Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Embarking on a Web Information Extraction project

Web Information Extraction (WIE) is a very popular topic, however we have yet to find a fully operational implementation of WIE, especially in the training courses domain. This paper explores the variety of technologies that can be used for this kind of project and introduces some of the issues that we have experienced. Our aim is to show a different view of WIE, as a reference model for future projects.
‘GREEN’ BUILDINGS: WHAT AUSTRALIAN BUILDING USERS ARE SAYING

A comparative post-occupancy evaluation, based on occupant surveys of 22 ‘green design intent’ buildings and 23 conventional buildings in Australia has been undertaken by Leaman, Thomas and Vandenberg. The study shows that while the best green buildings consistently outperformed the best conventional buildings from the occupants’ perspective, the first generation of Australian green buildings may be underperforming on some indoor environment variables. Green buildings that are designed and operated properly and are user responsive achieve positive environmental outcomes and simultaneously deliver positive feedback for comfort and productivity. On the other hand, green buildings that do not perform well, as a consequence of poor realisation of design intent and little attention to user needs, run the risk of greater user dissatisfaction than many conventional buildings. Across the buildings studied, the researchers identified significant associations between perceived productivity and overall comfort (lighting, ventilation, thermal comfort, and noise) and between perceived productivity and thermal comfort in particular. The findings presented in the paper highlight the importance of learning from post occupancy evaluations by using occupant feedback towards further development of successful green buildings.
Quantifying and isolating stable soil organic carbon using long-term bare fallow experiments

The stability of soil organic matter (SOM) is a major source of uncertainty in predicting atmospheric CO2 concentration during the 21st century. Isolating the stable soil carbon (C) from other, more labile, C fractions in soil is of prime importance for calibrating soil C simulation models, and gaining insights into the mechanisms that lead to soil C stability. Long-term experiments with continuous bare fallow (vegetation-free) treatments in which the decay of soil C is monitored for decades after all inputs of C have stopped, provide a unique opportunity to assess the quantity of stable soil C.We analyzed data from six bare fallow experiments of long-duration (>30 yrs), covering a range of soil types and climate conditions, and sited at Askov (Denmark), Grignon and Versailles (France), Kursk (Russia), Rothamsted (UK), and Ultuna (Sweden). A conceptual three pool model dividing soil C into a labile pool (turnover time of a several years), an intermediate pool (turnover time of a several decades) and a stable pool (turnover time of a several centuries or more) fits well with the long term C decline observed in the bare fallow soils. The estimate of stable C ranged from 2.7 g Ckg−1 at Rothamsted to 6.8 g C kg−1 at Grignon. The uncertainty associated with estimates of the stable pool was large due to the short duration of the fallow treatments relative to the turnover time of stable soil C. At Versailles, where there is least uncertainty associated with the determination of a stable pool, the soil contains predominantly stable C after 80 years of continuous bare fallow. Such a site represents a unique research platform for characterization of the nature of stable SOM and its vulnerability to global change.
Assessing European Competitiveness: The New CompNet Microbased Database

Drawing from confidential firm-level balance sheets for 17 European countries (13 Euro-Area), the paper documents the newly expanded database of cross-country comparable competitivenessrelated indicators built by the Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet). The new database provides information on the distribution of labour productivity, TFP, ULC or size of firms in detailed 2-digit industries but also within broad macro-sectors or considering the full economy. Most importantly, the expanded database includes detailed information on critical determinants of competitiveness such as the financial position of the firm, its exporting intensity, employment creation or price-cost margins. Both the distribution of all those variables, within each industry, but also their joint analysis with the productivity of the firm provides critical insights to both policymakers and researchers regarding aggregate trends dynamics. The current database comprises 17 EU countries, with information for 56 industries, including both manufacturing and services, over the period 1995-2012. The paper aims at analysing the structure and characteristics of this novel database, pointing out a number of results that are relevant to study productivity developments and its drivers. For instance, by using covariances between productivity and employment the paper shows that the drop in employment which occurred during the recent crisis appears to have had “cleansing effects” on EU economies, as it seems to have accelerated resource reallocation towards the most productive firms, particularly in economies under stress. Lastly, this paper will be complemented by four forthcoming papers, each providing an in-depth description and methodological overview of each of the main groups of CompNet indicators (financial, trade-related, product and labour market).
Securities Markets in Thailand 2 . 1 Recent Transition

The paper examines how Thai securities markets at the pre-crisis period functioned as a place of fund raising for domestic large firms. At first, by critically surveying the previous relevant researches and observing the characteristics of Thai firms’ capital structure, we examine a modified view of “pecking order hypothesis” for seeking more applicable models of corporate finance in developing financial markets. Then, with firm-level data at the period of 1992-95, and various information on ownership such as business group affiliations or foreign ownership, we conduct two types of the estimations: a panel estimation on the effect of the firms’ IPOs on their fund raising behavior, and a Probit estimation on the determinate of firms’ IPO behavior. From the estimations, we find the various evidences that shareholders of Thai large firms tend to utilize the securities markets in relation with their internal capital market, whereas a certain type of foreign owned firms utilize the securities markets as a mechanism for better governance. We also find that there is a kind of complimentarity between firm’s participation in the securities markets and the transactions in bank loan markets. 1 Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University (Corresponding Author) 2 Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Evaluation of the melting capacity of Prato cheese obtained by modifications of the traditional manufacturing process

The objective of this research was to study the effect of the following modifications to the traditional manufacturing process of Prato cheese: use of milk concentrated by ultrafiltration (UFCM) up to a concentration factor (CF) of 4:1, and partial pre-fermentation of the UFCM and indirect curd cooking on the composition, pH, titratable acidity (TA) and melting capacity (MC) of the cheese as compared with the standard cheese. Three processings of each of the following five treatments were carried out: Treatment 1 (T1), without ultrafiltration; Treatment 2 (T2), ultrafiltra- tion without pre-fermentation of the UFCM; Treatment 3 (T3), pre-fermentation of 100 g·kg -1 of the UFCM; Treatment 4 (T4), pre-fermentation of 200 g·kg-1 of the UFCM; and Treatment 5 (T5), pre-fermentation of 200 g·kg -1 of the UFCM, and the only one with indirect curd heating. There was a significant difference for total solids between cheeses T4 and T5 with respect to T2. T2 presented the lowest fat and fat in dry matter content, although the observed differences were not statistically significant. The UFCM cheeses presented lower values for fat recovery in cheeses with a significant difference between the treatments T2 and T3 with respect to T1, the fat losses in processing being the main factor affecting cheeses' composition. The pre-fermentation of 200 g·kg-1 of the UFCM increased the acidity and reduced the pH of the cheeses. The time did not exert an influence on the pH but it increased cheeses's TA and MC. There was no difference in MC between the treatments but there was a tendency for greater MC values for cheeses with a higher water to total protein ratio and higher pH value.
Economic Resilience: Definition and Measurement

The welfare impact of a disaster does not only depend on the physical characteristics of the event or its direct impacts in terms of lost lives and assets. Welfare impacts also depend on the ability of the economy to cope, recover, and reconstruct and therefore to minimize aggregate consumption losses. This ability can be referred to as the macroeconomic resilience to natural disasters. Macroeconomic resilience has two components: instantaneous resilience, which is the ability to limit the magnitude of immediate production losses for a given amount of asset losses, and dynamic resilience, which is the ability to reconstruct and recover. Welfare impacts also depend on micro-economic resilience, which depends on the distribution of losses; on households' vulnerability, such as their pre-disaster income and ability to smooth shocks over time with savings, borrowing, and insurance, and on the social protection system, or the mechanisms for sharing risks across the population. The (economic) welfare disaster risk in a country can be reduced by reducing the exposure or vulnerability of people and assets (reducing asset losses), increasing macroeconomic resilience (reducing aggregate consumption losses for a given level of asset losses), or increasing microeconomic resilience (reducing welfare losses for a given level of aggregate consumption losses). The paper proposes rules of thumb to estimate macroeconomic and microeconomic resilience based on the relevant parameters in the economy. It also provides a toolbox of policies to increase macro- or micro-economic resilience and a list of indicators that can be used to build a resilience indicator.
Evaluation of Mechanical Methods used for the Enhancement of Dissolved Oxygen and Removal of Ammonia Toxicity from Intensive Shrimp Farming Wastewater

Ammonia (NH 3 ) is produced in shrimp culture wastewater and potentially toxic to aquatic animals especially in low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions. Therefore the enhancement of DO levels and NH 3 toxicity removal is important in tertiary wastewater treatment and is necessary to bring NH 3 to a safer level to achieve biological treatment of shrimp effluents. The performance of five mechanical treatment methods used in aquaculture including splash board, gutter, diffuse aerator system, paddlewheel and a porcupine-fan were evaluated in terms of their efficiency in the treatment of shrimp wastewater for enhancement of DO and removal of NH 3 from shrimp farming wastewater. The experiments were conducted at the last month of the shrimp crop production cycle. Results indicated that these five treatment methods have potential in increasing DO and removing NH 3 toxicity. However, among all instruments, the splash board method was found to be more efficient than the other treatment methods in terms of treatment performance and less energy requirement. Splash board produced the highest increase in DO (6.64 mg L ‑1 ) and followed by gutter (4.65 mg L ‑1 ) treatment within the six hours. The value of DO was comparatively lower in other methods such as porcupine-fan (3.91 mg L ‑1 ) > paddlewheel (3.78 mg L ‑1 ) > diffuse aerator system (3.2 mg L -1 ) and control (0.88 mg L -1 ) during the same period. Ammonia removal by splash board was up to 99.3% within six hours, followed in order by gutter (76.8%), porcupine-fan (63.6%), paddlewheel (55.0%) and diffuse aerator system (44.4%) while the NH 3 levels increased in the control by up to 157.7% compared to the initial value.
Enhanced deformation of limestone and sandstone in the presence of high pCO2 fluids

[1] Geological repositories subject to the injection of large amounts of anthropogenic carbon dioxide will undergo chemical and mechanical instabilities for which there are currently little experimental data. This study reports on experiments where low and high (8 MPa) aqueous fluids were injected into natural rock samples. The experiments were performed in flow-through triaxial cells, where the vertical and confining stresses, temperature, and pressure and composition of the fluid were separately controlled and monitored. The axial vertical strains of two limestones and one sandstone were continuously measured during separate experiments for several months, with a strain rate resolution of 10−11 s−1. Fluids exiting the triaxial cells were continuously collected and their compositions analyzed. The high fluids induced an increase in strain rates of the limestones by up to a factor of 5, compared to the low fluids. Injection of high fluids into the sandstone resulted in deformation rates one order of magnitude smaller than the limestones. The creep accelerating effect of high fluids with respect to the limestones was mainly due to the acidification of the injected fluids, resulting in a significant increase in solubility and reaction kinetics of calcite. Compared to the limestones, the much weaker response of the sandstone was due to the much lower solubility and reactivity of quartz in high fluids. In general, all samples showed a positive correlation between fluid flow rate and strain rate. X-ray tomography results revealed significant increases in porosity at the inlet portion of each core; the porosity increases were dependent on the original lithological structure and composition. The overall deformation of the samples is interpreted in terms of simultaneous dissolution reactions in pore spaces and intergranular pressure solution creep.
The Relationship amongst Person-Organization Fit, Safety Consciousness, Safety Climate and Safety Behavior

Technological advances have reduced accident rates caused by machine-related errors, accidents that have occurred in individual and organizational errors are still continuing. Safety perceptions, attitudes and beliefs of people and their personality traits emerge safe or unsafe behaviors in the work environment. In addition, high congruence of employee characteristics and organizational characteristics supports the creation of a safe working environment. The purposes of this study were to examine the effect of airline employees’ person-organization fit, and safety consciousness on safety behavior and investigate the mediation role of safety climate on these effects. The data collected from planning, operations control, flight safety and quality employees of an airline operating in Turkey (N=178). Data were analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 program and factor, correlation and regression analyzes were performed to identify interrelationships with descriptive statistics. Findings show that person-organization fit, and safety consciousness had positive effects on safety climate and safety behavior; safety climate had full mediation role in the effect of person-organization fit on safety behavior; and had a partial mediation role in the effect of safety consciousness on safety behavior.
A Study on Efficacy of LLINS As Compared To In-Use ITNs Amongst Troops in a Malaria Endemic Area

Malaria causes a lot of morbidity and mortality each year, esp. among troops operating in uncongenial Malarial areas. Personal protection by use of bed nets is one of the main methods of protection against the Anopheles and other species of mosquitoes, besides the anti-larval and anti-adult sprays. Insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) are already in use, but these involve periodic retreatment with costly chemicals. Long-lasting Insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) which do not require re-treatment, could therefore prove to be good substitutes for ITNs. A study was thus planned and undertaken to compare the efficacy of LLINs with ITNs, in an endemic area. The knock-down, effect after washes and repellant action of the LLINs were studied and analyzed. The results showed that LLINs were more effective in knocking down/killing mosquitoes as compared to the ITNs. Even after washes, the LLINs retained their initial level of effectiveness. In addition, they were more effective in reducing the Manhour Density (MHD) of the mosquitoes as compared to ITNs. The future of mosquito control largely depends on effective distribution, usage and retention of LLINs. More research and bio-efficacy evaluations are required especially to deal with factors like insecticide resistance.
MIGRANT SECURITY: 2010

The ̳human security‘ paradigm emerged in the early 1990s as a means of refocusing the security referent away from the state to the individual. It is a theory that is grounded in human rights and the provision of basic needs for all of humanity, regardless of their locale, identity or citizenship status. As a theory, it was not intended to replace notions of traditional security, but was instead intended to be a complementary theory on security as it has been argued that human insecurity actually threatens state security. While the concept itself remains somewhat contested in the political sciences, human security nonetheless provides a useful analysis of non-state security issues and dilemmas, particularly those that concern the human condition. In recent years there has been increasing recognition that the human security paradigm has overlooked the vulnerabilities often faced by women, many of which are gender-based and thereby not shared by men. To counter this, there have been attempts to ̳engender‘ human security discourse in academic literature. This paper considers the vulnerabilities faced by female rural to urban migrants in the People‘s Republic of China and intersects the mainstream discourse on human security in an attempt to contribute further to the engendering of human security discourse.
A new frequency domain analytical solution of a cascade of diffusive channels for flood routing

Simplified flood propagation models are often employed in practical applications for hydraulic and hydrologic analyses. In this paper, we present a new numerical method for the solution of the Linear Parabolic Approximation (LPA) of the De Saint Venant equations (DSVEs), accounting for the space variation of model parameters and the imposition of appropriate downstream boundary conditions. The new model is based on the analytical solution of a cascade of linear diffusive channels in the Laplace Transform domain. The time domain solutions are obtained using a Fourier series approximation of the Laplace Inversion formula. The new Inverse Laplace Transform Diffusive Flood Routing model (ILTDFR) can be used as a building block for the construction of real‐time flood forecasting models or in optimization models, because it is unconditionally stable and allows fast and fairly precise computation.
Comparison of cultured and wild sea scallops Placopecten magellanicus, using behavioral responses and morphometric and biochemical indices

As the survival of juvenile scallops released onto the seabed is of critical importance in programs seeking to enhance scallop populations, the basis of the vulnerability of seeded cultured scallops needs to be understood. High mortality rates following seeding operations could reflect weaker predator escape responses by cultured scallops. Thus, we compared behavioral responses as well as morphometric and biochemical measurements of cultured and wild sea scallops Placopecten magellanicus (35 to 45 mm shell height) sampled in August 1999 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada. Cultured scallops had larger somatic tissues and higher muscle energetic contents than their wild counterparts. This may reflect the more favorable temperatures and better food supply during suspension culture. When faced with the starfish predator Asterias vulgaris, cultured scallops re- sponded with a greater number of claps, longer clapping period and faster recuperation of clapping performance. However, wild scallops had stronger shells and showed more intense escape responses (higher clapping rate) to the starfish. These differences contribute to making cultured scallops more vulnerable to predation by grasping predators (crabs) and asteroids.
Closer to a win-win situation? Changes in the salespersons-customer relationship when implementing value-selling

Value selling is often presented to be the most profitable and competitive sales practice in business markets. This paper argues that the relevant theory does not consider the consequences of introducing value selling for the relationship between the individual salesperson and buyer. This is problematic since the literature assigns most responsibilities within value selling to the salesperson. The purpose of this paper is to understand how implementing value selling changes the salesperson-customer relationships. In a case study of two manufacturing firms and their implementation of value selling two changes have been identified. Firstly, value selling results in enhanced customer relationships, due to the salesperson’s improved understanding of the customer’s situation. Secondly, it leads to a stronger power position for the salesperson because of a decreased focus on prices and increased focus on value in the discussions with the customer. (Less)
Interactive comment on “Impacts of climate change scenarios on runoff regimes in the southern Alps” by S. Barontini et al

The interactive comment was posted on Saturday, May 30th, just a couple of working days before the deadline for the on–line discussion for HESS–Discussion. As a consequence our on–line feedback will not be detailed enough as the Referee would maybe expect. A more detailed comment will be made available to the Editors as soon as we will receive all the Referees’ reports and the Editor’s comments for the final publication (if any will occur) on HESS.
Hydrological Excitation of Polar Motion Derived from GRACE Gravity Field Solutions

The influence of the continental water storage on the polar motion is not well known. Different models have been developed to evaluate these effects and compared to geodetic observations. However, previous studies have shown large discrepancies mainly attributed to the lack of global measurements of related hydrological parameters. Now, from the observations of the GRACE mission, we can estimate the polar motion excitation due to the global hydrology. Data processing of GRACE data is carried out by several centers of analysis, we focus on the new solution computed by the Groupe de Recherche de Geodesie Spatiale. At annual scales, excitations derived from GRACE data are in better agreement with geodetic observations than models estimates. The main contribution to the hydrological excitation comes from the monsoon climates regions where GRACE and models estimates are in a very good agreement. Still, the effect of the north high latitudes regions, where the principal areas of snow cover are found, cannot be neglected. At these regions, GRACE and models estimated contributions to polar motion excitations show significant discrepancies. Finally, GRACE-based excitations reveal the possible influence of water storage variations in exciting polar motion around the frequency of 3 cycles per year.