Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stochastic bias correction of dynamically downscaled precipitation fields for Germany through Copula-based integration of gridded observation data

Dynamically downscaled precipitation fields from regional climate models (RCMs) often cannot be used directly for regional climate studies. Due to their inherent biases, i.e., systematic over- or underestimations compared to observations, several correction approaches have been developed. Most of the bias correction procedures such as the quantile mapping approach employ a transfer function that is based on the statistical differences between RCM output and observations. Apart from such transfer function-based statistical correction algorithms, a stochastic bias correction technique, based on the concept of Copula theory, is developed here and applied to correct precipitation fields from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. For dynamically downscaled precipitation fields we used high-resolution (7 km, daily) WRF simulations for Germany driven by ERA40 reanalysis data for 1971–2000. The REGNIE (REGionalisierung der NIEderschlagshohen) data set from the German Weather Service (DWD) is used as gridded observation data (1 km, daily) and aggregated to 7 km for this application. The 30-year time series are split into a calibration (1971–1985) and validation (1986–2000) period of equal length. Based on the estimated dependence structure (described by the Copula function) between WRF and REGNIE data and the identified respective marginal distributions in the calibration period, separately analyzed for the different seasons, conditional distribution functions are derived for each time step in the validation period. This finally allows to get additional information about the range of the statistically possible bias-corrected values. The results show that the Copula-based approach efficiently corrects most of the errors in WRF derived precipitation for all seasons. It is also found that the Copula-based correction performs better for wet bias correction than for dry bias correction. In autumn and winter, the correction introduced a small dry bias in the northwest of Germany. The average relative bias of daily mean precipitation from WRF for the validation period is reduced from 10% (wet bias) to −1% (slight dry bias) after the application of the Copula-based correction. The bias in different seasons is corrected from 32% March–April–May (MAM), −15% June–July–August (JJA), 4% September–October–November (SON) and 28% December–January–February (DJF) to 16% (MAM), −11% (JJA), −1% (SON) and −3% (DJF), respectively. Finally, the Copula-based approach is compared to the quantile mapping correction method. The root mean square error (RMSE) and the percentage of the corrected time steps that are closer to the observations are analyzed. The Copula-based correction derived from the mean of the sampled distribution reduces the RMSE significantly, while, e.g., the quantile mapping method results in an increased RMSE for some regions.
Superbugs-related prolonged admissions in three tertiary hospitals, Kano State, Nigeria

Introduction Superbugs are pathogenic micro-organism and especially a bacterium that has developed resistance to the medications normally used against it. As the superbug family increases, the need for appropriate diagnostic, treatment, prevention and control strategies cannot be over emphasized. Therefore, this work determined the distribution of superbug bacteria among patients on prolonged hospital admissions in three tertiary hospitals of Kano state, Nigeria. Methods A descriptive cross sectional study was undertaken among 401 patients from medical, surgery, orthopedic and burn centre wards in a three tertiary hospitals in Kano state. A sample collected comprises wound/pus, urine, urine catheter and nasal intubation and were analysed using standard microbiological methods for Acinetobacter spp and other related nosocomial bacterial pathogens. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done using Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Results One hundred and thirty eight (138) isolates were recovered, from the studied participants. More than 80% of the nosocomial infections (NIs) were caused by Gram-negative bacteria, predominantly Escherichia coli, Klebseilla spp, Proteus spp, Pseudomona spp and Acinetobacter spp. In-vitro antibiotic susceptibility test revealed that acinetobacter were 100% resistant to amoxicillin, co-trimoxazole, perfloxacin and imipenem. Conclusion Superbugs (Acinetobacter species) significantly contributed to delayed hospital admissions through observed 100% resistance to used antibiotics. The healthcare managers of these hospitals and the ministry of health need to take measures against this resistant bacteria (Acinetobacter spp) especially on prescribing antibiotics that showed 100% resistant from these studied hospitals.
Scaling laws of diffusion and time intermittency generated by coherent structures in atmospheric turbulence

We investigate the time intermittency of turbulent transport associated with the birth-death of self-organized coherent structures in the atmospheric boundary layer. We apply a threshold analysis on the increments of turbulent fluctuations to extract sequences of rapid acceleration events, which is a marker of the transition between self-organized structures. The inter-event time distributions show a power-law decay ψ(τ) ~ 1/τ μ , with a strong dependence of the power-law index μ on the threshold. A recently developed method based on the application of event-driven walking rules to generate different diffusion processes is applied to the experimental event sequences. At variance with the power-law index μ estimated from the inter-event time distributions, the diffusion scaling H , defined by ⟨ X 2 ⟩ ~ t 2 H , is independent from the threshold. From the analysis of the diffusion scaling it can also be inferred the presence of different kind of events, i.e. genuinely transition events and spurious events, which all contribute to the diffusion process but over different time scales. The great advantage of event-driven diffusion lies in the ability of separating different regimes of the scaling H . In fact, the greatest H , corresponding to the most anomalous diffusion process, emerges in the long time range, whereas the smallest H can be seen in the short time range if the time resolution of the data is sufficiently accurate. The estimated diffusion scaling is also robust under the change of the definition of turbulent fluctuations and, under the assumption of statistically independent events, it corresponds to a self-similar point process with a well-defined power-law index μ D ~ 2.1, where D denotes that μ D is derived from the diffusion scaling. We argue that this renewal point process can be associated to birth and death of coherent structures and to turbulent transport near the ground, where the contribution of turbulent coherent structures becomes dominant.
Motivational Strategies in the Teaching of Primary School Mathematics in Zimbabwe

This study explored the concept of motivational strategies and how it applies to the teaching of primary school mathematics. A number of motivational theories were discussed in the study with regards to how primary school learners can be motivated to want to learn mathematics and such theories included the goal theory, achievement theory, the competency theory, the self-efficacy theory and the general interest theory among others. A number of motivational strategies were also discussed and these included the following: conveying confidence, conveying high aspirations, giving comments, and valuing learners' tasks. The results of this study indicate that while most teachers concurred that it is important to motivate learners to learn mathematics through the use of motivational teaching strategies, the majority of the same teachers do not seem to be regularly using motivational strategies in the teaching of mathematics. This study also showed that two of the major reasons why primary school mathematics teachers do not regularly use motivational strategies in their teaching are high workloads and large class sizes in their schools. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection.
The Complementary Stereotypes about the Rich and the Poor: A Study in China

This research aims to investigate the contents and characteristics of stereotypes about the rich and the poor groups of the public. One hundred and fifty two participants freely report 2813 words of stereotypes about the rich and the poor. Results show that, the contents of stereotypes about the rich and the poor consist of three dimensions which are competence, sociability and morality. Generally, the rich has been seen as high competence, low sociability and bad morality, while the poor has been seen as low competence, mid sociability and good morality. The valences between competence and morality are negatively correlated, which means the stereotypes of competence and morality are complementary. The utilitarianism and pragmatism explanations and the system justification theory are discussed.
Numerical Simulation of Grain Size Distribution in Two-Phase Polycrystalline Materials

Numerical simulations based on the Monte Carlo Potts model are used to study the temporal change of the grain size distribution of two-phase polycrystalline materials, where both phases grow simultaneously. After a sufficiently long time, grain growth in such two-phase systems can be characterized by a self-similar scaled grain size distribution function and an associated growth law. In particular, the grain size distribution is analyzed for a broad range of second phase volume fractions and found to vary with the volume fraction such that the size distribution becomes narrower and higher peaked with decreasing volume fraction of the second phase, where particularly the normal distribution function describes the simulation results very well. On the other hand, for one-phase systems the grain size distribution is in excellent agreement with an analytical grain size distribution function based on a statistical mean-field theory of grain growth that is completely compatible with the principal physical condition of total volume conservation.
Characteristics and controls of variability in soil moisture and groundwater in a headwater catchment

Hydrological processes, including runoff generation, depend on the distribution of water in a catchment, which varies in space and time. This paper presents experimental results from a headwater research catchment in New Zealand, where we made distributed measurements of streamflow, soil moisture and groundwater levels, sampling across a range of aspects, hillslope positions, distances from stream and depths. Our aim was to assess the controls, types and implications of spatial and temporal variability in soil moisture and groundwater tables. We found that temporal variability in soil moisture and water table is strongly controlled by the seasonal cycle in potential evapotranspiration, for both the mean and extremes of their distributions. Groundwater is a larger water storage component than soil moisture, and this general difference increases even more with increasing catchment wetness. The spatial standard deviation of both soil moisture and groundwater is larger in winter than in summer. It peaks during rainfall events due to partial saturation of the catchment, and also rises in spring as different locations dry out at different rates. The most important controls on spatial variability in storage are aspect and distance from the stream. South-facing and near-stream locations have higher water tables and showed soil moisture responses for more events. Typical hydrological models do not explicitly account for aspect, but our results suggest that it is an important factor in hillslope runoff generation. Co-measurement of soil moisture and water table level allowed us to identify relationships between the two. Locations where water tables peaked closer to the surface had consistently wetter soils and higher water tables. These wetter sites were the same across seasons. However, patterns of strong soil moisture responses to summer storms did not correspond to the wetter sites. Total catchment spatial variability is composed of multiple variability sources, and the dominant type is sensitive to those stores that are close to a threshold such as field capacity or saturation. Therefore, we classified spatial variability as "summer mode" or "winter mode". In "summer mode", variability is controlled by shallow processes, e.g. interaction of water with soils and vegetation. In "winter mode", variability is controlled by deeper processes, e.g. groundwater movement and bypass flow. Double streamflow peaks observed during some events show the direct impact of groundwater variability on runoff generation. Our results suggest that emergent catchment behaviour depends on the combination of these multiple, time varying components of storage variability.
What Affects a Taiwan Fund Company’s Operating Performance? An Analysis on Market Share

This study aims to explore the factors that affect the operating performance of 37 Taiwan fund companies by examining monthly data from open-end domestic equity funds and balanced funds from January 2001 to April 2013. The market share of domestic equity funds and balanced funds is used as the proxy variable to measure a company’s operating performance. The results show that there is a significant difference in market share between foreign and domestic fund companies. The age of the fund company, the average turnover rate, and the number of people subscribing for dollar-cost-averaging investment plans are found to be positively related to a company’s market share, while the average rates of transaction cost and management fee are negatively related to the market share. We also find that star funds have a significantly positive effect on the market share of a mutual fund company.
Effect of organic trace minerals supplementation during early postpartum on milk composition, and metabolic and hormonal profiles in grazing dairy heifers

The effect of complexed trace minerals supplementation on productive, reproductive and metabolic variables during early postpartum of grazing primiparous dairy cows =) was investigated. Pasture-fed Holstein heifers were offered (supplemented group; SG, n=60) or not (control group; CG, n=60) a commercial trace mineral supplement during the first 90 days of lactation. Milk production and composition were determined monthly. Reproductive function was evaluated by calving-first service interval, number of services per conception, and pregnancy rates. Non-esterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor-1 were determined on blood samples collected on days postpartum -7 ± 4, 30 and 60. Supplementation did not affect milk production or its composition, except for fat percentage that tended to be higher in SG than CG. Calving-first service and calving-conception intervals were shorter in SG than CG but number of services per conception and pregnancy rates did not differ between treatments. No lameness was observed during the period evaluated and although a beneficial effect of SG was found in locomotion score, it was not clinically relevant (scores 1-2). Metabolites and hormones concentrations did not differ between treatments. Organic trace mineral supplementation had a transient beneficial effect on milk composition on the intervals from calving to first service and from calving to conception, with no changes in metabolic and endocrine profiles during the transition period primiparous dairy cows on grazing conditions.
The effect of warm and cool lighting on visual performance of elderly workers

Longer professional activity of people in aging populations forces changes in the work environment. Lighting conditions should be tuned to meet specific preferences of the elderly workers. Apart from the essential high levels of illuminance needed, a question of a proper correlated color temperature (CCT) of light seems to be worthy of consideration. In this study, the visual performance of twenty persons aged 58-73 years old was examined in two lighting conditions provided by fluorescent lamps of CCT 2700 K and 6500 K, both lamps of color rendering index (CRI) 82. Ophthalmologic tests were applied and assessments of legibility and symptoms of fatigue were compared. Elderly people discriminated hues much better at CCT 6500 K than at CCT 2700 K. For achromatic visual tasks, a slight advantage of the CCT 6500 K light was observed. Subjective assessments favored the CCT 6500 K also. Lighting sources with high CCT seem to be better suited to elderly workers.
Infinite series of quaternionic 1-vertex cube complexes, the doubling construction, and explicit cubical Ramanujan complexes

We construct vertex transitive lattices on products of trees of arbitrary dimension [Formula: see text] based on quaternion algebras over global fields with exactly two ramified places. Starting from arithmetic examples, we find non-residually finite groups generalizing earlier results of Wise, Burger and Mozes to higher dimension. We make effective use of the combinatorial language of cubical sets and the doubling construction generalized to arbitrary dimension. Congruence subgroups of these quaternion lattices yield explicit cubical Ramanujan complexes, a higher-dimensional cubical version of Ramanujan graphs (optimal expanders).
Substantial N2O emissions from peat decomposition and N fertilization in an oil palm plantation exacerbated by hotspots

It is unclear to what extent emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) from drained histosols in the tropics may contribute to the atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases. In particular, there is a critical need to elucidate their magnitude in oil palm plantations on these soils. We examined spatio-temporal variations of N2O emissions from peat decomposition and nitrogen (N) fertilization in a plantation trial in Sumatra, which included three application rates: 0 (N0), 153 (N1) and 306 (N2) kg N ha−1 y−1. The spatially stratified sampling design distinguished the area around the palms which received fertilizer (9% of the surface) from the rest of the plot which was unfertilized. Annual emissions were substantial with rates of 22.1 ± 5.7, 12.8 ± 2.7 and 26.6 ± 5.7 kg N2O-N ha−1 in the N0, N1 and N2 treatments, respectively. These equal 9.3 ± 2.4, 5.4 ± 1.1 and 11.2 ± 2.4 Mg CO2eq ha−1 y−1, or 5–10 times emission rates in natural peatland forest. The site exhibited two persistent hotspots located in the unfertilized zone, contributing 33 and 46% of annual emissions in N0 and N2 while representing only 10% of the area sampled. The response of emissions to fertilization was exponential but restricted to the small N application area. At the plot scale and over the year, the impact of fertilized-induced emissions was minimal due to the prevalence of emissions from peat decomposition. Annual rates among treatments were similar when discarding the contribution of hotspots to evaluate N addition effect. High N2O emissions from peat decomposition in the tropics tend to be common within the restricted existing literature; which is in contrast with most recent IPCC emission factors. Our results emphasize the importance to integrate N2O emissions in greenhouse gas budgets of plantations on peat, despite the predominance of CO2 in total emissions.
What Explains the Proliferation of Anti-dumping Laws?

A recent phenomenon is the rapid spread of Antidumping (AD) laws mainly amongst developing countries ‘i.e. China, India, Mexico). Between 1980 and 2003 the number of countries in the world with an AD law more than doubled going from 36 to 97 countries. This proliferation of trade protection laws amongst developing countries is likely to have substantial implications for trade as recently shown by Vandenbussche and Zanardi (2007). The purpose of this paper is to use a duration analysis to investigate the determinants leading a country to adopt an AD law. We also analyze the related question of what explains the heterogeneity between countries that can be observed in terms of the time between adoption and their first use of the AD law. We find strong evidence that retaliatory motives are at the heart of the proliferation decision as countries that were targeted by AD actions of traditioal users in the past (i.e., US, EU) are much more likely to adopt an AD law. Also, our evidence suggests that past trade liberalization substantially increases the probability of a country to adopt an AD law. In addition, we find that the size of the chemicals sector and the extent of steel imports are positively correlated with the probability to adopt. The amount of inward FDI on the other hand has a clear negative effect on the probability to adopt. While short term macroeconomic factors like GDP growth and exchange rate volatility seem to matter less for adoption, asymmetric regional shocks and the development level of a country seem to raise the probability of starting to use an AD law. Our results are robust to several specifications of duration models.
Phonological Involvement in Phonetic Change

A long standing question in sound change is what role phonology plays. For example, the neogrammarian controversy revolved around whether sound change progressed word-by-word (lexical diffusion), or at once across all potential contexts (neogrammarian sound change) (Labov, 1981). The latter implicates some process of generalization, which could be could be described as “phonological. ”1 The issues involved in the debate between generalized sound change and item-by-item sound change reach far beyond historical linguistics. For example, some early and influential proposals in exemplar theory suggested that stable generalizations of the sort necessary for neogrammarian sound change are absent from language; rather, they are created at speaking time, then lost again. In my dissertation, I will explore the generalized, phonological nature of many phonetic changes, and attempt to address objections from lexical diffusion and exemplar theory. Another vexing aspect of neogrammarian sound change is its phonetic graduality. The very fact that many sound changes progress in a phonetically gradual way (rather than a phonetically abrupt, but variable way), is challenging for approaches to the phonology-phonetics interface which don’t allow for language specific phonetics. It also sets phonetic change apart from most other attested forms of language change,2 which progress as discrete variation. However, even for those who do allow for language specific phonetics, it is unclear when phonological reanalysis takes place. For example, a vowel which had been historically designated phonologically [+hi] may begin to lower phonetically. Eventually, the [+hi] specification would become implausible, given the degree of phonetic lowering, and a [−hi] specification would become more likely. Finally, there are the cases of conditioned sound changes which result in categorical phonological processes at their end points (at the latest). There has been a lot of
Atmospheric circulation controls on the inter-annual variability in precipitation isotope ratio in Japan

近年,レーザー分光法を使った水同位体分析が普及し,降水イベント毎の同位体比変動や水蒸気同位体比の連続デー タなど,従来よりも高い時間分解能をもったデータが得られるようになってきた. そして,従来の「降水の同位体比は 気温や降水量の指標である」という経験則から脱却し,同位体比の変化を規定している「物理プロセス」を明らかにし ようとする研究が近年急増している. そこで本研究では,中部日本を対象として,降水同位体比の日々変化,季節変化, そして年々変化を引き起こす keyとなる因子の特定を行う. まず,名古屋大学にて 2013年 6月から実施している水蒸気 同位体比の連続観測,およびイベント毎の降水同位体比分析結果から日々スケールでの変動特性を明らかにし,これが 気団や降水システムの違いといった日々の気象の変化とどのように関連しているか解析を行う. そしてその結果を過去 17年間東京で行われた月単位の降水同位体観測データに応用し,短時間変化を引き起こす気象因子の特性変化によって 年々の同位体比変化が説明可能であるか検証を行う. 結果は,夏期における日々スケールの降水の同位体比変化は,水蒸気起源の変化,および起源から観測地までの輸送途 中にもたらされる降水量に依存していることが明らかとなった. 冬期は,低気圧の経路の違いに対応して降水の同位体比 が変化することを明らかにした. 特に,日本の南岸を通る「南岸低気圧」に伴う降水は,顕著に低い同位体比で特徴づけ られた. 次に,年々スケールの変化について解析を行ったところ,夏期の季節平均値は降水量変化に依存せず,太平洋気 団によってもたらされる降水の寄与率(夏期降水量に対する割合)に依存していることを明らかにした. 冬期平均値は, 南岸低気圧の経路や発達度と密接に結びついており,日本の南岸からやや離れて進んできた南岸低気圧による降水が多い (少ない)年には同位体比が平年よりも低い(高い)値を示した. これらの結果から,中部日本における降水同位体比の 年々変化は,降水量や気温よりも大気循環場の変化に依存していると結論づけることができる. さらに,太平洋気団の活 動度,および南岸低気圧の経路や発達度は,夏期冬期の北東アジアモンスーンの強度に関連しており,その結果,中部日 本における降水同位体比の年々変化は,アジアモンスーン指標と有為な相関を示した(夏期:R=0.47,冬期:R=0.42).