Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reconstruction of the Interannual to Millennial Scale Patterns of the Global Surface Temperature

Climate changes are due to anthropogenic factors, volcano eruptions and the natural variability of the Earth’s system. Herein the natural variability of the global surface temperature is modeled using a set of harmonics spanning from the inter-annual to the millennial scales. The model is supported by the following considerations: (1) power spectrum evaluations show 11 spectral peaks (from the sub-decadal to the multi-decadal scales) above the 99% confidence level of the known temperature uncertainty; (2) spectral coherence analysis between the independent global surface temperature periods 1861–1937 and 1937–2013 highlights at least eight common frequencies between 2- and 20-year periods; (3) paleoclimatic temperature reconstructions during the Holocene present secular to millennial oscillations. The millennial oscillation was responsible for the cooling observed from the Medieval Warm Period (900–1400) to the Little Ice Age (1400–1800) and, on average, could have caused about 50% of the warming observed since 1850. The finding implies an equilibrium climate sensitivity of 1.0–2.3 °C for CO2 doubling likely centered around 1.5 °C. This low sensitivity to radiative forcing agrees with the conclusions of recent studies. Semi-empirical models since 1000 A.D. are developed using 13 identified harmonics (representing the natural variability of the climate system) and a climatic function derived from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) model ensemble mean simulation (representing the mean greenhouse gas—GHG, aerosol, and volcano temperature contributions) scaled under the assumption of an equilibrium climate sensitivity of 1.5 °C. The harmonic model is evaluated using temperature data from 1850 to 2013 to test its ability to predict the major temperature patterns observed in the record from 2014 to 2020. In the short, medium, and long time scales the semi-empirical models predict: (1) temperature maxima in 2015–2016 and 2020, which is confirmed by the 2014–2020 global temperature record; (2) a relatively steady global temperature from 2000 to 2030–2040; (3) a 2000–2100 mean projected global warming of about 1 °C. The semi-empirical model reconstructs accurately the historical surface temperature record since 1850 and hindcasts mean surface temperature proxy reconstructions since the medieval period better than the model simulation that is unable to simulate the Medieval Warm Period.
Nutrient management approaches (SSNM & STCR) and their economic feasibility in maize (Zea mays L.) crop

The SSNM and STCR approaches are not specifically aim to either reduce or increase fertilizer use, instead, they aim to apply nutrients at optimal rates and time to achieve higher yield through high efficiency of nutrient use by the crop, and thus leading to more net returns per unit of fertilizer invested. The Field experiment was conducted during the kharif 2012 at Agricultural college farm, Raichur to study the effect of soil test based nutrient management approaches on maize. The results revealed that, yield and yield components of maize were influenced favourably with application of fertilizer by SSNM for targeted yield 8 t/ha recorded significantly highest grain yield (7.74 t/ha), stover yield (10.76 t/ha), number of grains per cob (701.82), number of grains per row (38.94), number of rows per cob (18.17) and cob length (20.81 cm). The growth parameters of maize were also influenced favorably with application of fertilizer by SSNM for targeted yield 8 t/ha, dry matter production (376.67 g/plant), leaf area per plant (2527.74 cm), leaf area index (1.40) and plant height (201.83 cm), over STCR for targeted yield 8 t/ha and RDF. The highest net returns (74,075 ₹ ha) and B:C (3.57) was recorded in SSNM for targeted yield 8 t ha as compare to RDF, (45,051 ₹ ha) and (3.03), respectively.
Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and small business performance in Pakistan

Entrepreneurial Self Efficacy (ESE) has gained immense importance in the past few years in the field of entrepreneurship. The focus of this study is to test the effect of each of the five dimensions of ESE and understand their importance in connection with firms’ performance. This study was carried out among small businesses entrepreneurs in Pakistan and a valid sample of 353 entrepreneurs was selected for this purpose. A survey technique was used for data collection and AMOS was used for data analysis. In line with expectation, the analysis concluded a significant positive relationship between ESE dimensions and performance of small businesses. It was also concluded that the Risk dimension of ESE contributes majorly in the improvement of firms’ performance whereas the financial control dimension of ESE contribution was least. It is also suggested that all five dimensions of ESE are important to achieve desirable performance outcomes.
To What Extent Should Emerging Brands Maintain Distinctiveness in the Global Market? The Effect of Brand Isomorphism Level on Brand Evaluation

Abstract Extensive research on global branding has mainly adopted a behavioral perspective (e.g., consumer information processing, self and identity theory, and consumer culture theory). This study focuses on the dual tradeoff between distinctiveness and conformity with their mainstream peers for emerging brands in the global marketplace from a legitimacy perspective. Building on the optimal distinctiveness theory, this study investigates the effect of brand isomorphism level on brand evaluation by several empirical studies. Results indicate that brand evaluation shows an inverted U-shaped trend of rising first and then declining as the degree of isomorphism increases. Furthermore, this study also explores the contingent condition of our proposed effect by introducing a moderator of cognitive distance, which demonstrates consumers higher in cognitive distance should perceive more conformity to be legitimate relative to consumers lower in the cognitive distance in the global marketplace. Implications for theory and the practice of this work are discussed.
An ensemble approach to quantify global mean sea-level rise over the 20th century from tide gauge reconstructions

We present an ensemble approach to quantify historical global mean sea-level (GMSL) rise based on tide gauge reconstructions. This approach combines the maximum internal uncertainty across the ensemble with an estimate of structural uncertainty to provide a conservative estimate of the total uncertainty. Comparisons of GMSL rise over the 20th century based on deltas and linear trends (and their respective uncertainties) are consistent with past Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments and show good agreement with satellite altimeter timeseries. Sensitivity tests show that our estimates of GMSL rise are robust to the choice of reference period and central estimate timeseries. The methods proposed in this study are generic and could be easily applied to other global or regional climate change indicators.
Reduced Numerical Modeling of a High Head Francis Turbine Draft Tube at Part Load

In the present study, a reduced model of the Francis-99 model turbine was investigated numerically at part load operating condition. The reduced model consists of a standalone draft tube domain of the Francis-99 model turbine. Numerical studies performed in the past on nearly complete hydro-turbine models (inclusive of the spiral casing, distributor domains, runner, and draft tube) reportedly consist of a large number of computational grids. This may increase the computational costs and data storage required to perform numerical analysis, which could be a setback for future research on new design concepts and optimization study of the draft tube domain. The reduced model was developed by mapping the phase averaged axial, radial, and tangential velocity profiles from the runner exit to the inlet of the standalone draft tube domain. Additionally, turbulent kinetic energy (k) and turbulent eddy dissipation (ε) variables were also considered for better flow prediction inside the draft tube domain. Two methods for mapping inlet boundary conditions were considered in the present study. In the first method, the entire planar profile of the runner-draft tube interface was considered. In the second method, the variables along a radial profile at the runner exit were considered with an axissymmetric flow assumption over the entire draft tube inlet plane. The numerical results obtained from the Francis-99 reduced model turbine were validated against the numerical model of the NVKS Francis-99 model turbine (with available structured mesh) that was also analysed using the passage flow numerical technique and available experimental results. The results were found to be in reasonable agreement, with each other. The present study could be useful for the future mitigation study of rotating vortex rope by modifying the draft tube domain.
Is an Appeal Enough? The Limited Impact of Financial, Environmental, and Communal Appeals in Promoting Involvement in Community Environmental Initiatives

Community environmental initiatives are set up by community members to promote pro-environmental behaviours in their community. Community members involved in these initiatives are likely to behave more pro-environmentally. Yet, the question remains how to get community members involved. Previous findings suggest stronger environmental and communal, but not financial, motives promote people’s involvement in community environmental initiatives. The present paper examines whether appeals to such environmental or communal motives can promote involvement more than appeals to financial motives or no appeals. Three experimental studies revealed that environmental and communal appeals did not promote initiative involvement more than financial appeals or no appeals. Moreover, a combined environmental and communal appeal was not more effective than single appeals. Furthermore, in a field study examining 167 existing community energy initiatives, we found no relationship between the emphasis in flyers on financial, environmental, and communal benefits of initiative involvement and the proportion of community members involved in these initiatives. These findings suggest appeals may not be enough to promote initiative involvement. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
Robust Robotic Localization Using Visible Light Positioning and Inertial Fusion

Accurate indoor positioning is critical in the field of location-based services and robotics. Visible light positioning (VLP) technology is a promising technique as it can provide high accuracy positioning based on the existing lighting infrastructure. However, it is difficult to meet the requirement of multiple LED anchors in range for successful and accurate positioning. In this article, we proposed a loosely-coupled VLP-inertial fusion method for VLP, with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and rolling shutter camera, to improve positioning robustness under LED shortage/outage. The efficacy of the proposed VLP scheme as well as the robustness under LED outage, handover situation and background light interference, are verified by real-world experiments. The results show that our proposed scheme can provide an average accuracy of 2.1 cm (stationary localization) and the average computational time in low-cost embedded platforms is around 33 ms.
Interleaved Single-Stage LLC Converter Design Utilizing Half- and Full-Bridge Configurations for Wide Voltage Transfer Ratio Applications

Automotive on-board dc–dc converters are required to operate over a wide input and output voltage range depending on the state of charge of the input and the output battery. Conventionally, the unidirectional power transfer between these batteries is enabled by a two-stage converter concept. A first-stage nonisolated dc–dc converter regulates the input voltage of the galvanically isolated second-stage dc–dc converter such that the second-stage converter operates in its optimum operating point. This article presents a single-stage interleaved LLC resonant converter of 3.6 kW for this purpose. While LLC converters are usually not suitable to cover such a wide voltage range (the input voltage between 240 and 420 V and the output voltage between 8 and 16 V), this LLC converter is operated in a full-bridge mode for large gains and in a half-bridge mode for low gains. For intermediate gains and loads, the LLC employs the phase-shift mode. To operate the interleaved LLCs at equal switching frequencies enabling output current ripple cancellation to reduce the output capacitor, again, the phase-shift mode is utilized to balance the power transfer during the full-bridge mode while the asymmetrical duty-cycle mode is proposed for power balancing during the half-bridge mode. This article analyzes the converter design for these modes of operation and provides a comprehensive design procedure allowing the designer to simultaneously analyze all stress values for various resonant tank designs. A 3.6-kW prototype employing Si superjunction MOSFETs achieves a power density of 2.1 kW/L. The maximum efficiency reaches 96.5%, while for most operating points, it is kept well above 90%. The experimental measurement results validate the analysis and show that phase-shift operation and asymmetrical duty-cycle modulation can be utilized for power balancing for full-bridge and half-bridge configurations, respectively, such that a much smaller output capacitor can be employed.
Culture potential of fresh water giant prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) with tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) and green back mullet (Chelon subviridis) in poly culture

To investigate the growth and production potentials of freshwater giant prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) in polyculture with tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) and green back mullet ( Chelon subviridis) a six month long experiment was conducted in six on-station ponds having an area of 0.1 ha each, with two replications in Brackish water station of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute. Overall stocking densities were different in three treatments. Stocking densities of shrimp and mullet were fixed in each treatment and that was 25,000 and 5,000 per hector respectively. Whereas, stocking density of prawn was maintained at 10,000, 15,000 and 20,000 per ha in T1, T2 and T3 respectively. After 90 days of culture final weight of shrimp was highest in T2 (30.77 g) while after 178 days of culture, final weights of prawn (64.73 g) and mullet (29.0 g) were highest in T1 than other treatments. Survival of shrimp (81.59%) and prawn (80.98%) was highest in T2 whereas, survival of mullet (97.67%) was highest in T1 than other treatments. Final weight (64.73 g) of prawn was found significantly (p
Does Social Connectedness Affect Stock Market Participation?

Using IRS tax filing data, I show that social network and word-of-mouth communications play an important role in stock market participation decisions. Using a novel dataset from Facebook, I construct a measure of social network friends' participation for US counties and find that a one-percentage point increase in friends' participation increases the focal county participation by 14 to 25 basis points in the following year. For identification strategy, I employ the revelation of financial misconducts as an exogenous negative shock to local participation rate and show that the instrumented change in friend participation significantly and positively predicts the change in focal county participation rates. The increase in participation rates among the low-income households induced by friends' participation decreases the Gini coefficients in metropolitan counties in the following two years. The evidence suggests that social influences and peer effects contribute to the cross-sectional differences in the stock market participation rates across US counties and may lead to lower income inequality.
Environmental Facilitators and Barriers to Student Persistence in Online Courses: Reliability and Validity of New Scales

Abstract This study aimed at building a reliable and valid scale for environmental factors related to student persistence in online courses, particularly relevant for adults or lifelong learners. Drawing on the social integration and external attribution scales and subscales of Kember et al. as a starting point, data collected in Canadian universities were randomly split into two samples. The first sample (n 1 = 385) was used to explore the data set through principal component and reliability analyses. These confirmed a two-factor environmental scale composed of encouragements (factor 1) and time-events items (factor 2), as well as a two-factor persistence scale that included potential dropout (factor 3) and cost-benefit items (factor 4). All factors showed a very good internal consistency. The second sample (n 2 = 381) was used to confirm the structural validity of environmental and persistence scales through confirmatory factor analyses and to compare this new structure to the subscales of Kember et al. While the latter resulted in an insufficient model fit, the new environmental and persistence scales yielded a very good model fit with strong goodness-of-fit indices and statistics. These results confirmed the structural validity of the new scales, which can be trusted for use in further empirical studies related to online student persistence. The new scales can also be used by practitioners to detect at-risk students early in a semester, allowing to offer them specific individual support to foster student persistence in online courses.
The practices of virtual reality marketing in the tourism sector, a case study of Bali, Indonesia

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to analyse the practices of virtual reality marketing in the Bali tourism sector in Indonesia. This is a qualitative and descriptive research with the purposive sampling method used to acquire data on Bali’s tourism components through in-depth interviews, observation, journals, and the Netnographic approach. The result showed hegemony in the practice of virtual reality marketing to tourists and potential consumers, using significant technology. The marketers practice the hegemony of virtual reality marketing on tourists and potential consumers. Tourism capitalism as a chain link in the tourism business can be integrated into marketing through virtual reality. This study acts as a guide to the application of virtual reality marketing and limited to Bali Province, Indonesia. Practically, it acts as a guide to the application of virtual reality marketing, with its social implication as a disconnection to tourism networks.
Trustworthiness of Hosts in Accommodation Sharing: The Effect of Facial Traits and Expressions

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the impact of a host's facial traits and expressions on their perceived trustworthiness and preferences among users of accommodation-sharing platforms. The eye movements of 39 participants in the study while responding to the question of how much they would want to stay in each apartment presented on a created platform were recorded using an eye-tracking device in a controlled offline setting. A further online questionnaire was used to collect data about user preferences, to which 226 people responded. The results reveal the human face to be the most significant source of cognizance on accommodation sharing platforms; that hosts with positive profile photos are trusted and preferred more than those with less positive images; and that hosts with high fWHRs are trusted and preferred less than hosts with lower fWHRs. This study introduces a novel and broad approach to the tourism and hospitality field, involving a review and analysis of the relationships of different variables recorded in literature, confirming the universality of facial traits and expressions.
An Integrated Approach for Eco-Design and Its Application in LED Lighting Product Development

Lighting products are essential for our modern life nowadays, but they also produce high negative impacts on the environment. Although there are tools and methods available for reducing the environmental impact of lighting products, it is a challenging task to integrate them throughout the product development process. To overcome the challenge, this research developed an approach to integrate tools/methods relevant for the eco-design through product development process to reduce the environmental impact of lighting products. Six types of methods, such module design, and 30 tools, such as lifecycle assessment software packages, are considered in the integrated approach. The product specification with eco-constrains is established for implementation at each design stage to ensure the product eco-features. The approach was applied in the development of an LED table lamp which was then assessed in comparison with a benchmark LED lamp regarding environmental lifecycle impact and lighting performance. The comparative assessment results indicate that the LED lamp developed with this approach is much better than the benchmark lamp.
MOTORCYCLE TOURISM AND NATURE: an analysis of motorcyclists´ motivations to travel

ABSTRACT Motorcycling is not a new experience; however, research about this phenomenon in the tourism context is relatively incipient and limited to specific places and groups. In the tourism literature, the characteristics of this activity and its practitioners also require closer inspection. Unlike other forms of tourism, motivation for motorcycling, in the context of adventure and ecotourism, is not yet well defined and delimited. The main objective of this work is to fill the knowledge gap regarding motorcyclists’ motivations to tour and to evaluate the activity from the perspective of adventure and ecotourism. Motivations for adventure and ecotourism serve as the theoretical and methodological support for this research. The results of this study revealed that the experience during a motorcycle trip is as exciting as the destination itself, transforming a journey into a destination on the move. The main interests of motorcycle tourists include the natural environment and the local culture. Finally, structural modelling confirms that these two constructs emerge as the main concepts associated with motorcycle tourism.
Textbooks for the YouTube generation? A case study on the shift from text to video

Abstract A case study is used to achieve two research objectives: To understand students’ attitudes, behavior toward, and satisfaction with videobooks vs. traditional textbooks; and to identify factors that drive student satisfaction and positive attitudes toward videobooks. Analysis of student experiences across multiple sections of an introductory marketing course found students have more positive attitudes toward, and higher satisfaction with, a videobook vs. a textbook. Further, students found the videobook to be easier to use and understand, and more engaging than a traditional textbook, making it overall more effective for learning. Finally, the videobook format facilitated the switch to virtual learning as its content delivery method more closely resembles in-class lectures.
Numerical approximation of second-order boundary value problems via hybrid boundary value method

Hybrid Boundary Value Method (HyBVM) is a new scheme, which is based on Linear Multistep Method (LMM). The HyBVM is the hybrid version of the Boundary Value Methods (BVMs) which are methods derived to overcome the limitations of the LMMs. This new scheme shares the same characteristic with the Runge Kutta method as data are utilized at off-step points. In this work, we apply this method to two second order Boundary Value Problems (BVPs) with mixed boundary conditions and the results are efficient when compared to other BVMs in literature.