Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of OMI operational standard NO 2 column retrievals using in situ and surface-based NO 2 observations

Abstract. We assess the standard operational nitrogen dioxide (NO2) data product (OMNO2, version 2.1) retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard NASA's Aura satellite using a combination of aircraft and surface in~situ measurements as well as ground-based column measurements at several locations and a bottom-up NOx emission inventory over the continental US. Despite considerable sampling differences, NO2 vertical column densities from OMI are modestly correlated (r = 0.3–0.8) with in situ measurements of tropospheric NO2 from aircraft, ground-based observations of NO2 columns from MAX-DOAS and Pandora instruments, in situ surface NO2 measurements from photolytic converter instruments, and a bottom-up NOx emission inventory. Overall, OMI retrievals tend to be lower in urban regions and higher in remote areas, but generally agree with other measurements to within ± 20%. No consistent seasonal bias is evident. Contrasting results between different data sets reveal complexities behind NO2 validation. Since validation data sets are scarce and are limited in space and time, validation of the global product is still limited in scope by spatial and temporal coverage and retrieval conditions. Monthly mean vertical NO2 profile shapes from the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) chemistry-transport model (CTM) used in the OMI retrievals are highly consistent with in situ aircraft measurements, but these measured profiles exhibit considerable day-to-day variation, affecting the retrieved daily NO2 columns by up to 40%. This assessment of OMI tropospheric NO2 columns, together with the comparison of OMI-retrieved and model-simulated NO2 columns, could offer diagnostic evaluation of the model.
Microbial Profiles of Rhizosphere and Bulk Soil Microbial Communities of Biofuel Crops Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) and Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.)

The production of biofuels from the low-input energy crops, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) and jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.), is a sustainable approach that can provide more usable energy and environmental benefits than food-based biofuels. Plant rhizosphere affects the microbial community structure due to variations in root exudation rates and residue chemistry. The objective of this investigation was to determine the profiles of microbial communities associated with rhizosphere and bulk soils of switchgrass or jatropha using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and length heterogeneity PCR (LH-PCR). Switchgrass soil contained a significantly (Pl0.05) higher abundance of Gram-positive (i14:0, i15:0, a15:0), Gram-negative (16:1ω5c, 16:1ω7c, 18:1ω5c), and saturated (14:0, 15:0) PLFAs compared to jatropha soil, whereas jatropha had a higher abundance of fungal (18:2ω6, 9c), 18:1ω9c, 20:1ω9c, and 18:0 PLFAs compared to switchgrass soil. Irrespective of plant type, rhizosphere soil contained a significantly (Pl0.05) higher abundance of saturated PLFAs (16:0, 18:0, 20:0), actinomycetes (10Me17:0), and fungal (18:2ω6, 9c) PLFAs compared to bulk soil; whereas bulk soil had higher abundance of saturated (14:0), Gram-negative (16:1ω9c, 16:1ω5c, 16:1ω7c), and 18:1ω9c PLFAs compared to rhizosphere soil. Multivariate principle component analysis of PLFAs and LH-PCR percent relative peak areas successfully differentiated the microbial communities of rhizosphere and bulk soils of switchgrass and jatropha.
A Critique of Overreaction Effect in the Global Stock Markets Over the Past Three Decades

Overreaction Effect can be traced back to 1980's when DeBondt and Thaler (1986) argued that there existed a strong tendency for both low and high performing securities in one period to experience reversal in following years. Since then it has become one of the grey areas in finance and lead to an on-going debate on its existence. The current paper critically evaluates the work of various authors discussing the possible causes of the effect and its behavioural aspects.
Failed conservative management in a case of placenta percreta lead to total hysterectomy for haemostasis and bladder injury

We describe an unfavourable outcome for the conservative management applied to a case of placenta percreta in a 32 year-old woman who referred to our obstetrics department with irregular vaginal bleeding. Her medical history pointed out she had undergone a corporeal caesarean one month before. Ultrasonography revealed a hyperechoic mass in the uterine cavity. After careful investigation by serial values of beta HCG, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and exploratory cystoscopy for assessing the degree of placental accretisation we decided to perform an inter-adnexal total hysterectomy with bilateral hypogastric artery ligation. To prevent immediate complications an early diagnosis and a prompt evaluation of the bleeding are important, while a careful follow up is also necessary for predicting any subsequent serious consequences.
Stocking Up For Good Times: The Information Content of CEO's Voluntary Equity Exposure

We find that firms where CEOs voluntarily have a high exposure to their firm‟s stock have high positive future abnormal stock returns of about 4 to 6% per year. High total equity exposure of the CEOs does not necessarily lead to high abnormal stock performance. However, high abnormal returns are observed when high equity exposure is coupled with a high likelihood of the exposure being voluntarily chosen. These results are robust to different ways of measuring abnormal returns and total equity exposure. The level of voluntarily chosen equity exposure has information about future returns that is not captured by the extent of purchases made by the CEO during that year. The return predictability is higher in firms where the CEO is likely to have a greater information advantage viz. younger, negative profitability, non dividend paying firms, and firms with high dispersion of analyst forecast. The variables that forecast abnormal returns seem to be related to a higher probability of dividend increase announcement and lower probability of revelation of accounting irregularities over the subsequent year. Overall, our results suggests that CEOs have information about future stock price performance and use that to choose their equity exposure levels to the firm, which is an explanation for the seemingly puzzling observation that many CEOs seem to hold large amounts of own company stock voluntarily. We also find some evidence that CEOs choose to have high stock holdings because it helps them get entrenched and enjoy private benefits of control. While a large literature examines the information content of executive purchases and sales, our results suggest that the level of equity exposure, when it reflects the choice of the CEO, also has information about future firm returns.
Did the Introduction of the Euro Lead to Money Illusion? Empirical Evidence from Germany

Using the introduction of the euro as a natural experiment, we provide economy-wide evidence for money illusion based on declared donations from German administrative income tax data. Our results suggest a magnitude of the money illusion effect between 2.4% and 7.6%. Compared to previous studies on money illusion in the course of the euro currency changeover this effect size is significantly lower. We trace this back to the more comprehensive donation data in our study compared to hitherto studied face-to-face collections, which makes our results less prone to "power of the ask" and social pressure effects.
Comparing the Structure and Robustness of Passifloraceae - Floral Visitor and True Pollinator Networks in a Lowland Atlantic Forest

We investigated the plant-pollinator interactions of Passifloraceae occurring in fragments of lowland semi-deciduous Atlantic forest. We described floral biology, pollination syndromes and the pollinators of Passiflora alata , Passiflora kermesina , Passiflora suberosa , Passiflora malacophylla and Mitostemma glaziovii . We examined the robustness of the interaction networks to species loss, a plausible scenario resulting from forest fragmentation. The effects of pollination syndrome (flower size) on network robustness was also examined. Passiflora alata , P. malacophylla and P. suberosa were pollinated by bees of different corporal sizes. P. kermesina and M. glaziovii presented the highest diversity of visitors and were pollinated mainly by hummingbirds and butterflies, respectively. Through the analysis of the networks we differentiate the structures of the flower-visitor network with the ‘true’ plant-pollinator network. The robustness of the flower-visitor network to animal loss was generally high, but it declined when only true pollinators were included in the network. The sequential loss of plants from the flower-visitor network resulted in low robustness: the loss of key plants could have significant cascading effects on the animals feeding on them within the forest fragment. Future studies should consider the interactions between all flowering plants and animals in this habitat in order to guide conservation and management plans for these forest fragments.
Migration decision-making and migration industry in the Indonesia–Malaysia corridor

ABSTRACT This paper explores the involvement of migration industry (MI) in the migration system of Indonesia and Malaysia. The two countries share an extensive border and have much in common in culture and history but they are very different in geographical size, population and economic development, the latter being a main cause for labour migration from Indonesia to Malaysia. The changing context of government policies generates new niches for migration services taken up by formal and informal intermediaries, thereby confronting migrants with a varied migration-decision field and thresholds during their migration process. Much of the migration is legal, but a large part of it also takes place outside the control of the national governments. While taking mental processes in migration decision-making as starting point, we analyse how the MI, by way of fostering, facilitating and controlling geographic mobility and localised employment, connects to the production and negotiating of three migration decision thresholds faced by migrants.
The Trade-Growth Relationship in Israel Revisited: Evidence from Annual Data, 1960-2004

The topic of trade effects on economic growth has been usually controversial. Former empirical evidence linking trade to growth in Israel has been mixed and inconclusive either. This study reexamines the role of trade in Israel by testing for cointegration and causality from both exports and imports to output and total factor productivity over 1960-2004. The results suggest that both output and TFP are positively long-run correlated with exports and imports. The Granger causality tests indicate positive effects of exports on both output and TFP, where imports influence output only. In addition, physical capital has also been found to be Granger-caused by imports. However, it is uncertain whether this finding reflects a true economic causality.
Biological treatment of crop residues for ruminant feeding: A review

Crop residues are often referred to as ‘lignocellulosics’ as they are rich in cellulose which is bound with a biopolymer lignin. Rumen microbiota (bacteria, protozoa and fungi), even with their hydrolytic enzymes, are not very competent enough to break these bonds efficiently. Biological treatment of such crop residues using white rot fungi (WRF) can break the ligno-cellulose complexes, liberating free cellulose and thus enhancing their feeding value for ruminants. Biologically treated roughages have higher digestibility for most of the nutrients (both cell walls and cell solubles) with an increase in crude protein content as compared to untreated material, besides ensuring more fermentable substrates in the rumen. Further, recent studies have indicated low methane emission from feedstuffs subjected to solid state fermentation (SSF) with ligninolytic fungi as a result of their improved digestion and nutrient assimilation. This review primarily deals with the nature and composition of crop residues, their inherent nutritive constraints as ruminant feed and to overcome the same by means of biological treatments. The progresses to date in in vitro and in vivo studies on biologically treated lignocellulosics have also been reviewed. Keywords: Crop residues, ligninolytic fungi, ruminant, digestibility, methane African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(27), pp. 4221-4231
[Significance of detecting urinary podocytes in patients with active glomerulonephritis].

OBJECTIVE To establish a reliable method for detecting urinary podocytes, as a non-traumatic marker to evaluate glomerular injury in patients with glomerulonephritis. METHODS Sixty patients with renal diseases in our renal wards were diagnosed based on the pathological findings in their kidney biopsy tissues, which was examined by light microscopy, immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. Sediments of morning urinary samples were collected and centrifuged onto glass slides before kidney biopsy. Thirty healthy volunteers were enrolled as controls. The podocytes were identified by immunofluorescence staining by using monoclonal antibody against human podocalyxin (PCX) presenting on the surface of podocytes. The patients were divided into active inflammation group and chronic injury group according to their glomerular lesions. RESULTS (1)The anti-human PCX antibody we used could specifically recognize the antigen expressed on podocytes in urine sediments examined by indirect immunofluorescence staining. (2) The PCX-positive staining cells in the urine were observed in various glomerulonephritis, and were absent in the healthy controls. (3) The rate of appearance of urinary podocytes was significantly higher in active inflammation group compared with that in chronic injury group (72% vs 22.7%, P<0.05). (4) The glomerular injury index in the patients with PCX-positive staining cells in the urine was markedly increased than that in the patients with PCX-negative staining cells (154+/-60 vs 82+/-46, P<0.05). CONCLUSION The urinary podocytes could be detected in urine sediments from patients with glomerulonephritis by using anti-human PCX antibody, and this method may find further application in the markers to predict the activity of glomerular lesions.
Instrumental Variables Analysis and the Role of National Culture in Corporate Finance

In this article, we identify and review instrumental variables used to study the relation between national culture and finance. Recognizing that an effective instrument must be correlated with the endogenous variable (relevance condition) and must not be correlated with the outcome variable (exclusion condition), we conduct analysis and provide theoretical arguments to ascertain the ability of each candidate instrument to meet these criteria. We further document where to locate the data to form the actual instruments. Overall, we design this study to help future authors weigh the strengths and weaknesses of using specific instruments and to better inform empirical strategies for addressing the endogeneity concerns inherent in the “culture and finance” literature.
Cognitive Ability and Cooperation: Evidence from the Public Goods Experiments

The most important unanswered question in evolutionary biology, and more generally in the social sciences, is how cooperative behavior evolved. What it takes to bring out our cooperative spirit is a scientific puzzle that is driv- ing basic scientific research and shaping the future of science. By using the public goods game model, we designed four types of experiments, namely, non-punishment (NP), free punishment (FP), cost punishment (CP), and ex- ternal punishment (EP) experiment, to test the hypothesis that people with higher cognitive abilities have internalized a higher tendency of cooperation. We found that people with higher cognitive abilities are more willing to sacri- fice private gain for the public good in FP, CP, and EP experiment; They also imposed more "pro-social punishment" (spending time and energy to punish unfair actions, even though thereâ€™s nothing to be gained by these actions for themselves), and less "antisocial punishment" (punishing the high contributors as much as they punished the low contributors).
Functional and Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Human Language: A Review

In this review we outline the range of functional processes involved in language comprehension and their anatomical underpinnings, including recent data on neural connectivity specifically wired for language, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as main tool. A review of this type certainly implies such a large number of references that, for the sake of concision, we have selected the most outstanding and representative studies and reviews. Our interests in identifying possible cues for the evolutionary origins of language partially guided this selection; this review is actually intended as a contribution to better understand human language. To start with, a description of language and its components appears necessary. In this regard, we will follow the proposal by Ray Jackendoff (2002), who provides one of the most comprehensive and valuable current accounts from the linguistics. Jackendoff proposes at least three structural layers in language, all of them working simultaneously in the processing of every utterance. These layers consist of a phonological structure, a syntactic structure, and a semantic/conceptual structure. Additionally, a number of processes -or subprocessescoexist within each of these three structures, all of them again working simultaneously. The phonological structure, which roughly refers to the “sounds” of language, is probably the most complex one, containing the largest number of subprocesses. The auditoryverbal nature of human language may not be alien to this complexity. The phonological structure is actually subdivided into a prosodic one -referring to the different intonations along the course of a general envelope covering an entire utteranceand more partial processes referring to syllabic, segmental, and morpho-phonological structures. These latter three structures refer to what most people would call “phonology” as such, and roughly cover the sounds of single syllables, larger word segments, and complete words, respectively. Syntax refers to the structure of a sentence; that is, the way in which the different words or morphemes constituting a sentence are organized -most often hierarchically-, determining their mutual relationships and dependencies. The hierarchical structure achieved by syntax establishes what the main information is and its relationships with other, secondary items of information; that is, the concrete state of affairs described in an utterance in which the meaning of individual words and morphemes combine. This structure appears “desemantized”, i.e., it can be entirely independent of the individual
Milk Yield ( Offtake ) , Composition , Dam and Kid Weight Changes of West African Dwarf Goats Fed Dietary Levels Of Palm Kernel Cake

The milk yield, composition, dam and kid weight of nine lactating West African Dwarf goats fed dietary levels of palm kernel cake were assessed. The completely randomized design with three dietary treatment levels (0, 20 and 30%) of palm kernel cake and three goats per treatment was used. The values of the milk yields (milk offtake) were all significant P<0.05). The average milk yield per day ranged from 40.00 205.00 gday -1 . The mean milk yield at the three dietary levels (0, 20 and 30%) were 138.33, 159.44 and 175.56 gday -1 respectively. The milk of the lactating WAD goats was rich in nutrients. The highest values of the milk nutrients were as follows: 4.14% milk fat, 3.76% protein, 13.07% total solids, 8.94% solids-not-fat, 4.41% lactose and 0.87% ash. The lactating WAD goats had highest P<0.05) average body weight change of 2.31 kg during the whole lactation period, and this is equivalent to daily weight gain of 18.33 gday-1. The weekly kid weights increased consistently from initial range of 1.81 – 1.93 kg to a final range of 9.10 – 12.80 kg. All the lactating WAD goats used in this experiment had twin kids and there was no mortality recorded during the experimental period. In conclusion, the inclusion of palm kernel cake in the concentrate diets of WAD goats resulted in higher average milk yield and kid weights at the 20% and 30% levels than at the 0% level of inclusion of palm kernel cake in the concentrate diets.
Static shift of magnetotelluric data and its removal in a sedimentary basin environment

Previous modeling investigations of the static shift of magnetotelluric (MT) apparent resistivity curves have limited appeal in that the electric fields used were point measurements, whereas field observations are of voltage differences. Thus, inhomogeneities of dimension of the order of the electrode line length could not be investi­ gated. In this paper, by using a modeling algorithm that derives point voltages rather than point electric fields, I consider the effect on the MT responses of local near­ surface distorting structures, which are both outside of, and inside, the telluric electrode array. I show that static-shift effects are of larger spatial size but of less magnitude than would be expected from conventional modeling. Also, the field observation that static shift affects only the apparent resistivity curve but not the phase response can be replicated by the voltage differ­ ence modeling. If there exists within the earth a layer whose variation in electrical resistivity along the profile can be treated in a parametric fashion, then static shift of the apparent resistivity curves can be corrected. Deriving the modal value from a sufficient number of observations for the layer resistivity is the most useful approach.
ENHANCEMENT OF THE APPLICABILITY OF MARKOWITZ'S PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION BY UTILIZING RANDOM MATRIX THEORY

The traditional estimated return for the Markowitz mean‐variance optimization has been demonstrated to seriously depart from its theoretic optimal return. We prove that this phenomenon is natural and the estimated optimal return is always times larger than its theoretic counterpart, where with y as the ratio of the dimension to sample size. Thereafter, we develop new bootstrap‐corrected estimations for the optimal return and its asset allocation and prove that these bootstrap‐corrected estimates are proportionally consistent with their theoretic counterparts. Our theoretical results are further confirmed by our simulations, which show that the essence of the portfolio analysis problem could be adequately captured by our proposed approach. This greatly enhances the practical uses of the Markowitz mean‐variance optimization procedure.