Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PM 1 measurements at a site close to an oil/gas pre-treatment plant (Agri Valley – southern Italy): a preliminary study

Abstract. A PM1 (i.e. particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 1.0 μm) short-term monitoring campaign was carried out in the Agri Valley (southern Italy) in September 2012. This area is of international concern, since it houses one of the largest European on-shore reservoirs and the largest oil/gas pre-treatment plant (i.e. the Centro Olio Val d'Agri – COVA) within an anthropised context. PM1 measurements were performed in Viggiano, the nearest town to the COVA plant and one of the most populated towns of the Agri Valley. During the study period, the PM1 daily concentrations ranged from 1.2 to 8.4 μg m−3, with a mean value of 4.6 μg m−3. Regarding the PM1 chemical composition, it can be observed that S and typical crustal elements were the most abundant constituents of the PM1 collected. By applying principal component analysis (PCA), it was pointed out that crustal soil, biomass and wood burning, secondary atmospheric reactions involving COVA plant emissions and local soil particles, and traffic were the main sources contributing to the PM1 measured in the area under study. Moreover, a possible contribution of the long-range transport of African dust was observed.
Low-molecular-weight hydroxyacids in marine atmospheric aerosol: evidence of a marine microbial origin

Lactic acid (LA) and glycolic acid (GA), which are low-molecular-weight hydroxyacids, were identified in the particle and gas phases within the marine atmospheric boundary layer over the western subarctic North Pacific. A major portion of LA (81%) and GA (57%) was present in the particulate phase, which is consistent with the presence of a hydroxyl group in these molecules leading to the low volatility of the compounds. The average concentration (±SD) of LA in more biologically influenced marine aerosols (33 ± 58 ng m −3 ) was substantially higher than that in less biologically influenced aerosols (11 ± 12 ng m −3 ). Over the oceanic region of phytoplankton blooms, the concentration of aerosol LA was comparable to that of oxalic acid, which was the most abundant diacid during the study period. A positive correlation was found between the LA concentrations in more biologically influenced aerosols and chlorophyll a in seawater ( r 2 = 0.56), suggesting an important production of aerosol LA possibly associated with microbial (e.g., lactobacillus) activity in seawater and/or aerosols. Our finding provides a new insight into the poorly quantified microbial sources of marine organic aerosols (OAs) because such low-molecular-weight hydroxyacids are key intermediates for OA formation.
The value of transdermal Glyceryl Trinitrate in the prevention of post-ERCP pancreatitis in comparison to Octreotide and Diclofenac injection.

Background: Post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP) is the most common complication of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). A universally applicable, inexpensive, effective and safe intervention that ameliorates this complication has not yet been identified. Various forms of pharmacologic prophylaxis have demonstrated modest reduction in PEP in some randomized controlled trials. Glyceryl trinitrate is an inexpensive and easily administered agent. Octreotide have shown encouraging results. Aim of the study: To study the effect of Glyceryl trinitrate in the prevention of PEP in comparison to Octreotide and Diclofenac I.M injection. Also, we aimed to detect the risk factors associated with PEP. Patients and methods: The study included 160 patients who were candidates for ERCP and divided into four groups: Group I: 40 patients who did not receive any prophylactic drug. Group II: 40 patients received transdermal Glyceryl trinitrate75 mg. Group III: 40 patients received Dilofenac75 mg by I.M injection. Group IV: 40 patients received Octreotide 0.1 mg S.C. injection. ERCP was performed for all patients by two endoscopists under propofol. Both baseline serum amylase and lipase were measured. Also, they were measured 24 hours and 72 hours after ERCP. Results: The incidence of PEP in our patients was 12.5%. No statistically significant difference between the studied groups as regards this incidence. Although, there was significant difference between the groups regarding the cannulation time, duration of the procedure and difficulty of cannulation, the difference was not significant on comparing GTN group to the control groups regarding the cannulation technical parameters. Univariate analysis revealed five risk factors for PEP: non-dilated CBD, long cannulation time, lengthy procedure, pancreatic duct visualization and poor drainage of dye. Conclusion: The used drugs in the study were not effective in the prophylaxis against PEP. Glyceryl trinitrate may have facilitatory effect on the cannulation technical parameters but did not reach statistical significance. Large scale trials are still needed. (Nature and Science 2010;8(6):27-35). (ISSN: 1545-0740). Keywords: transdermal Glyceryl Trinitrate, post ERCP pancreatitis, octeriotide, diclofenac.
Integration of Technology into Language Teaching: A Comparative Review Study

The purpose of this study was to monitor the effectiveness of earlier and contemporary practices in the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in language learning/teaching. It was revealed that current literature on the effectiveness of technology uses in language education is very narrow and there are three aspects that stand out: (1) The number of well-structured and comprehensive studies about the effects of technology uses on language education was very diminutive, (2) the settings where the studies were handled were restricted to higher education, (3) the experiments were often short-term and they mostly focused on only one or two aspects of language learning (e.g., vocabulary acquisition). However, the existing studies based mostly on experimental data showed a pattern of positive effects when compared to the conventional methods of language instruction. In terms of differences between the research done outside and in Turkey, the theme that was studied in international literature was based on technology use for providing opportunities for communication while in Turkey the studies concentrated on providing access to materials.
The Effect of Superstar Software on Hardware Sales in System Markets

Systems are composed of complementary products (e.g., video game systems are composed of the video game console and video games). Prior literature on indirect network effects has argued that in system markets, sales of the primary product (often referred to as “hardware”) largely depend on the availability of complementary products (often referred to as “software”). Mathematical and empirical analyses have almost exclusively operationalized software availability as software quantity. However, though not substantiated with empirical evidence, case illustrations show that certain high-quality, “superstar” software titles (e.g., Super Mario 64) may have disproportionately large effects on hardware unit sales (e.g., Nintendo N64 console sales). In the context of the U.S. home video game console market, the authors show that the introduction of a superstar increases video game console sales by an average of 14% (167,000 units) over a period of five months. One in every five buyers of a superstar software title also purchases the hardware required to use the software. Software type does not consistently alter this effect. The findings imply that scholars who study the relationship between software availability and hardware sales need to account for superstar returns and their decaying effect over time, beyond a mere software quantity effect. Hardware firms should maintain a steady flow of superstar introductions because the positive effect of a superstar lasts only five months and, if need be, make side payments to software firms because superstars dramatically increase hardware sales. Hardware firms’ exclusivity over superstars does not provide an extra boost to their own sales, but it takes away an opportunity for competing systems to increase their sales.
GPU Based Video Object Tracking on PTZ Cameras

In this study, an embedded Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) tracker system design is proposed that is based on NVIDIA Tegra K1-X1 mobile GPU platform. For this purpose, state-of-the-art correlation filter (CF) based video object tracking (VOT) algorithms are exploited regarding their high performance. Each algorithmic step is carefully implemented on GPU that further increases the efficiency and decreases execution times. The PTZ control is designed to track human targets by centralizing within the image coordinates where the targets have limited speed but obvious appearance changes. Incorporating on-board decode and encode capability of Tegra platform as well as angular position control, the presented approach enables 50-100 fps target tracking for HD (1920x1080) videos on K1 and X1 correspondingly. This is to our best knowledge the first efficient implementation of CF trackers on a mobile GPU platform with use of multiple features, scale and background adaptation. This study extends the scope of accuracy focused VOT research to platform optimized efficient implementations for real-time high resolution video tracking.
The Inequality Channel of Monetary Transmission

We examine optimal monetary policy in the presence of inequality by introducing unskilled agents with no access to the financial system into a DSGE model with sticky prices. Our main results are: (i) a contractionary interest rate shock increases inequality, while inflation and the output gap fall; (ii) the welfare-based objective of monetary policy includes inequality stabilization; (iii) as the proportion of unskilled agents increases, welfare decreases; and (iv) under scarcity of skilled agents, monetary policy is weakened, while fiscal policy produces a more relevant impact on the economy.
The Effect of Ethephon, Abscisic Acid, and Methyl Jasmonate on Fruit Ripening in Rabbiteye Blueberry (Vaccinium virgatum)

Ripening in blueberry fruit is irregular and occurs over an extended period requiring multiple harvests, thereby increasing the cost of production. Several phytohormones contribute to the regulation of fruit ripening. Certain plant growth regulators (PGRs) can alter the content, perception, or action of these phytohormones, potentially accelerating fruit ripening and concentrating the ripening period. The effects of three such PGRs—ethephon, abscisic acid, and methyl jasmonate—on fruit ripening were evaluated in the rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium virgatum) cultivars ‘Premier’ and ‘Powderblue’. Application of ethephon, an ethylene-releasing PGR, at 250 mg L−1 when 30–40% of fruit on the plant were ripe, accelerated ripening by increasing the proportion of blue (ripe) fruit by 1.5–1.8-fold within 4 to 7 days after treatment in both cultivars. Ethephon applications did not generally alter fruit quality characteristics at harvest or during postharvest storage, except for a slight decrease in juice pH at 1 day of postharvest storage and an increase in fruit firmness and titratable acidity after 15 days of postharvest storage in Powderblue. In Premier, ethephon applications decreased the proportion of defective fruit at 29 days of postharvest storage. Abscisic acid (600–1000 mg L−1) and methyl jasmonate (0.5–1 mM) applications did not alter the proportion of ripe fruit in either cultivar. These applications also had little effect on fruit quality characteristics at harvest and during postharvest storage. None of the above PGR applications affected the development of naturally occurring postharvest pathogens during storage. Together, data from this study indicated that ethephon has the potential to accelerate ripening in rabbiteye blueberry fruit, allowing for a potential decrease in the number of fruit harvests.
Rethinking Human Capital, Creativity and Urban Growth

Do jobs follow people or do people follow jobs? A number of currently prominent approaches to urbanization respond to this question by privileging the role of individual locational choice in response to amenity values as the motor of contemporary urban growth. Amenities, it is often said, have an especially potent effect on the migration patterns of individuals endowed with high levels of human capital. However, these approaches raise many unanswered questions. Theories that describe urban growth as a response to movements of people in search of consumer or lifestyle preferences can be questioned on the grounds of their assumptions about human behavior, as well as their silence in regard to the geographical dynamics of production and work. We argue that a more effective line of explanation must relate urban growth directly to the economic geography of production and must explicitly deal with the complex recursive interactions between the location of firms and the movements of labor. In this context, we also offer a reinterpretation of the currently fashionable notions of ‘creativity’ and the role of skilled labor in cities.
Changes in Parenting Practices and Adolescent Drug Abuse During Multidimensional Family Therapy

The nature and extent of changes in parenting and the link between parental subsystem changes and reduction in adolescent substance abuse and problem behaviors were examined in a sample of 29 parents and their drug-abusing adolescents. Participants completed 16 sessions of multidimensional family therapy. Over two thirds of the parents showed moderate to excellent improvement in parenting. Chi-square goodnessof-fit analyses revealed a statistically significant association between improvement in parenting and reduction in adolescent drug use and behavior problems. Results of this exploratory study provide qualified support for a fundamental tenet of family therapy—that change in the parental subsystem is related to improvement in the problem behavior of adolescents.
The Effectiveness of Green Advertising: Influences of Claim Specificity, Product’s Environmental Relevance and Consumers’ Pro-environmental Orientation

This study investigates the influences of claim specificity, the product’s environmental relevance, and the respondents’ proenvironmental orientation on the effectiveness of green advertising among Turkish consumers. An experimental study is conducted using hypothetical print advertisements for two product categories (laundry machines as a high relevance product; DVD player as a low relevance product). Findings indicate that the specificity of the green claim does not exert a significant effect on consumer evaluations towards high relevance product advertisement, while specific green claims significantly improve the communication effectiveness of the low environmental relevance product advertisement. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.
Evaluation of the Impact of Brand Purchase Involvement, Satisfaction, Experience and Brand Trust on Loyalty to Brand

Brand is not only a name but it is a representative of a product class. Sometimes, a product's name is embedded in consumers' minds so firmly that consumers forget it is only a name and view it as equal to a product and service. Brands are considered as being very important in market. They are joints between consumers and companies. Loyalty to a brand is created when a customer believes that a brand reflects some aspects of his or her perception. If a brand establishes symbolic relationship with customers, they will be attracted to the brand and trust in the brand and become loyal to it. They will buy the product and believe in its supremacy. The present research tries to investigate the impacts of brand experience on satisfaction with brand and brand experience on trust in brand and in general, it investigates the impacts of brand purchase involvement, brand trust, satisfaction with brand and brand experience on loyalty to brand. The present research is a descriptive study and simple random sampling method was used to pick sample members. 282 questionnaires were collected. Structural equations modeling method was used to analyze data. PLS software was used for analysis because data distribution was not normal. Results showed that brand experience has direct influence on satisfaction with brand, trust in brand and loyalty to brand. Further, satisfaction with brand, trust in brand, pleasure with brand purchase and brand symbolic value have direct impacts on loyalty to brand. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n20p3054
HOW EFFICIENT WERE THE NEW ORLEANS SLAVE AUCTIONS ? : A STRUCTURAL ECONOMETRIC APPROACH

The disparity in the prices of slaves in the antebellum south could have come from two sources, disparity in the observed characteristics of the slaves, or disparity in the unobserved valuations of the slave buyers. I use standard hedonic regression techniques to rid the Fogel and Engerman (1974) dataset of the effects of slave heterogeneity. Then, using structural-econometric techniques, I estimate that the most likely number of bidders that could have induced the remaining price dispersion is between six and thirteen. Although far from conclusive, this supports the argument that slave auctions were efficient. JEL Classifications: N31, N81, N9
Estimation of hyperbolic diffusion using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method

In this paper we propose a Bayesian method to estimate the hyperbolic diffusion model. The approach is based on the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method with the likelihood of the discretized process as the approximate posterior likelihood. We demonstrate that the MCMC method Provides a useful tool in analysing hyperbolic diffusions. In particular, quantities of posterior distributions obtained from the MCMC outputs can be used for statistical inference. The MCMC method based on the Milstein scheme is unsatisfactory. Our simulation study shows that the hyperbolic diffusion exhibits many of the stylized facts about asset returns documented in the discrete-time financial econometrics literature, such as the Taylor effect, a slowly declining autocorrelation function of the squared returns, and thick tails.
Seasonal variations of water-soluble organic carbon, dicarboxylic acids, ketocarboxylic acids, and α-dicarbonyls in Central Himalayan aerosols

Abstract. Aerosol samples were collected from a high elevation mountain site (Nainital, India; 1958 m a.s.l.) in the central Himalayas, a location that provides an isolated platform above the planetary boundary layer to better understand the composition of the remote continental troposphere. The samples were analyzed for water-soluble dicarboxylic acids (C2-C12) and related compounds (ketocarboxylic acids and α-dicarbonyls), as well as organic carbon, elemental carbon and water soluble organic carbon. The contributions of total dicarboxylic acids to total aerosol carbon during wintertime were 1.7% and 1.8%, for day and night, respectively whereas they were significantly smaller during summer. Molecular distributions of diacids revealed that oxalic (C2) acid was the most abundant species followed by succinic (C4) and malonic (C3) acids. The average concentrations of total diacids (433±108 ng m−3), ketoacids (48±23 ng m−3), and α-dicarbonyls (9±4 ng m−3) were similar to those from large Asian cities such as Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong. During summer most of the organic species were several times more abundant than in winter. Phthalic acid, which originates from oxidation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene, was found to be 7 times higher in summer than winter. This feature has not been reported before in atmospheric aerosols. Based on molecular distributions and air mass backward trajectories, we conclude that dicarboxylic acids and related compounds in Himalayan aerosols are derived from anthropogenic activities in the highly populated Indo-Gangetic plain areas.
Cross-Cultural Validation of Dysfunctional Attitude Scale

The present research explored dysfunctional attitude in Iranian and Pakistani university students. For this purpose, a sample of 1500 students was taken with equal numbers from Iran and Pakistan. The age range of participants was 20-40 years. The data were collected from Public Universities of Iran (University of Isfahan & University of Kashan) and Pakistan (University of the Punjab and Government College University Lahore). The dysfunctional attitudes of participants were assessed through Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Form-A (DAS-A, Weissman & Beck, 1980). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) identified the factors underlying each dimension of DAS and yielded four factor solutionof 40 items which reflected themes of Perfectionism (15 items); Approval (12 items); Achievement (7 items) and Autonomy (6 items). The findings indicated that Pakistani students expressed greater dysfunctional attitudes of perfectionism, approval and autonomy than Iranian students whereas, Iranian students scored higher on dysfunctional attitude of achievement compared to the Pakistani students. Regarding gender differences,the findings revealed that Pakistani male students showed more dysfunctional attitudes related to achievement than Pakistani female students and Iranian female students showed more dysfunctional attitude of autonomy than Iranian male students.It can be concluded that dysfunctional attitude of university students vary from culture to culture.
Rapid Filamentation Zone in a Numerically Simulated Tropical Cyclone

Abstract In a recent study, Rozoff et al. proposed a possible mechanism to explain the formation and maintenance of the weak-echo annulus (or moat) outside of the primary eyewall of a tropical cyclone observed in radar images. By this mechanism, the moat is determined to be a region of the strain-dominated flow outside of the radius of maximum wind in which essentially all fields are filamented and deep convection is hypothesized to be highly distorted and even suppressed. This strain-dominated region is defined as the rapid filamentation zone wherein the filamentation time is shorter than the overturning time of deep convection. An attempt has been made in this study to test the hypothesis in a full-physics tropical cyclone model under idealized conditions and to extend the concept to the study of the inner-core dynamics of tropical cyclones. The foci of this paper are the evolution of the rapid filamentation zone during the storm intensification, the potential roles of rapid filamentation in the organiz.
PLANNING FOR DESIRABLE LAND USES IN PERIURBAN LANDSCAPES : APPLICATION OF A SPATIAL CONCEPT FOR TERRITORIAL SUSTAINABILITY

With the aim to test the categorical formulation of a spatial concept on the functional, desirable characteristics of land-use distributions inside periurban land- scapes, in the research we envisaged and developed an original quantitative method, deployed in nine study-cases worldwide. Increasingly facing a generic set of pressures from suburbanization and unregulated land-use change, unwanted spatial outcomes in those landscapes often arise after trespassing critical thresholds of ecosystems' processes inadvertently: Overriding the minimum-area requirements, for example, of crucial ecosystems providing basic ecological services to whole urban regions. Spatial concepts can be powerful tools for strategic planning of territorial systems, helping to avoid shortsighted plans and policies. From the narrative of a spatial con- cept supportive of strategic planning and regulatory policies for territorial sustain- ability (the "Aggregates-with-Outliers" -AWO), we developed an original synthetic, quantitative method fostering statistical analysis between diverse locales, years, and scales -as well desirable scenarios. From the joint maximization of size variance and land-use diversity (JMV+D mod- el), we evidenced deficits and potentials on the composition of heterogeneous peri- urban landscapes, from the universal perspective of the concept. It is considered a tool (among the many required) for the strategic planning of territorial sustainability in those landscapes, especially required of a flexible definition on the desirable spa- tial outcomes of plans and policies.