Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Empirical Perspective on the Relationship Between Innovation Performance and Sustainable Development

In 2015, almost all member states of the United Nations adopted seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which provide specific objectives and timelines to promote inclusive prosperity. Innovation is crucial for achieving sustainable development. Innovation itself is one of the SDGs (Goal 9) and also a means for achieving the others. It is aimed to reveal the multidimensional relationship of innovation with the pillars of sustainable development in this study. The dataset of the study consists of 35 OECD member countries and statistics of these countries between 2007-2019 years. Global innovation scores of countries were used for innovation. Human Development Index was used for the social dimension, CO2 emission values were used for the environmental dimension and GDP per capita was used for the economic dimension. The balanced panel was resolved through Eviews and STATA software packages programs. According to the results of the analysis, innovation has a positive and significant relationship with the social and economic pillars of sustainable development. It also has a significant but negative relationship with CO2 emission, which negative relationship is a positive situation for the environment. Therefore, the main result of the study is innovation has a positive effect on sustainable development. According to the causality test results, it was determined that there are both short and long-run relationships between the three dimensions of innovation and sustainable development.
Trade frictions, trade policies, and the interwar business cycle‡

This dissertation is composed of six chapters. Based on a comparison with other recessions throughout history, the first chapter motivates studying the Great Depression from a trade perspective. The second chapter sets the stage for such an endeavour. It introduces a new macroeconomic dataset for the interwar period and investigates the prelude and global impact of the Great Depression. Highlighting the variation of its severity along two dimensions, depth and duration, within and across countries, it conjectures that trade must have played an important role for the global extent of the crisis. The third chapter tests this conjecture by resurrecting the concept of the trade multiplier. Based on a causal estimate of the multiplier and auxiliary data, it demonstrates that the trade channel can explain significant proportions of the initial depth of the Depression in small open economies. If the fall of trade was important for propagating the Depression, analysing trade frictions is imperative. The fourth chapter thus turns to the analysis of retaliatory trade policies in response to currency devaluations. It shows that tariff retaliation was an important feature of interwar protectionism. Its effects on trade were large, which casts doubts on the unqualified favourable assessment of unilateral currency depreciations. Relating to the literature on the post-war distance puzzle, the fifth chapter assesses the relative importance of tariffs and transport costs during the interwar period. Not only were tariffs the dominant trade friction during this period, but their increase rendered distancerelated trade costs relatively less important. Finally, the sixth chapter draws implications for the academic and political discourse.
Activated Carbon from Winemaking Waste: Thermoeconomic Analysis for Large-Scale Production

An activated carbon manufacturing process from winemaking waste is analyzed. In that way, vine shoots conversion is studied as a basis for plant designing, and mass and energy balances of hydrothermal carbonization and physical activation are fulfilled. To develop an energy-integrated plant, a network of heat exchangers is allocated to recover heat waste, and a cogeneration cycle is designed to provide electricity and remaining heat process demands. Furthermore, thermoeconomic analysis is applied to determine the thermodynamic efficiency and the economic viability of the plant. Energy balance indicates that heat exchangers energy integration covers 48.9% of the overall demands by crossing hot and cold streams and recovering heat from residual flue gas. On the other hand, the exergy costs analysis identifies combustion of pruning wood as the main source of exergy destruction, confirming the suitability of the integration to improve the thermodynamic performance. Attending to economic costs analysis, production scale and vineyard pruning wood price are identified as a critical parameter on process profitability. With a scale of 2.5 ton/h of pruning wood carbonization, a break-event point to compete with activated carbons from biomass origin is reached. Nevertheless, cost of pruning wood is identified as another important economic parameter, pointing out the suitability of wet methods such as hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) to treat them as received form the harvest and to contribute to cutting down its prices.
On Factors that Moderate the Effect of Buyer‐Supplier Experience on E‐Procurement Platforms

E-procurement platforms facilitate transactions between suppliers and buyers from all over the world. Over time, suppliers and buyers may develop familiarity from prior experience with earlier transactions. The literature has established that prior experience leads to better project performance. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of prior experience between buyers and suppliers in e-procurement platforms with a focus on the moderating roles of temporal distance and language difference between the buyer and the supplier as well as the effect of routine tasks in the project (termed “task routinization”). Using a unique data set from a large e-procurement platform, we first find that buyers’ prior experience with a supplier positively affects project outcomes, and temporal distance and language difference both negatively affect project outcomes. This is consistent with previous findings for emerging e-procurement platforms. More interestingly, we find that the effectiveness of prior experience is constrained by both temporal distance and language difference, such that if a greater temporal distance separates the buyer and supplier or if the two speak different languages, prior experience is less likely to be helpful. In addition, while task routinization does not directly affect a project’s success, it has a positive interaction effect with prior experience, suggesting that buyers’ prior experience with a supplier is more effective in enhancing project outcomes when a project comprises routine tasks. Our findings on prior experience, temporal distance, language difference, and task routinization contribute to a better understanding of the e-procurement platform for global outsourcing and procurement. Limitations are discussed and topics are identified for future research.
Ignition Delay of Non-Premixed Methane-Air Mixtures using Conditional Moment Closure (CMC)

Autoignition of non-premixed methane-air mixtures is investigated using first-order Conditional Moment closure (CMC). In CMC, scalar quantities are conditionally averaged with respect to a conserved scalar, usually the mixture fraction [8]. The conditional fluctuations are often of small order, allowing the chemical source term to be modeled as a function of the conditional species concentrations and the conditional enthalpy (temperature). The first-order CMC derivation leaves many terms unclosed such as the conditional scalar dissipation rate, velocity and turbulent fluxes, and the probability density function. Submodels for these quantities are discussed and validated against Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). The CMC and the turbulent velocity and mixing fields calculations are decoupled based on the frozen mixing assumption, and the CMC equations are cross-stream averaged across the flow following the shear flow approximation [63]. Finite differences are used to discretize the equations, and a two-step fractional method is implemented to treat separately the stiff chemical source term. The stiff ODE solver LSODE [45] is used to solve the resulting system of equations. The recently developed detailed chemical kinetics mechanism UBC-Mech 1.0 [49] is employed throughout this study, and preexisting mechanisms are visited. Several ignition criteria are also investigated. Homogeneous and inhomogeneous CMC calculations are performed in order to investigate the role of physical transport in autoignition. Furthermore, the results of the perfectly homogeneous reactor calculations are presented and the critical value of the scalar dissipation rate for ignition is determined. The results are compared to the shock tube experimental data of Sullivan et al. [113]. The current results show good agreement with the experiments in terms of both ignition delay and ignition kernel location, and the trends obtained in the experiments are successfully reproduced. The results were shown to be sensitive to the scalar dissipation model, the chemical kinetics, and the ignition criterion.
Are flood damage models converging to “reality”? Lessons learnt from a blind test

Effective flood risk management requires a realistic estimation of flood losses. However, available flood damage estimates are still characterized by significant levels of uncertainty, questioning the capacity of flood damage models to depict real damages. With a joint effort of eight international research groups, the objective of this study was to compare, in a blind-validation test, the performances of different models for the assessment of the direct flood damage to the residential sector at the building level (i.e. microscale). The test consisted of a common flood case study characterized by high availability of hazard and building data but with undisclosed information on observed losses in the implementation stage of the models. The nine selected models were chosen in order to guarantee a good mastery of the models by the research teams, variety of the modelling approaches, and heterogeneity of the original calibration context in relation to both hazard and vulnerability features. By avoiding possible biases in model implementation, this blind comparison provided more objective insights on the transferability of the models and on the reliability of their estimations, especially regarding the potentials of local and multivariable models. From another perspective, the exercise allowed us to increase awareness of strengths and limits of flood damage modelling, which are summarized in the paper in the form of take-home messages from a modeller's perspective.
Airborne DOAS retrievals of methane, carbon dioxide, and water vapor concentrations at high spatial resolution: Application to AVIRIS-NG

Abstract. At local scales, emissions of methane and carbon dioxide are highly uncertain. Localized sources of both trace gases can create strong local gradients in its columnar abundance, which can be discerned using absorption spectroscopy at high spatial resolution. In a previous study, more than 250 methane plumes were observed in the San Juan Basin near Four Corners during April 2015 using the next-generation Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG) and a linearized matched filter. For the first time, we apply the iterative maximum a posteriori differential optical absorption spectroscopy (IMAP-DOAS) method to AVIRIS-NG data and generate gas concentration maps for methane, carbon dioxide, and water vapor plumes. This demonstrates a comprehensive greenhouse gas monitoring capability that targets methane and carbon dioxide, the two dominant anthropogenic climate-forcing agents. Water vapor results indicate the ability of these retrievals to distinguish between methane and water vapor despite spectral interference in the shortwave infrared. We focus on selected cases from anthropogenic and natural sources, including emissions from mine ventilation shafts, a gas processing plant, tank, pipeline leak, and natural seep. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions were mapped from the flue-gas stacks of two coal-fired power plants and a water vapor plume was observed from the combined sources of cooling towers and cooling ponds. Observed plumes were consistent with known and suspected emission sources verified by the true color AVIRIS-NG scenes and higher-resolution Google Earth imagery. Real-time detection and geolocation of methane plumes by AVIRIS-NG provided unambiguous identification of individual emission source locations and communication to a ground team for rapid follow-up. This permitted verification of a number of methane emission sources using a thermal camera, including a tank and buried natural gas pipeline.
An AeroCom–AeroSat study: intercomparison of satellite AOD datasets for aerosol model evaluation

Abstract. To better understand and characterize current uncertainties in the important observational constraint of climate models of aerosol optical depth (AOD), we evaluate and intercompare 14 satellite products, representing nine different retrieval algorithm families using observations from five different sensors on six different platforms. The satellite products (super-observations consisting of 1∘×1∘ daily aggregated retrievals drawn from the years 2006, 2008 and 2010) are evaluated with AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN) data. Results show that different products exhibit different regionally varying biases (both under- and overestimates) that may reach ±50 %, although a typical bias would be 15 %–25 % (depending on the product). In addition to these biases, the products exhibit random errors that can be 1.6 to 3 times as large. Most products show similar performance, although there are a few exceptions with either larger biases or larger random errors. The intercomparison of satellite products extends this analysis and provides spatial context to it. In particular, we show that aggregated satellite AOD agrees much better than the spatial coverage (often driven by cloud masks) within the 1∘×1∘ grid cells. Up to ∼50 % of the difference between satellite AOD is attributed to cloud contamination. The diversity in AOD products shows clear spatial patterns and varies from 10 % (parts of the ocean) to 100 % (central Asia and Australia). More importantly, we show that the diversity may be used as an indication of AOD uncertainty, at least for the better performing products. This provides modellers with a global map of expected AOD uncertainty in satellite products, allows assessment of products away from AERONET sites, can provide guidance for future AERONET locations and offers suggestions for product improvements. We account for statistical and sampling noise in our analyses. Sampling noise, variations due to the evaluation of different subsets of the data, causes important changes in error metrics. The consequences of this noise term for product evaluation are discussed.
Efforts in Securing Vaccine for Covid-19 Outbreak in Indonesia

Indonesia already achieved the highest COVID-19 death rate in South East Asia. Securing enough vaccine is the only way to eradicate this disease by commencing mass vaccination. Therefore, this review is aimed to discuss Indonesia’s readiness to commence mass COVID-19 vaccination, discussed from biomedical, socioeconomic, and regulatory approach. An extensive literature study was done in focus to gather the latest information regarding to the efforts made by Indonesia to secure adequate supply of vaccine. Through international collaboration, Indonesia has established several vaccine-related cooperation with multiple organizations. Independently, Indonesia is trying to develop “Merah Putih” vaccines covering 6 parallel local vaccine research. The combined Indonesian efforts may secure around 300 million vaccine doses, whereas the government aims to vaccinate at least 70% of its population to gain herd immunity. If each person needs 2 vaccine doses, then the currently secured vaccines is not yet enough to fill the 376 million doses demand. It can be concluded that Indonesia still needs to secure another 100 million doses before it is ready for commencing mass COVID-19 immunization. Keywords: COVID-19; mass immunization; Indonesia; readiness; vaccine
Investigating the effect of e-cigarette use on quitting smoking in adults aged 25 years or more using the PATH study

Background: The evidence on harms and benefits of e-cigarettes partly concerns whether their use encourages smokers to quit. We addressed this using data from the nationally representative PATH study, with detailed accounting for potential confounding variables. Methods: We considered adults aged 25+. Our original analyses, reported in version 1 of this paper, used data for Waves 1 to 3, separate analyses considering Waves 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 1 to 3. These related baseline ever e-cigarette use (or e-product use at Wave 2) to quitting at follow-up, adjusting for confounders derived from 55 candidates. Sensitivity analyses omitted ever other product users, linked quitting to current e-cigarette use, and used values of some predictors modified using follow-up data. Additional analyses used data for Waves 1 to 4, separately considering sustained, delayed and temporary quitting during Waves 1 to 3, 2 to 4 and 1 to 4. Sensitivity analyses considered 30-day quitting, restricted attention to smokers attempting to quit, and considered ever smokeless tobacco or snus use. Results: In the original analyses, unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) of quitting smoking for ever e-cigarette use were 1.29 (95% CI 1.01-1.66), 1.52 (1.26-1.83) and 1.47 (1.19-1.82) for the Wave 1 to 2, 2 to 3, and 1 to 3 analyses. These reduced after adjustment, to 1.23 (0.94-1.61), 1.51 (1.24-1.85) and 1.39 (1.11-1.74). Quitting rates remained elevated in users in all sensitivity analyses. The additional analyses found associations of e-cigarette use with sustained, delayed and temporary quitting, associations little affected by considering 30-day quitting, and only slightly reduced restricting attention to quit attempters. Ever use of smokeless tobacco or snus also predicted increased quitting. Conclusions: As does most evidence from clinical trials, other analyses of PATH, and other epidemiological studies, our results suggest using e-cigarettes helps adult smokers to quit.
Comparing the Effect of Two Methods of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and High-Intensity Continuous Training (HICT) on Damage and Antioxidant Indices of Liver in Male Wistar Rats

Background: Nowadays, one of the widely used training methods is high-intensity interval training (HIIT). In addition, researchers have stated that long-term, high-intensity training is associated with the production of free radicals in the body. Free radicals also damage liver cells, resulting in increased liver enzymes. Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of HIIT, compared to high-intensity continuous training (HICT), on damage and antioxidant indices of the liver in male Wistar rats. Methods: Twenty-two adult male rats were randomly divided into three groups of control (n = 6), HIIT (n = 8), and HICT (n = 8). Training protocols included HIIT and HICT on a treadmill for eight weeks (five days in a week). Standard water and food were provided for rats ad libitum. Forty-eight hours after the last training session, blood and tissue samples were collected, and serum enzymes were measured by the methods recommended by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) method. The level of enzyme activity of superoxide dismutase in the liver tissue was measured by Randox Commercial Kit (Cat. No. SD 126). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s post hoc tests were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that eight weeks of HIIT and HICT had no effect on the alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level (P = 0.14), but eight weeks of HIIT significantly decreased the serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level compared to the control group (P = 0.04). The level of liver superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity significantly increased in the HIIT and HICT groups compared to the control group (P = 0.001). HICT also led to a significant increase in the SOD level compared to HIIT (P = 0.03). Conclusions: The research results suggested that eight weeks of HIIT led to a significant reduction in serum AST levels, and HIIT had a lower effect on the increased SOD activity in liver tissue compared to HICT. It might be stated that HIIT is safer than HICT, and it has fewer destructive effects on liver tissue.
Fungal Systematics and Evolution: FUSE 6

Fungal Systematics and Evolution (FUSE) is one of the journal series to address the “fusion” between morphological data and molecular phylogenetic data and to describe new fungal taxa and interesting observations. This paper is the 6th contribution in the FUSE series—presenting one new genus, twelve new species, twelve new country records, and three new combinations. The new genus is: Pseudozeugandromyces (Laboulbeniomycetes, Laboulbeniales). The new species are: Albatrellopsis flettioides from Pakistan, Aureoboletus garciae from Mexico, Entomophila canadense from Canada, E. frigidum from Sweden, E. porphyroleucum from Vietnam, Erythrophylloporus flammans from Vietnam, Marasmiellus boreoorientalis from Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, Marasmiellus longistipes from Pakistan, Pseudozeugandromyces tachypori on Tachyporus pusillus (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) from Belgium, Robillarda sohagensis from Egypt, Trechispora hondurensis from Honduras, and Tricholoma kenanii from Turkey. The new records are: Arthrorhynchus eucampsipodae on Eucampsipoda africanum (Diptera, Nycteribiidae) from Rwanda and South Africa, and on Nycteribia vexata (Diptera, Nycteribiidae) from Bulgaria; A. nycteribiae on Eucampsipoda africanum from South Africa, on Penicillidia conspicua (Diptera, Nycteribiidae) from Bulgaria (the first undoubtful country record), and on Penicillidia pachymela from Tanzania; Calvatia lilacina from Pakistan; Entoloma shangdongense from Pakistan; Erysiphe quercicola on Ziziphus jujuba (Rosales, Rhamnaceae) and E. urticae on Urtica dioica (Rosales, Urticaceae) from Pakistan; Fanniomyces ceratophorus on Fannia canicularis (Diptera, Faniidae) from the Netherlands; Marasmiellus biformis and M. subnuda from Pakistan; Morchella anatolica from Turkey; Ophiocordyceps ditmarii on Vespula vulgaris (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) from Austria; and Parvacoccum pini on Pinus cembra (Pinales, Pinaceae) from Austria. The new combinations are: Appendiculina gregaria, A. scaptomyzae, and Marasmiellus rodhallii. Analysis of an LSU dataset of Arthrorhynchus including isolates of A. eucampsipodae from Eucampsipoda africanum and Nycteribia spp. hosts, revealed that this taxon is a complex of multiple species segregated by host genus. Analysis of an SSU–LSU dataset of Laboulbeniomycetes sequences revealed support for the recognition of four monophyletic genera within Stigmatomyces sensu lato: Appendiculina, Fanniomyces, Gloeandromyces, and Stigmatomyces sensu stricto. Finally, phylogenetic analyses of Rhytismataceae based on ITS–LSU ribosomal DNA resulted in a close relationship of Parvacoccum pini with Coccomyces strobi.