Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Total sulfate vs. sulfuric acid monomer concenterations in nucleation studies

Abstract. Sulfuric acid is known to be a key component for atmospheric nucleation. Precise determination of sulfuric-acid concentration is a crucial factor for prediction of nucleation rates and subsequent growth. In our study, we have noticed a substantial discrepancy between sulfuric-acid monomer concentrations and total-sulfate concentrations measured from the same source of sulfuric-acid vapor. The discrepancy of about 1–2 orders of magnitude was found with similar particle-formation rates. To investigate this discrepancy, and its effect on nucleation, a method of thermally controlled saturator filled with pure sulfuric acid (97% wt.) for production of sulfuric-acid vapor is applied and rigorously tested. The saturator provided an independent vapor-production method, compared to our previous method of the furnace (Brus et al., 2010, 2011), to find out if the discrepancy is caused by the production method itself. The saturator was used in a H2SO4–H2O nucleation experiment, using a laminar flow tube to check reproducibility of the nucleation results with the saturator method, compared to the furnace. Two independent methods of mass spectrometry and online ion chromatography were used for detecting sulfuric-acid or sulfate concentrations. Measured sulfuric-acid or total-sulfate concentrations are compared to theoretical predictions calculated using vapor pressure and a mixing law. The calculated prediction of sulfuric-acid concentrations agrees very well with the measured values when total sulfate is considered. Sulfuric-acid monomer concentration was found to be about 2 orders of magnitude lower than theoretical predictions, but with a temperature dependency similar to the predictions and the results obtained with the ion-chromatograph method. Formation rates are reproducible when compared to our previous results with both sulfuric-acid or total-sulfate detection and sulfuric-acid production methods separately, removing any doubts that the vapor-production method would cause the discrepancy. Possible reasons for the discrepancy are discussed and some suggestions include that the missing sulfuric acid is in clusters, formed with contaminants found in most laboratory experiments. One-to-two-order-of-magnitude higher sulfuric-acid concentrations (measured as total sulfate in this study) would contribute to a higher fraction of particle growth rate than assumed from the measurements by mass spectrometers (i.e. sulfuric-acid monomer). However, the observed growth rates by sulfate-containing vapor in this study does not directly imply a similar situation in the field, where sources of sulfate are much more diverse.
The Impact of Globalization on the Equity Cost of Capital

The advent of the single currency within the European Union provides a natural experiment to measure how the cost of equity changes as globalization takes place. This is because the launch of the single currency has led to the elimination of currency-related restrictions on the composition of institutional investors’ portfolios and, hence, to increased risk sharing among EU investors. We focus not only on the impact of globalization on the level of the cost of equity, but also on the cross-country and cross-sectoral dispersion in the cost of capital. Over the 1990s it is shown that the cost of equity within EU sectors falls by between 0.5 and 3 percentage points. There is strong evidence of convergence in the cost of equity across different countries in the same sector. Convergence across different sectors is small. An implication for portfolio management is that country effects are becoming smaller and sector effects larger.
Female collared flycatchers adjust yolk testosterone to male age, but not to attractiveness

The differential allocation hypothesis predicts that females invest more resources into reproduction when mating with attractive males. In oviparous animals this can include prefertilization decisions such as the production of larger eggs and the deposition of hormones, such as the steroid testosterone, into yolks. On the other hand, a compensatory hypothesis posits that females allocate more resources into the eggs when mated with males of inferior quality. In the present study, we show that free-living females of the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis), a small passerine bird, do not produce larger eggs or deposit more testosterone into eggs when mating with attractive males reflected by a large forehead patch size, which is contrary to the prediction of the differential allocation hypothesis. However, we found higher yolk testosterone concentrations in eggs laid for young than older males. Because in young males genetic quality, parental experience, or willingness to invest into paternal care is likely to be low, high yolk testosterone level in their clutches may indicate that their females follow a compensatory tactic. They may elicit more paternal care from young, inexperienced males by hormonally increasing nestling begging. Laying date was also correlated with yolk testosterone level; however, when we controlled for it, male age still remained a strong determinant of testosterone allocation. Copyright 2005.
Impact of Nodal Centrality Measures to Robustness in Software-Defined Networking

The paper deals with the network robustness from the perspective of nodal centrality measures and its applicability in Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Traditional graph characteristics have been evolving during the last century, and numerous of less-conventional metrics was introduced trying to bring a new view to some particular graph attributes. New control technologies can finally utilize these metrics but simultaneously show new challenges. SDN brings the fine-grained and nearly online view of the underlying network state which allows to implement an advanced routing and forwarding. In such situation, sophisticated algorithms can be applied utilizing pre-computed network measures. Since in recent version of SDN protocol OpenFlow (OF) has been revived an idea of the fast link failover, the authors in this paper introduce a novel metric, Quality of Alternative Paths centrality (QAP). The QAP value quantifies node surroundings and can be with an advantage utilized in algorithms to indicate more robust paths. The centrality is evaluated using the node-failure simulation at different network topologies in combination with the Quality of Backup centrality measure.
Monitoring marine plankton ecosystems. II: Long-term changes in North Sea calanoid copepods in relation to hydro-climatic variability

Recently, a framework has been proposed to monitor plankton ecosystems in the North Atlantic and adjacent seas using calanoid copepod species. In this study, we use this framework to investigate, at the community structure (calanoid copepod) level, the long-term changes in plankton ecosystems related to hydro-climatic variability in the North Sea during the period 1958-1999. A chronology of ecological events that occurred in the North Sea is outlined. In addition to the long- term and year-to-year variability, this study reveals that North Sea plankton ecosystems had 2 dynamic regimes during the period 1958-1999: a cold-biological (1962-1982) and a warm-biological dynamic regime (1984-1999). The impact of the regime shift on the community structure of calanoid copepods and total diversity (as mean number of calanoid copepod species per continuous plankton recorder sample) is detectable in the stratified regions of the North Sea after ca. 1983. This study reveals that the regime shift resulted from the conjunction of both local and regional hydro-climatic forcing and a change in the location of an oceanic biogeographical boundary in the north-east Atlantic Ocean. Results indicate a strong dependence of ecological processes in the North Sea to both hydro-climatic and biological variability in the north-east Atlantic Ocean. If the current climate warming persists, results suggest that this may continue to alter the structure of North Sea ecosys- tems and lead to other regime shifts, thus making it very challenging to predict future responses of North Sea pelagic ecosystems to climate change.
The Relationship Between Organizational Culture, Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction

This paper aimed to investigate relationships between the four types of Organizational Culture (Clan, Hierarchy, Adhocracy and Market) and the three dimensions of Organizational Commitment (Affective, Normative and Instrumental) in the Brazilian banking sector. It was also analyzed the relationship between these four types of Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction dimensions (Relationship, Reward and Nature of work). Thus, it was applied an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by a multiple regression to verify the relationship between the variables. The results pointed to a more significant relationship between the Clan and Hierarchy Cultures with the variables studied.
Managing a Franchise in the Fully Franchised Form A Case Study of a Franchise System's Shift from a Plural Form to a Fully Franchised Form

Tutor: Kalle Kraus Date: 2012-12-10 Franchise theorists have failed to explore all possible organizational forms in a franchise system. The plural form has been the dominant topic of interest during the last two decades, while the fully franchised form has been marginalized to an unlikely future outcome. This study aims to bridge this research gap and provide a deep insight in the mechanisms at play in the fully franchised form. Through an in-depth case study of a Nordic multi-unit franchisee and their franchisor, qualitative empirics are provided to a quantitatively dominated research field. The case analysis shows that the fully franchised form has some major implications on how organizational structure, control systems and strategy making are used to manage the key challenges in a franchise system. Important findings are the franchisor’s worsened market insight, increased span of control and impaired cooperation with the franchisees.
The Effectiveness of Blended Learning in Improving Students' Achievement in Third Grade's Science in Bani Kenana

The study aimed at identifying the effectiveness of blended learning in improving students' achievement in the third grade's science in the traditional method. The study sample consisted of (108) male and female students, who were divided into two groups: experimental and control. The experimental group studied the units and changes of the material and the parts and functions of the plants for the third grade through using the blended learning while the control group studied the same units in the traditional method.An achievement test was developed in the mentioned units of the science course to measure the achievement, which had a sufficient validity and reliability. It was applied to the study sample; the appropriate statistical analyzes were conducted. The results indicated the presence of statistically significant differences in the post-achievement due to the teaching method in favor of the experimental group, the presence of a statistically significant difference in the post-achievement due to gender, in favor of males and lack of a statistically significant difference in the post- achievement due to the interaction between the method and gender. Keywords: blended learning, third grade, science, achievement.
The Effectiveness of the Community Medicine Undergraduate Program in Medical Schools on Enabling Medical Graduates to Work in the Health Systems

Introduction: The main mission of medical schools is to train competent medical trainees for providing primary health care services, management of health care team and improving the health status of the population. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the undergraduate program of community medicine department among the graduates as general (family) physicians in health system of East Azerbaijan, North-West of` Iran. Methods: In this cross- sectional study all family physicians of East Azerbaijan province were included. A questionnaire on the views of graduates about the effectiveness of community medicine undergraduate program was used for gathering data. Data were analyzed by T-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. Results: Performance of community medicine department in creating competency for providing effective health services among physicians was 2.13 and management competency was 1.96 out of 4. To teach the necessary skills to meet the professional needs in Primary Health Care (PHC), Tabriz Community Medicine Department was better compared to Azad and other medical schools (p<0.001). Conclusions: The results of the study showed that the community medicine program in undergraduate medical education was effective for future career of physicians in the health system. There is a need to revise the health management courses in community medicine program.
The effect of large‐scale model time step and multiscale coupling frequency on cloud climatology, vertical structure, and rainfall extremes in a superparameterized GCM

The effect of global climate model (GCM) time step—which also controls how frequently global and embedded cloud resolving scales are coupled—is examined in the Superparameterized Community Atmosphere Model ver 3.0. Systematic bias reductions of time‐mean shortwave cloud forcing (∼10 W/m2) and longwave cloud forcing (∼5 W/m2) occur as scale coupling frequency increases, but with systematically increasing rainfall variance and extremes throughout the tropics. An overarching change in the vertical structure of deep tropical convection, favoring more bottom‐heavy deep convection as a global model time step is reduced may help orchestrate these responses. The weak temperature gradient approximation is more faithfully satisfied when a high scale coupling frequency (a short global model time step) is used. These findings are distinct from the global model time step sensitivities of conventionally parameterized GCMs and have implications for understanding emergent behaviors of multiscale deep convective organization in superparameterized GCMs. The results may also be useful for helping to tune them.
Integrating local scale drainage measures in meso scale catchment modelling

This article presents a methodology to optimize the integration of local scale drainage measures in catchment modelling. The methodology enables to zoom into the processes (physically, spatially and temporally) where detailed physical based computation is required and to zoom out where lumped conceptualized approaches are applied. It allows the definition of parameters and computation procedures on different spatial and temporal scales. Three methods are developed to integrate features of local scale drainage measures in catchment modelling: (1) different types of local drainage measures are spatially integrated in catchment modelling by a data mapping; (2) interlinked drainage features between data objects are enabled on the meso, local and micro scale; (3) a method for modelling multiple interlinked layers on the micro scale is developed. For the computation of flow routing on the meso scale, the results of the local scale measures are aggregated according to their contributing inlet in the network structure. The implementation of the methods is realized in a semi-distributed rainfall-runoff model. The implemented micro scale approach is validated with a laboratory physical model to confirm the credibility of the model. A study of a river catchment of 88 km2 illustrated the applicability of the model on the regional scale.
THE INFLUENCE OF INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS AND JOB RELATED ATTITUDES ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

xiv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background of the Study 1 1.1.1 Employee Empowerment 5 1.1.2 Institutional Factors 7 1.1.3 Job-Related Attitudes 8 1.1.4 Organizational Performance 10 1.1.5 Public Universities in Kenya 12 1.2 The Research Problem 15 1.3 Research Objectives 17 1.4 Value of the Study 17 1.5 Scope of the Study 18 1.6 Definition of Terms 19 1.7 Structure of the Thesis 19 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 22 2.
Viroid species associated with the bark-cracking phenotype of 'Tahiti' acid lime in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

Viroids have been used as "graft transmissible dwarfing agents" (GTDA) in several countries, mainly to reduce growth of citrus trees, thus increasing their density in orchards. In the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, plants of the acid lime 'Tahiti' are usually grafted with a complex of GTDA, presumably viroids. The aim of the present work was the identification and molecular characterization of the viroids infecting trees of acid lime 'Tahiti' displaying "Quebra galho" (bark-cracking). Viroids were identified and characterized by biological indexing in 'Etrog' citron, Northern-blot hybridization, RT-PCR, cloning and complete sequencing of the RNA genomes. Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd), Hop stunt viroid (HSVd) and Citrus dwarfing viroid (CDVd) were found in different combinations. Although we have not been able to infer a direct relationship between the agronomical performance and symptom severity with the presence of a specific viroid or viroid combination, the differences in the severity of "Quebra-galho" symptoms among different trees is probably associated with the presence (or absence) of CEVd, with its interaction with other viroids perhaps determining the different phenotypes observed in the field.
A Hybrid Bulk–Bin Approach to Model Warm-Rain Processes

Abstract This paper presents a hybrid approach to model warm-rain processes, merging the diverse schemes of bulk and detailed (bin) microphysics. In the bulk scheme, the key assumption is that the exact saturation is maintained inside a cloud. In contrast, the supersaturation inside a cloud is predicted in the bin scheme and is applied to calculate the diffusional growth of cloud droplets. Predicting the supersaturation is numerically cumbersome, however, and typically requires spatial and temporal resolutions that are significantly higher than those that can be applied in the bulk scheme. At the same time, supersaturations inside clouds are small, and the condensate amounts in bulk and bin schemes differ insignificantly. This critical observation forms a starting point for the hybrid bulk–bin approach. In this approach, when the cloud water first appears, the activation scheme inserts cloud droplets at the low end of the bin representation. Subsequent diffusional and eventually accretional growth shift t.
Classification of music genres using sparse representations in overcomplete dictionaries

This paper presents a simple, but efficient and robust, method for music genre classification that utilizes sparse representations in overcomplete dictionaries. The training step involves creating dictionaries, using the K-SVD algorithm, in which data corresponding to a particular music genre has a sparse representation. In the classification step, the Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) algorithm is used to separate feature vectors that consist only of Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) coefficients. The paper analyses in detail a popular case study from the literature, the ISMIR 2004 database. Using the presented method, the correct classification percentage of the 6 music genres is 85.59, result that is comparable with the best results published so far.
Fatty acid profiles and fat contents of commercially important fish from Vistula Lagoon.

Investigations were conducted for fat content and fatty acids composition of six of the most frequently fished species inhabiting the Vistula Lagoon (bream, roach, perch, pikeperch, herring, and eel). Fat content of the fish examined ranged from 0.39 to 29.77%, whereas fatty acids composition range was as follows: saturated fatty acids (SFA) 25.1-29.4%, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) 22.3-52.2%, and polyunsaturated fatty acids(PUFA) 18.5-52.2%. Among the SFAs, palmitic acid dominated (C16:0). Oleic acid (C18:1) had the greatest share of the MUFAs. PUFAs had a high share of acids from the n-3 family, especially of eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids. A high share of these acids was confirmed in the fats of pikeperch (33.25%) and perch (31.02%). The total contents of EPA and DHA in 100 g of muscle tissue of the fish examined in the current study was as follows: eel - 2.11 g; herring - 0.62 g; bream - 0.33 g; roach - 0.19 g; perch - 0.16 g; and pikeperch - 0.14 g (the recommended daily dose for healthy persons is 0.5 g). At the recommended minimum value of 0.45, the ratios of n-6/n-3 (0.18 - 0.55) and PUFA/SFA (0.63 - 2.04) were advantageous in the fats of the fish examined.
Northern Ireland Software Industry Survey

This presentation discusses statistical findings obtained from a survey of the state of software development practices within Northern Ireland (NI). The survey was developed and conducted by staff from the Centre for Software Process Technologies (CSPT). The CSPT is concerned with the engineering of high quality software. An important function of the CSPT is to provide infrastructural support to the NI software industry. CSPT was established in September 2002 and is jointly funded by Invest Northern Ireland (INI) – a regional economic development agency, and the University of Ulster. A significant part of the centre’s remit is concerned with empirical research in the area of software processes and with knowledge transfer objectives in relation to software process improvement. In order that the CSPT can play an active role in helping software organizations to improve their development processes, the centre needed to understand the current state of software development practice within NI.
Oxygen abundances in planet-harbouring stars. Comparison of different abundance indicators

We present a detailed and uniform study of oxygen abundances in 155 solar type stars, 96 of which are planet hosts and 59 of which form part of a volume–limited comparison sample with no known planets. EW measurements were carried out for the [O I] 6300 A line and the O I triplet, and spectral synthesis was performed for several OH lines. NLTE corrections were calculated and applied to the LTE abundance results derived from the O I 7771–5 A triplet. Abundances from [O I], the O I triplet and near-UV OH were obtained in 103, 87 and 77 dwarfs, respectively. We present the first detailed and uniform comparison of these three oxygen indicators in a large sample of solar-type stars. There is good agreement between the [O/H] ratios from forbidden and OH lines, while the NLTE triplet shows a systematically lower abundance. We found that discrepancies between OH, [O I] and the O I triplet do not exceed 0.2 dex in most cases. We have studied abundance trends in planet host and comparison sample stars, and no obvious anomalies related to the presence of planets have been detected. All three indicators show that, on average, [O/Fe] decreases with [Fe/H] in the metallicity range $-0.8< [$Fe/H$] < 0.5$. The planet host stars present an average oxygen overabundance of 0.1–0.2 dex with respect to the comparison sample.