Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Empirical orthogonal function analysis of the diurnal cycle of precipitation in a multi‐scale climate model

Long‐term variability in the hydrologic cycle is poorly simulated by current generation global climate models (GCMs), partly due to known climatological biases at shorter timescales. We demonstrate that a prototype Multi‐scale Modeling Framework (MMF) provides a superior representation of the spatial and temporal structure of precipitation at diurnal timescales than a GCM. Results from empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition of the boreal summer climatological composite diurnal cycle of precipitation in an MMF are compared to a GCM and satellite data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission. The eigenspectrum, principal component time series, and the spatial structure of leading EOFs in an eigenmode decomposition of the MMF composite day are a much better match to observations than the GCM. Regional deficiencies in the MMF diurnal cycle are manifest as localized anomalies in the spatial structures of the first two leading EOFs.
Ownership Structure and Firm Value in China's Privatized Firms: 1991-2001

This paper investigates the relation between ownership structure and firm value across a sample of 5,284 firm years of China's partially privatized former state–owned enterprises (SOE) from 1991–2001. We find that state and institutional shares are significantly negatively related to Tobin's Q, and that significant convex relations exist between Q and state shares, as well as between Q and institutional shares. We also find that foreign ownership is significantly positively related to Tobin's Q. We test for potential endogeneity of ownership, and find that Q and state/foreign ownership are not jointly determined. We also test for time-series, industry, and geo-economic location effects, and find our results to be robust.
Variability of in vitro culture response in wheat genotypes, genotype and environmental effects

The tissue culture response (TCR) of immature embryos, evaluated according to callus formation, percentage of regenerative green-spotted calli and the number of plants per embryo, was investigated in 96 wheat genotypes of worldwide origins. Immature embryos were collected 12-15 DAP from field-grown plants during three successive years 2003, 2004 and 2005. Year 2003 was with high air temperatures and tropical days during a period of vegetation, while the environmental conditions were more favorable for plant growth in the next two years, 2004 and 2005. Embryos were cultured on standard MS medium containing 2 mg l-1 2, 4-D. In all genotypes calli were efficiently induced, ranging from 36.7 to 100% (2003), 68.4 to 100% (2004), and 94.3 to 100% (2005). The calli occasionally formed green spots, but frequencies markedly differed among genotypes that varied from 0 to 72.5% (2003), 0 to 97.9% (2004), and 0 to 94.0% (2005). Coefficient of variation was highest in term of percent of regenerative calli (66.7%) following by a number of plants per embryo (35.6%) and callus formation (5.1%). Components of phenotypic variance showed that factor year (71.4%) had the highest impact on expression of callus formation, genetic factor (47,1%) on percentage of regenerative green-spotted calli and interaction year/genotype (30.3%) on number of plants per embryo. The results indicated factor genotype as the most important for determining regeneration potential in wheat.
Two new Australian species of Stethynium (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), larval parasitoids of Ophelimus maskelli (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) on Eucalyptus

Two new species of Mymaridae, Stethynium ophelimi Huber and S. breviovipositor Huber, are described from Ophelimus maskelli, a gall‐inducing pest of Eucalyptus camaldulensis accidentally introduced from Australia into the Mediterranean region and Africa. This is the first record of a species of Mymaridae reared as a larval parasitoid of a holometabolous insect. One or both of the Stethynium species are being considered for introduction into Israel for biological control of this pest. Galls containing late second or third instar larvae are suitable for successful development of Stethynium. Mean survival time in a mixed colony of adults fed with honey and water solution was 1–2 days. Stethynium perlatipenne Girault, syn. nov., is synonymized under S. flavinotae Girault.
Mitochondrial DNA sequences suggest a revised taxonomy of Asian flapshell turtles (Lissemys SMITH, 1931) and the validity of previously unrecognized taxa (Testudines: Trionychidae)

We investigated relationships among Asian fl apshell turtles by using 2286 bp of mitochondrial DNA for phylogenetic reconstructions and relaxed molecular clock calculations. Currently three taxa are recognized, the unspotted species Lissemys scutata and L. punctata, with the unspotted subspecies L. p. punctata and the spotted subspecies L. p. andersoni. However, we found fi ve deeply divergent clades, two of which correspond to L. scutata (Myanmar; perhaps also adjacent Thailand and Yunnan, China) and L. p. andersoni (Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra drainages; western Myanmar), respectively. Within L. p. punctata from peninsular India and Sri Lanka three distinct clades were identifi ed, two from peninsular India and one from Sri Lanka. The two clades from peninsular India are more closely related to L. p. andersoni than to fl apshell turtles from Sri Lanka. Due to a genetic divergence resembling L. scutata, we propose to separate Sri Lankan populations as the distinct species L. ceylonensis (Gray, 1856) from L. punctata. Furthermore, we suggest to restrict the name L. p. punctata (Lacepede, 1788) = L. p. punctata (Bonnaterre, 1789) to populations from southern peninsular India, whereas the name L. p. vittata (Peters, 1854) should be applied to unspotted fl apshell turtles from northern peninsular India. We classify all three taxa from the Indian subcontinent as subspecies because (1) there is morphological and genetic evidence that L. p. andersoni intergrades with L. p. vittata, and (2) the genetic divergence among L. p. punctata, L. p. andersoni and L. p. vittata resembles the degree of differentiation as observed between the latter two subspecies, whereas the differences between L. ceylonensis and L. scutata and among these species and the subspecies of L. punctata are about twice the values as observed among the subspecies of L. punctata. The formation of the subspecies of L. punctata was dated to have occurred between the uppermost Miocene and the Early Pleistocene (mean split ages of approx. 4.5 and 4.2 million years); the origin of L. ceylonensis and L. scutata, to a range between the Early Miocene and the Lower Pliocene (mean split ages of approx. 8 and 11 million years, respectively).
Polar organic tracers in PM 2.5 aerosols from forests in eastern China

Photooxidation products of biogenic volatile organic compounds, mainly isoprene and monoterpenes, are significant sources of atmospheric particulate matter in forested regions. The objectives of this study were to examine time series and diel variations of polar organic tracers for the photooxidation of isoprene and α-pinene to investigate whether they are linked with meteorological parameters or trace gases, and to determine their carbon contributions. In addition, the biogenic secondary organic carbon contributions from isoprene were estimated. PM 2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter 2.5 samples were collected; eighteen organic compounds, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon and trace gases were measured. Results indicate that the concentration trends of the secondary organic compounds reflected those of the trace gases and meteorological parameters. Very good correlations between the sum concentrations of isoprene oxidation products and atmospheric SO 2 , O 3 , NO 2 , NO x , as well as CO 2 , at the Changbai site were found. The secondary OC due to isoprene was relatively high in tropical Hainan (0.27 μgC/m 3 ) where isoprene-emitting broadleaf species are dominant, but was comparable in boreal Changbai (0.32 μgC/m 3 ) where coniferous species are prevalent. The contribution of malic acid, which may have both biogenic and anthropogenic sources, to the OC mass was comparable at the four sites.
Evaluating desiccation sensitivity of Quercus rubra acorns using X-ray image analysis

Desiccation of northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) acorns can impact seed viability. We examined use of X-ray image analysis of cotyledon damage in dried acorns to predict germination capacity and seedling vigor. Acorns collected from five half-sib sources were X-rayed before and after drying to one of four moisture content (MC) levels (30%, 25%, 20%, or 15%) or maintained as nondesiccated controls (35%38% MC). X-ray images were scored qualitatively according to degree of cotyledoncotyledon and cotyledon-pericarp separation. Following sowing, acorns were evaluated for number of days to reach each of three developmental stages (emergence of radicle, epicotyl, and first leaf flush) and growth for 80 d. Both MC and family significantly affected all variables. The percentage of acorns to reach each developmental stage, as well as final height and root-collar diameter declined with decreasing MC and dropped most notably between 20% and 15% MC. X-ray separation scores more effectively predicted the percentage.
Analysis of Prognostic Marker Panel for High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer through Age-Dependent DNA Methylation

Achieving early detection at the onset of cancer is a major goal of cancer research. The early presence of aberrant DNA methylation makes the use of DNA methylation biomarkers an attractive candidate for early detection. Altered DNA methylation is ubiquitous in human cancers and specific methylation changes are often correlated with clinical features. DNA methylation biomarkers provide a range of opportunities for early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic stratification and post-therapeutic monitoring. Furthermore, aging is one of the primary risk factors associated with cancer development. We conducted computational biology analyses of published High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) epigenetic profiles using gene lists bearing human embryonic stem cell (hESC) characteristics. Through aging correlated features, epigenetic age-dependent marker panel on HGSOC was conducted. It is to be noted, the genes in the refined marker panel were found all included in the age-dependent features. The further experiment results showed not only the refined marker panel is able to represent the age-dependent features but performed better performance than the reported marker panel without associated with age parameter. Furthermore, the refined prognostic marker panel, including HOXA9, HSPA1A, and CALCA-associated with ovarian cancer and tumor growth, is strongly connected with literature support the potential for considering into clinical assay for patients’ stratification and future personalized medicine interventions.
PENERAPAN MODEL THINK TALK WRITE UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KETERAMPILAN MENULIS KALIMAT EFEKTIF PADA SISWA KELAS III SDN SUMBERSARI 1 KOTA MALANG

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan penerapan dan peningkatan keterampilan menulis kalimat efektif melalui model TTW. Aktivitas guru pada siklus I mencapai 89,28% meningkat pada siklus II menjadi 93,75%, aktivitas siswa pada siklus I mencapai 82,14% meningkat pada siklus II menjadi 90,62%. Ketuntasan klasikal hasil keterampilan menulis kalimat efektif siswa pada siklus I mencapai 34,28% dan pada siklus II 68,57%.
Children’s Reciprocal Perceptions of Friendship Quality in the Sociocultural Contexts of East and West Berlin

Testing 551 East and 210 West Berlin children (grades 2-5), we sought to: (1) gain a broader understanding of the reciprocal nature of children’s friendships, especially their perceptions of friendship quality; and (2) examine sociocultural influences on such perceptions. We expected friends’ perceptions to form two distinct types of perceptions: (i) objectively perceived and, thus, shared interpersonal perceptions; and (ii) subjectively interpreted and, thus, nonshared intrapersonal perceptions. Mean and covariances structures analyses revealed that: (a) our distinction was well supported and generalisable across both contexts; and (b) East Berlin children reported more perceived friendship conflict, fewer mutual visits and sleep-overs, and less fun in their play activities than did their West Berlin age-mates. These differences are consistent with known characteristics of these two distinct sociocultural contexts.
www.econstor.eu Families and Social Security

The present paper quantifies the importance of family insurance for the analysis of social security. We therefore augment the standard overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic labor productivity and longevity risk in that we account for gender and marital status. We simulate the abolition of pay-as-you-go pension payments, calculate the resulting intergenerational welfare changes and isolates aggregate efficiency effects for singles and families by means of compensating transfers. In accordance with previous studies that take into account transitional dynamics, we find that abolishing social security creates significant efficiency losses. Most importantly, however, we show that singles are substantially worse off from a shut-down of old-age payments compared to married couples. A decomposition of the efficiency loss reveals that this difference can be almost exclusively attributed to the insurance role of the family with respect to longevity risk. Since a married individual inherits her spouse’s wealth after his death and the likelihood that both partners reach a very old age is relatively small, marriage serves as an insurance device against longevity risk for the surviving partner. JEL-Codes: J120, J220.
Challenges Experienced by Japanese Students With Oral Communication Skills in Australian Universities

Due to ever-increasing demands to acquire effective communicative abilities in the English language, increasing numbers of international students choose to study in Western tertiary institutions; however, they frequently encounter difficulties in performing satisfactorily in English. This study aims to identify specific challenges that Japanese students face with oral communication skills while studying in Australian universities. Results from questionnaire data collected from 33 undergraduate and postgraduate Japanese students in Australia and interview data from five TESOL postgraduate students indicate that Japanese students have greater difficulty with speaking than with listening and pronunciation. It also sheds additional insight into two areas of major concern in Japan education: inadequate practice of oral communication skills in the Japanese education system and Japanese English teachers’ difficulties using English in class. The article concludes by proposing several potential solutions for improving Japanese English education based on the recommendations of Japanese postgraduate students in a TESOL program.
Seaweed Tea: Fucoidan-Rich functional food product development from Malaysian brown seaweed, sargassum binderi

Our previous studies on fucoidan from Malaysian brown seaweed, Sargassum binderi, found that it exhibited significant secondary anti-oxidative activity and showed non-toxicity. In order to exploit its health benefits, fucoidan-rich seaweed tea was developed in this study. A total of 4 different brewing time treatments were performed on Sargassum binderi at 5, 10, 15 and 20 mins (Ft05, Ft10, Ft15 and Ft20, respectively). It was found that Ft20 showed significantly (p<0.05) highest fucoidan content (27.22 ± 0.07 mg/200 mL), superoxide anion scavenging activity (16.46 ± 2.83%) and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity (89.83 ± 4.11%) compared to that of Ft05, Ft10 and Ft15. Both the secondary antioxidant activities were significantly positive correlated to the fucoidan content tests (superoxide anion scavenging activity at r=0.97, p=0.0052; and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity at r=0.99, p=0.0011). Masking of the seaweed odour was performed using lemon essence and discriminative test found that masking was most effective using lemon essence at a concentration of 0.3% (v/v). Therefore, there is potential for this seaweed tea to be commercialised, thus, consumers may acquire the health benefit of fucoidan.
Effects of anthropogenic disturbances of tropical soft-bottom benthic communities

The benthic ecosystem of the lagoon surrounding Tahiti, the most populated island of French Polynesia, was investigated to assess the impacts of terrestrial runoff on these benthic communities. Five lagoonal zones based on population densities around the coast of Tahiti were identified, and within each zone a transect from the fringing reef to the barrier reef was sampled, a total of 18 stations. Only large macrofauna collected on a 2 mm sieve were considered in this study. Multivariate analysis using total biomass and environmental factors showed that the stations formed 3 main groups which were related to sediment characteristics, including percentage of silt, organic matter and phaeopigment levels. The distribution of the major feeding groups was related to the amounts of terrestrial inputs and distance from the shore. The stations on the barrier reef and those in zones adjacent to low population areas were not impacted by these terrestrial inputs. Deposit-feeding communities of capitel-lid polychaetes were dominant in the channel parts of the lagoon, which acted as decanting ponds. Chaetopterid polychaetes played an important role in recycling sediments of terrigenous origin in the fringing ecosystem. The patterns of diversity, density and biomass of the benthos around the lagoon revealed that some areas were impacted by moderate terrigenous inputs. It appears that the intermediate disturbance hypothesis explains the functioning of the parts of the benthic lagoonal ecosystem which are subjected to human impact. The organic enrichment by terrestrial inputs contrasts with food limitation that appears to occur in the non-disturbed areas. Despite high organic loads, the benthic communities present at the harbour station were not depauperate, as bioturbation by burrowing alpheids and callianassids prevented anoxic conditions from developing.
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Value at Risk ( VaR ) models for Australian Banks under Basel III

The Global Financial Crisis triggered a revision of the VaR based Basel II market risk framework to address extreme events. The revised VaR methodology remains unchanged under Basel III, however ongoing studies to evaluate VaR continue in academia and by the Basel Committee. In this paper, we assess VaR models for Australian banks over the past ten years and provide statistical evidence of their effectiveness. Results indicate that one year parametric and historical models produce better measures of VaR than models with longer time frames. VaR estimates produced using Monte Carlo simulations show very low percentage of violations but higher level of violations. VaR estimates produced by the ARMA GARCH model show relatively high percentage of violations, however, the level of violations is quite low. Our findings shed light on the rationale and design of the revised Basel II VaR methodology which has also been adopted under Basel III.
Long-Term growth opportunities in Ethiopia

The paper attempts to investigate the role of institutions in the long-term growth performance of Ethiopia. In this study, it is hypothesized that the long-term growth of the country, apart from traditional factors of production i.e. capital and labor is largely influenced by institutional factors. To examine this, the study uses a times series data on important variables for the period 1967/68-2002/03, and employed Johansen cointegration analysis. The variables used are, institutional quality indicators, human capital, labor force, capital stock, road network, and rainfall. The findings of the paper support the above stated hypothesis. Institution and physical capital are found to be significant in both the long and short run models while human capital is found important only in the long run.
Removal of Copper Ions from Contaminated Soil by Enhanced Soil Washing

This study investigated the feasibility of using different extracting solutions at various concentrations to remove copper from low permeability silty loam soils, which have a high buffering soil, pH of 7.6, where it spiked with copper at concentration of about 1500 mg/kg to represent soil conditions. The most efficient extracting solutions could be used as purging/extracting solutions in other technologies such as soil washing. Several batch tests were conducted to be optimizing the various parameters like stirring speed, mixing time, surfactant-chelating agent concentration, and the liquid/solid ratio (L/S). The following extracting solutions were investigated for the removal of copper from the soils: distilled water, chelating agents (EDTA ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), and surfactant (SDS, sodium dodecyl sulphate). The metal removal efficiency was found to be dependent on EDTA concentration at case used alone, with the increasing of EDTA concentration, the removal of Cu+2 increased and peaking at approximately 42.4% with increasing of EDTA concentration to 0.1M. The addition of 0.6% SDS retarded copper removal by EDTA, therefor, the removal become approximately 32 %, as compared when EDTA was applied alone.
Corynebacterium glutamicum against acid stress via maintaining intracellular pH homeostasis , scavenging ROS , and S-mycothiolating

*Corresponding authors: Xihui Shen, State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas and College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China; Meiru Si, College of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, Shandong 273165, China. Tel: 86-29-87081062 Fax: 86-29-87092087 E-mail: xihuishen@nwsuaf.edu. cn Tel: 86-537-4458633 Fax: 86-537-4458633 E-mail: simeiru1016@163.com #These authors contributed equally to this work.
Variability of Microphysical Parameters in High-Altitude Ice Clouds: Results of the Remote Sensing Method

Abstract The remote sensing method for retrieving vertical profiles of microphysical parameters in ice clouds from ground-based measurements taken by the Doppler radar and IR radiometer was applied to several cloud cases observed during different field experiments including FIRE-II, ASTEX, and the Arizona Program. The measurements were performed with the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory instrumentation. The observed ice clouds were mostly cirrus clouds located in the upper troposphere above 5.6 km. Their geometrical thicknesses varied from a few hundred meters to 3 km. Characteristic cloud particle sizes expressed in median mass diameters of equal-volume spheres varied from about 25 μm to more than 400 μm. Typically, characteristic particle sizes were increasing toward the cloud base, with the exception of the lowest range gates where particles were quickly sublimating. Highest particle concentrations were usually observed near the cloud tops. The vertical variability of particle sizes inside an i.