiler meat quality. A database belonging to a selection program of a broiler male line was used to estimate heritability and genetic correlations for feed conversion ratio and meat quality traits, which were: initial and final pH, lightness, drip loss, thawing loss and shear force. Two-trait analyses were performed and the components of co(variance) and genetic parameters were determined using the Bayesian approach and the GIBBS3F90 software. The heritability estimate found for feed conversion ratio (0.52) showed high influence of direct additive genetic effects on the expression of this trait; therefore, this trait is able to respond to selection. The genetic correlation estimates obtained (-0.50 to 0.33) were indicative of important associations between feed conversion ratio and meat quality traits. The selection to improve feed conversion ratio may cause injury in greater or lesser degree for L*, drip loss (DL), thawing loss (TL) and shear force (SF) in broilers. It is recommended the monitoring of consequences of feed conversion ratio used as selection criteria or meat quality traits in broilers, due to its unfavorable indirect selection for these variables in this population. Breeding methods for efficiency improvements in broilers feed are suggested, which also benefit sensorial and functional properties of the meat.
Cytochrome b yields new insight into taxonomic scope of Microtus schidlovskii (Rodentia, Arvicolinae, Microtus)

Microtus schidlovskii is a member of social voles (subgenus Sumeriomys) known from a small range in the highlands of Armenia. Similar voles were reported from Anatolia and Lebanon but were mainly ascribed to another enigmatic species M. irani. We assessed taxonomic position of M. schidlovskii from Armenia and its relationships with seven other species of social voles using molecular data. Phyloge- netic reconstructions were based on a 409 bp fragment of cytochrome b M. schidlovskii and reference samples of M. irani, including M. irani karamani from Turkey and Lebanon. M. irani within its current scope emerged to be paraphyletic with respect to M. schidlovskii. Mean K2P distances in the irani- schidlovskii-karamani cluster were the highest (0.038) between the irani and the schidlovskii lineages and the lowest (0.028) between the schidlovskii and the karamani lineages; the distance separating the irani and karamani lineages was intermediate (0.032). The irani-schidlovskii-karamani group is genetically more variable than any other species group of social voles. We conclude that voles from Lebanon and Turkey (M. irani karamani) are conspecific with M. schidlovskii from Armenia. Furthermore, genetic divergence between M. irani and M. schidlovskii is the lowest among the species of social voles. And finally, our study restricted geographic scope of M. irani to its type locality in Shiraz.
Degeneration of postovulatory follicles of the Bay of Biscay anchovy ( Engraulis encrasicolus L.)

the degeneration of postovulatory follicles (PoFs) in time and at different temperatures was studied for the Bay of Biscay anchovy. For this purpose a key of 7 PoF stages, solely defined on the basis of their histological degeneration characteristics, was applied. the novelty of this procedure is that it separates staging of PoFs from their ageing process. the female gonads, taken from several captivity experiments and field samples, were classified in this way. Water temperature in captivity tanks corresponded to high values (17-21oc), except for one case in which different day and night temperatures were applied. in addition, 472 field samples (11948 anchovy females) from several cruises were examined; of these, 126 samples (3348 females) were identified as coming from areas of high sea surface temperature (weighted mean =17.76oc, s.d.=0.84) and 131 samples (3181 females) as coming from areas of low sea surface temperature (weighted mean =14.42oc, s.d.=0.75). there was close agreement in the succession of PoF stages over time after spawning between the experiment and the field samples. the first four stages of PoF degeneration occurred in less than 24 h, and by the end of the first day the PoFs were mainly in stage V. stages Vi and Vii showed their highest occurrence during the first and second half of the second day after spawning, respectively. Full resorption of PoFs was achieved in about 55-60 h. For the range of temperatures examined (13-19oc), little effect of temperature on the degeneration of PoFs over time was noticed. the advanced degeneration stages were found all day round, showing some overlapping periods when successive spawning cohorts co-occurred. the application of these results for ageing PoFs is discussed.
Dehydration of the stratosphere

Abstract. Domain filling, forward trajectory calculations are used to examine the global dehydration processes that control stratospheric water vapor. As with most Lagrangian models of this type, water vapor is instantaneously removed from the parcel to keep the relative humidity (RH) with respect to ice from exceeding saturation or a specified super-saturation value. We also test a simple parameterization of stratospheric convective moistening through ice lofting and the effect of gravity waves as a mechanism that can augment dehydration. Comparing diabatic and kinematic trajectories driven by the MERRA reanalysis, we find that, unlike the results from Liu et al. (2010), the additional transport due to the vertical velocity "noise" in the kinematic calculation creates too dry a stratosphere and a too diffuse a water-vapor tape recorder signal compared observations. We also show that the kinematically driven parcels are more likely to encounter the coldest tropopause temperatures than the diabatic trajectories. The diabatic simulations produce stratospheric water vapor mixing ratios close to that observed by Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder and are consistent with the MERRA tropical tropopause temperature biases. Convective moistening, which will increase stratospheric HDO, also increases stratospheric water vapor while the addition of parameterized gravity waves does the opposite. We find that while the Tropical West Pacific is the dominant dehydration location, but dehydration over Tropical South America is also important. Antarctica makes a small contribution to the overall stratospheric water vapor budget as well by releasing very dry air into the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere following the break up of the winter vortex.
Sensitivity analysis of a livestock odour dispersion model (LODM) to input parameters, Part 1: Source parameters and surface parametersl.

Sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate a livestock odour dispersion model (LODM) with respect to its input source parameters including: stack height, stack diameter, exit velocity, exit temperature, and emission rate and surface parameters (surface roughness, albedo, and Bowen ratio). An elasticity value was calculated together with the average change of odour concentration and frequency to indicate the model sensitivity to its input parameters. Results showed that the source parameters have the similar medium impact on model predicted hourly odour concentrations and hourly odour frequencies. The sensitivity of emission rate is lower to odour frequencies than odour concentrations. Among the three surface parameters, LODM has low sensitive to surface roughness while its sensitivity to albedo and Bowen ratio is negligible. In practice, in order to reduce the odour impact from livestock operation, the most effective way is to reduce the emission rate.
Design and Application of an Unattended Multifunctional H-TDMA System

The hygroscopic properties of aerosols have a significant impact on aerosol particle number size distributions (PNSD), formation of cloud condensation nuclei, climate forcing, and atmospheric visibility, as well as human health. To allow for the observation of the hygroscopic growth of aerosols with long-term accuracy, an unattended multifunctional hygroscopicity-tandem differential mobility analyzer (H-TDMA) system was designed and built by the Institute of Tropical and Marine Meteorology (ITMM), China Meteorological Administration (CMA), in Guangzhou, China. The system is capable of measuring dry and wet PNSD, hygroscopic growth factor by particle size, and mixing states. This article describes in detail the working principles,components, andcalibrationmethodsofthesystem.Standardpolystyrenelatex(PSL)sphereswithfive different diameters were chosen to test the system’s precision and accuracy of particle size measurement. Ammonium sulfate was used to test the hygroscopic response of the system for accurate growth factor measurement. The test results show that the deviation of the growth factor measured by the system is within a scope of 20.01 to 20.03 compared to K€ theoretical curves. Results of temperature and humidity control performancetestsindicatethatthesystemisrobust.Aninternaltemperaturegradientoflessthan0. 2 Kforasecond differential mobility analyzer (DMA2) makes it possible to reach a set-point relative humidity (RH) value of 90% and with a standard deviation of 60.44%, sufficient for unattended field observation.
An alternative estimate of school-based management impacts on students’ achievements: evidence from the Philippines

This paper aims to estimate the impact of school-based management (SBM) on students’ test scores in the Philippines. Estimation results using double differencing (DD) combined with propensity score matching show that SBM increased the average national achievement test score by 4.2 points over three years. The increase in mathematics was 5.7 points. The triple differencing procedure using the pre-intervention period as the baseline provides even larger impact estimates: 8.6 and 11.4 points for average and mathematics scores, respectively. These impacts are larger than the estimate previously reported from the Philippines, probably due to the fact that the sample schools had learned about SBM implementation from experiences accumulated in other provinces that introduced SBM earlier. The empirical results also show that schools with experienced principals and teachers are eager to introduce SBM.
New Measures of Workforce Skills in the EU

This paper presents new data series designed to yield a more complete picture of the growth in average skill levels embedded in the EU workforce, comparing with competitor countries such as the US and China. Harmonised data from EU surveys are employed to extend coverage in existing databases to more countries, to cover the period of the financial crisis, and to skills acquired through informal workforce training. The results indicate growth in labour quality in the EU15 marginally below the US, convergence of the group of new member states to the EU15 but no sign of convergence of China to more developed regions. There is evidence of a pronounced rise in labour quality in most countries after 2007, consistent with theories of labour hoarding, but with some notable exceptions. Expanding the conventional measures of labour quality to include informal training leads to small but significant increases in the growth of human capital in some EU15 member states.
FACTORS INFLUENCING BRAND EQUITY OF BALI AS A TOURISM DESTINATION

Globally, competition among tourism destinations is more stringent in getting foreign tourists, including Bali. One effort to win the competition is increasing destination brand equity through maintaining its influencing factors and gaining tourist positive behavior toward destination. This effort, in long run, will increase and stabilize destination revenue and sustainability. This research aims to analyze factors influencing brand equity of Bali as a tourism destination. This research was conducted in Bali’s five major tourism objects. The 240 foreign tourists were chosen as respondents through convenience sampling technique. Data were analyzed using factor analysis. The results showed that factors that significantly influenced Bali brand equity were: symbolic and experiential benefit factor, direct and indirect destinations attributes, destination reliability and tangibility, assurance and empathy, brand destinations recognition and recall, destinations common psychological attributes, destination common functional attributes, unique functional attributes, behavioral loyalty, destination awareness, and attitudinal loyalty. Given the fluctuative nature of brand equity, Bali needs a consistent effort to maintain or to enhance brand equity of Bali as a tourism destination. Maintaining the dominant factors that influence the strength of brand equity can be used as a basis to develop destination branding strategy to expand market segment, choose the right target market, and anchoring destination position in world market competition.
Using Focus Group Research to Assess Health Education Needs of Pre-service and In-service Teachers

Abstract Background: Few studies have been conducted in Canada to investigate the roles, actions and beliefs of health teachers in school health programs. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore health education teaching and assess related needs among pre-service and in-service teachers in a British Columbia K-12 school system, and to elicit conclusions regarding how to improve health through schools. Methods: K-12 teachers from the participating school district (N = 16) and pre-service teachers from the participating university (N = 14) participated in four focus groups. Results: Guided by the ecological model, seven themes were identified and categorized: (1) Intrapersonal Level (teaching strategies; knowledge/skills; comfort); (2) Interpersonal Level (teaching barriers); and (3) Community Level (health curricula; health programs; role of school). Discussion: Seven themes highlight the issues of school health programs from practitioners' perspectives, which also correspond with five sources of problems of school health programs classified by the WHO Expert Committee. This study reinforced the need for initial development of health educator roles and competencies to guide actions in school health improvement. Translation to Health Education Practice: The identified sources of problems illustrate the potential role that a health-promoting school approach plays to build school-community connectedness.