Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Condensation/immersion mode ice-nucleating particles in a boreal environment

Abstract. Ice-nucleating particle (INP) measurements were performed in the boreal environment of southern Finland at the Station for Measuring Ecosystem–Atmosphere Relations (SMEAR II) in the winter–spring of 2018. Measurements with the Portable Ice Nucleation Chamber (PINC) were conducted at 242 K and 105 % relative humidity with respect to water. The median INP number concentration [INP] during a 6-week measurement period was 13 L−1. The [INP] spanned 3 orders of magnitude and showed a general increase from mid-February until early April. No single dominant local or regional sources of INPs in the boreal environment of southern Finland could be identified. Rather, it is hypothesised that the INPs detected at SMEAR II are a result of long-range transport and dilution of INPs sourced far from the measurement site. Despite high variability, the measured [INP] values fall within the range expected for the [INP] measured elsewhere under similar thermodynamic conditions. The [INP] did not correlate with any of the examined parameters during the entire field campaign, indicating that no one single parameter can be used to predict the [INP] at the measurement location during the examined time period. The absence of a correlation across the entire field campaign also suggests that a variety of particles act as INPs at different times, although it was indirectly determined that ambient INPs are most likely within the size range of 0.1–0.5 µm in diameter on average. On shorter timescales, several particle species correlated well with the [INP]. Depending on the meteorological conditions, black carbon (BC), supermicron biological particles and sub-0.1 µm particles, most likely nanoscale biological fragments such as ice-nucleating macromolecules (INMs), correlated with the INP signal. However, an increase in the concentration of any of these particle species may not necessarily lead to the increase in the [INP]; the reasons for this remain unknown. Limitations of the instrumental set-up and the necessity for future field INP studies are addressed.
Comparison of precipitation measurements by OTT Parsivel 2 and Thies LPM optical disdrometers

Abstract. Optical disdrometers are present weather sensors with the ability of providing detailed information on precipitation such as rain intensity, radar reflectivity or kinetic energy, together with discrete information on the particle size and fall velocity distribution (PSVD) of the hydrometeors. Disdrometers constitute a step forward towards a more complete characterization of precipitation, being useful in several research fields and applications. In this article the performance of two extensively used optical disdrometers, the most recent version of OTT Parsivel 2 disdrometer and Thies Clima Laser Precipitation Monitor (LPM), is evaluated. During 2 years, four collocated optical disdrometers, two Thies Clima LPM and two OTT Parsivel 2 , collected up to 100 000 min of data and up to 30 000 min with rain in more than 200 rainfall events, with intensities peaking at 277 mm h −1 in 1 minute. The analysis of these records shows significant differences between both disdrometer types for all integrated precipitation parameters, which can be explained by differences in the raw PSVD estimated by the two sensors. Thies LPM recorded a larger number of particles than Parsivel 2 and a higher proportion of small particles than OTT Parsivel 2 , resulting in higher rain rates and totals and differences in radar reflectivity and kinetic energy. These differences increased greatly with rainfall intensity. Possible causes of these differences, and their practical consequences, are discussed in order to help researchers and users in the choice of sensor, and at the same time pointing out limitations to be addressed in future studies.
Biochemistry of Blood in Health and Disease

Read more and get great! That's what the book enPDFd biochemistry of blood in health and disease will give for every reader to read this book. This is an on-line book provided in this website. Even this book becomes a choice of someone to read, many in the world also loves it so much. As what we talk, when you read more every page of this biochemistry of blood in health and disease, what you will obtain is something great.
Benefit Sharing in the Arctic: A Systematic View

Benefit sharing is a key concept for sustainable development in communities affected by the extractive industry. In the Arctic, where extractive activities have been growing, a comprehensive and systematic understanding of benefit sharing frameworks is especially critical. The goal of this paper is to develop a synthesis and advance the theory of benefit sharing frameworks in the Arctic. Based on previously published research, a review of literature, a desktop analysis of national legislation, as well as by capitalizing on the original case studies, this paper analyzes benefit sharing arrangements and develops the typology of benefit sharing regimes in the Arctic. It also discusses the examples of various regimes in Russia, Alaska, and Canada. Each regime is described by a combination of principles, modes, mechanisms, and scales of benefit sharing. Although not exhaustive or entirely comprehensive, this systematization and proposed typologies appear to be useful for streamlining the analysis and improving understanding of benefit sharing in the extractive sector. The paper has not identified an ideal benefit sharing regime in the Arctic, but revealed the advantages and pitfalls of different existing arrangements. In the future, the best regimes –in respect to sustainable development would support the transition from benefit sharing to benefit co-management.
Tuning Multilingual Transformers for Language-Specific Named Entity Recognition

Our paper addresses the problem of multilingual named entity recognition on the material of 4 languages: Russian, Bulgarian, Czech and Polish. We solve this task using the BERT model. We use a hundred languages multilingual model as base for transfer to the mentioned Slavic languages. Unsupervised pre-training of the BERT model on these 4 languages allows to significantly outperform baseline neural approaches and multilingual BERT. Additional improvement is achieved by extending BERT with a word-level CRF layer. Our system was submitted to BSNLP 2019 Shared Task on Multilingual Named Entity Recognition and demonstrated top performance in multilingual setting for two competition metrics. We open-sourced NER models and BERT model pre-trained on the four Slavic languages.
Halal slaughter and electrical stunning in rabbits: effect on welfare and muscle characteristics.

A total of 50 recently weaned Hyla rabbits (5 weeks old) were slaughtered in a commercial abbatoir located 65 km away from the farm they were raised i n. Their slaughter weight was determined after 20-30 min of lairage and, afterwards, the rabbits u nderwent slaughter following the standard procedure (electrical stunning and exsanguination after cutti ng the vessels of the left side of the throat; 30 rabbits, S group) or the halal muslim procedure (ri tual cut of the throat performed by an appropriate person without pre-slaughtering stunning; 20 animal s, H group). Some basic animal welfare features around slaughter were evaluated. Rabbits from H gro up had neither vocalization, spasms or movements during the hanging phase nor after slaugh tering. Their bodies remained totally relaxed and floppy on the chain from the beginning. The rabbits from the S group also had not vocalizations or movements before slaughtering and one rabbit of thi s group arched and flexed its back for a moment after slaughtering. No cases of haemorrhages or bro ken bones were observed in either group. There were significant differences between groups with re ga ds to the blood losses (calculated by the difference between the animal’s weight and the hot carcass weight plus offal), which were higher in the H than in the S group (44.86 g and 37.10 g resp ectively, P<0.01). The external colour of carcasses , subjectively evaluated, was paler in the H than in the S group. Similar differences in colour were initially found at 0 minutes after transversal cuts of the Longissimus dorsi muscle: more luminous (L*) and yellow (b*) as well as higher h* values in the H group, although the effect was no longer significant after 15 minutes of blooming. The lowes t pH24 values were found in the H group on both the Longisimus dorsi (5.67 vs. 5.78, P<0.05) and the Biceps femoris (5.69 vs. 5.82, P<0.01) muscles. There were no differences in water holding capacity determined on the Biceps femoris muscle. We conclude that under both slaughtering procedures, t h parameters studied had normal values for rabbit meat and correct for meat in general.
MANAGING SCHOOL FINANCES: PERCEPTIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF GOVERNING BODY MEMBERS IN SCHOOLS IN AN INFORMAL SETTLEMENT

The South African Schools Act (84 of 1996) decentralises school governance and assigns the management of school finances to their respective governing bodies. In line with the specific classification of each school, school governing bodies are assigned the same functions irrespective of the location of the school, its size and complexity, or the profile of their members. Given their different operational contexts, the extent to which school governing bodies discharge their assigned duties and responsibilities with desired effectiveness differs. This paper is drawn from a qualitative multi case study on shared decision-making in five Soweto secondary schools. The paper is, restricted to findings with regard to two secondary schools based in the informal settlement area of the township and the research question: how do parent members of the school governing body perceive and experience their role in managing school finances? The analysis of data followed Tesch’s steps for open coding. It emerged from the analysis of data that parent-members of SGBs had limited understanding of what constitutes their role and responsibilities regarding the management of school finances. They also lack the capacity to discharge their assigned duties and responsibilities. The effective management of school finances in the SGB is further hampered by the poor internal support structures, and undemocratic practices among SGB members.
Estimation of the age of human semen stains by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy: a preliminary study

Abstract Semen stain is one of the most important biological evidence at sexual crime scenes. Age estimation of human semen stains plays an important role in forensic work, and it is rarely studied due to lack of well-established methods. In this study, the technique called attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) coupled with advanced chemometric methods was employed to determine the age of semen stains on three different substrates: glass slides, tissues and fabric made of regenerated cellulose fibres up to 6 d. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used in conjunction with spectral analysis for age estimation, and the results generated high R2 values (cross-validation: 0.81, external validation: 0.74) but a narrow margin of error for root mean square error (RMSE) (RMSE of cross-validation: 0.77 d, RMSE of prediction: 1.02 d). Additionally, our results indicated the robustness of PLSR model was not weaken by the influence of different substrates in this study. Our results indicate that ATR-FTIR, combined with chemometric methods, shows great potential as a convenient and efficient tool for age estimation of semen stains. Moreover, the method could be applied to routine forensic investigations in the future.
Managerial Ability and Bond Rating Changes

This study examines the relation between managerial ability and bond credit rating changes. We attempt to add to the credit rating agency literature by exploring the role managerial ability plays in the initial bond rating assignments and in rating changes. We predict firms with more&#8208;able managers are more likely to have higher bond ratings and to be more able to have a positive influence on rating changes. We find a significant and positive relation between managerial ability and change in credit ratings, suggesting that more&#8208;able managers can take effective actions to improve their credit ratings.
Essays In Experimental Economics

This dissertation examines how social preferences and norms affect decision making in a variety of settings using experimental methods. The first chapter investigates the role of transaction utility on consumer choice. I design two laboratory paradigms to mirror shopping experiences using discounts and mark-ups (Study 1) and coupons (Study 2). In my experiments, participants purchase virtual products, allowing me to isolate transaction utility from inferences of product quality. Results reveal that consumers experience transaction utility even over these virtual products and will sacrifice monetary payoffs for transaction utility. My estimates suggest consumers’ marginal rate of substitution between study earnings and transaction utility is: 37-57 cents to gain a dollar of perceived discount and 37-78 cents to avoid a dollar of perceived mark-up. Chapter 2 investigates the role of gender in negotiations. While conventional wisdom holds that women are “worse” negotiators, we find that men have a disadvantage in a setting with explicit verbal communication relative to a control game without communication. This is driven by men’s failure to optimally tailor their negotiation strategy based on their partner’s gender. In particular, men are significantly less likely to use tough (but effective) negotiation strategies against female compared to male partners. Male-male pairs have the worst overall joint performance, indicating that women create efficiency gains without losing out on individual payoffs. We suggest these findings may be related to gender-specific social norms influencing communication strategies. Finally, research from the last three decades suggests that fairness plays an important role in economic transactions. However, the vast majority of this evidence investigates behavior in a full-information environment. In chapter 3, we develop a new experimental paradigm---which nests the widely used Ultimatum Game---to show that the role of fairness in economic transactions depends fundamentally on the information structure. We find that when transacting agents are less informed inequality increases. In the absence of information, proposers give less-fair offers and report believing that responders will accept them. Responders do, in fact, accept less-fair offers when proposers are uninformed, suggesting that responders are concerned about their social image or proposers’ intentions. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Applied Economics First Advisor Judd B. Kessler This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn. edu/edissertations/3345
Abnormal vascular function following ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Abstract Ischemia-reperfusion injury as a general rule is accompanied by dramatic changes in basal and reactive vascular function in most organs. There are similarities in altered organ vascular function, particularly in the first 24 to 48 hours, with decreased basal organ blood flow, hypersensitivity to vasoconstrictor stimuli, attenuated responses to vasodilators, and increased vascular permeability. The reduced responsiveness to endothelium-dependent vasodilators may be due to reduced endothelial NOS activity or to spontaneous maximal activation of NOS/NO activity, which cannot be stimulated further by endothelium-dependent agents. There are also notable quantitative and qualitative differences in ischemia-reperfusion injury vasoreactive response in organs such as kidney, heart, and brain, the basis of which is unexplored, but may reflect regional differences in endothelium and/or organ parenchyma. Further examination of both the mechanisms and consequences of ischemia-reperfusion injury to the vasculature, as well as the clinical implications, should be a rewarding pursuit in organ pathophysiology.
A theoretical framework for discontinuous optical flow in fourier space

A fundamental problem in processing sequences of images is the computation of optical flow, an approximation of the motion field defined as the projection of velocities of 3D surface points onto the imaging plane of a (biological or mechanical) visual sensor. A wide variety of algorithms for computing optical flow has been reported in the literature. However, it is not until recently that multiple motion paradigms were seriously studied. These frameworks are necessary to encompass image events such as occlusion and translucency which violate the classical single motion hypothesis. While current approaches to this problem constitute valuable contributions, they often lack the ability to determine the nature of the image events giving rise to multiple motions. In these schemes, occlusion may not be differentiated from translucency and it remains difficult to explicitly identify the motions associated with both the occluding and occluded surfaces. In this thesis, we present a theory of occlusion in the context of optical flow computation. Among other observations, we postulate that spatial information constitutes an obstacle to determining discontinuous optical flow caused by occlusion. We derive, under models of constant and linear optical flow, several Theorems and their Corollaries describing the frequency structure of motion discontinuities arising from occlusion events in the spatial domain. We show that a wealth of crucial information is most easily obtainable from the analysis of the structure of occlusion in Fourier space. For instance, the identification of the occluding and occluded velocities is possible. We also demonstrate the geometrical properties of degenerate cases occurring when signals suffer from the aperture problem. In particular, we show that the full velocity of a degenerate occluding signal is almost always obtainable at the occlusion. We conclude by showing that additive translucency phenomena may be reduced to special cases of the theory.
Antecedents of Purchase Intention toward Organic Food in an Asian Emerging Market: A Study of Urban Vietnamese Consumers

This study aims to investigate some factors influencing purchase intention toward organic food among urban consumers in Vietnam, an Asian emerging economy. The extended Theory of Planned Behavior was used as theoretical framework for this study. In order to test the proposed model and hypotheses, a survey was conducted on a sample including 572 consumers in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. The findings of structural equation modeling indicated that modern self, traditional self, health consciousness, organic-label trust, and subjective norm were significant predictors of attitude toward buying organic food, while environmental concern was not significantly related to attitude. In addition, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control toward organic food purchase were found to be positively related to purchase intention. The research findings were discussed and implications for marketers and policy makers were provided.
Narrative stories in Chinese characters: political framing of ageing and welfare reform in China

ABSTRACT This article analyses narrative stories used by the Chinese government to connect the problem of population ageing to welfare reform. The findings derived from semi-structural interviews and key policy documents suggest the unfolding of the narrative stories of power and stories of rising and stories of decline. The narrative stories in the developmental Chinese welfare state are diverse and stem from different processes than those for the mature European welfare states. The Narrative stories also vary for different policy areas. For inequality and health-care policies, under the master narrative of story of power, state depicts ‘stories of giving-to-give’ to support expansion in the traditional ‘old risk’ type of policies to main population, including the elderly. For long-term care, the power narrative of ’giving-to-shape’ legitimizes the expansionary reforms for a small group of deserving frail elderly. Behind this political framing of long-term care reform lies the story of decline that justifies the modest role of state provision in the organization of long-term care and leaves the responsibility for economic, social and spiritual wellbeing for the society itself. The story of decline in China also gravitates around sustainability of societies rather than around financial sustainability commonly underlining the political debate in the West.
A survey of remote sensing image classification based on CNNs

ABSTRACT With the development of earth observation technologies, the acquired remote sensing images are increasing dramatically, and a new era of big data in remote sensing is coming. How to effectively mine these massive volumes of remote sensing data are new challenges. Deep learning provides a new approach for analyzing these remote sensing data. As one of the deep learning models, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can directly extract features from massive amounts of imagery data and is good at exploiting semantic features of imagery data. CNNs have achieved remarkable success in computer vision. In recent years, quite a few researchers have studied remote sensing image classification using CNNs, and CNNs can be applied to realize rapid, economical and accurate analysis and feature extraction from remote sensing data. This paper aims to provide a survey of the current state-of-the-art application of CNN-based deep learning in remote sensing image classification. We first briefly introduce the principles and characteristics of CNNs. We then survey developments and structural improvements on CNN models that make CNNs more suitable for remote sensing image classification, available datasets for remote sensing image classification, and data augmentation techniques. Then, three typical CNN application cases in remote sensing image classification: scene classification, object detection and object segmentation are presented. We also discuss the problems and challenges of CNN-based remote sensing image classification, and propose corresponding measures and suggestions. We hope that the survey can facilitate the advancement of remote sensing image classification research and help remote-sensing scientists to tackle classification tasks with the state-of-art deep learning algorithms and techniques.
Segment Disclosure Transparency and Internal Capital Market Efficiency: Evidence from SFAS No. 131: SEGMENT DISCLOSURE: EVIDENCE FROM SFAS NO. 131

Using the adoption of SFAS 131, I examine the effect of segment disclosure transparency on internal capital market efficiency. SFAS 131 requires firms to define segments as internally viewed by managers, thereby improving the transparency of managerial actions in internal capital allocation. I find that diversified firms that improved segment disclosure transparency by changing segment definitions upon adoption of SFAS 131 experienced an improvement in capital allocation efficiency in internal capital markets after the adoption of SFAS 131. In addition, I find that the improvement in internal capital market efficiency was greater for firms that suffered more severe agency problems before the adoption of SFAS 131 and also for firms whose managers faced stronger incentives to improve efficiency after the adoption of SFAS 131. My results suggest that more transparent segment information can help resolve agency conflicts in the internal capital markets of diversified firms, thus improving investment efficiency.