Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of elevation data representation on mesoscale atmospheric model simulations

Mesoscale atmospheric model simulations rely on descriptions of the land surface characteristics, which must be developed from geographic databases. Certain features of the geographic data, such as its resolution and accuracy, as well as the method of processing for use in the model, can be very important in producing accurate model simulations. The work described here is part of research effort into the relationship between these aspects of geographic data and the performance of mesoscale atmospheric models and is particularly focused on elevation data and how it is prepared for use in such models. A source for digital elevation data will typically not be at the resolution required for a given model simulation and so a resampling step is required. In addition, predictive non-linear model often cannot accept forcing at high spatial frequencies due to the terrain, thus smoothing is also required. The effect of different means of resampling and smoothing elevation data on two types of model simulations is investigated. At smaller spatial scales, nocturnal drainage winds in mountain valleys in Colorado are examined for effects on the general characteristics as well as the details of the flows. At the larger end of the mesoscale, extended simulations of California weather are examined for effects on orographic lifting, low-level convergence and divergence and ultimately rain and snow distribution.
Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Seafood Made in Europe

ABSTRACT Sustainability of increasing relevance also for seafood markets. The aim of this contribution is to analyze consumer preferences and their willingness to pay (WTP) for different sustainability claims, and to identify consumer segments according to their WTP. The contingent valuation method was applied to elicit consumers’ WTP in eight European countries. The WTP varies between seven and almost 20%, depending on attribute and country. Three consumer groups become apparent: the largest group without any additional WTP, a smaller group with a moderate additional WTP of plus 17%, and a very small group with an additional WTP of more than 40%. Clear differences between countries are obvious regarding preferences for different sustainability attributes, particularly in the segment with the highest WTP. A fraction of the consumers is willing to pay significantly higher prices for sustainably produced fish from Europe: given that trustful standards are applied and well communicated.
Comment on Loris Caruso/4. Territorial Conflicts and New Forms of Left-Wing Political Organization: from Political Opportunity Structure to Structural Contexts of Opportunities

Empirical studies of territorial conflicts in Italy show the aversion of local movements against left-wing political parties. The closure of political opportunities structure does not explain the emergence of mobilisations, but it shapes the relational field of contention and has consequences on the political polarisation. In the first section I discuss the actuality of the concept of structure for sociological research; the second section is focused on the kind of historicism developed in contextual political analysis; the third section copes with sociological theory centred on opportunities and not only on constraints. The last section introduces the prominence of considering structural parameters of the population to improve the sociology of territorial conflicts, precisely around three main types of variation in a population (heterogeneity, inequality, and consolidation) to study and test hypothesis related to the political effects of social structures.
The leading effects of Fed funds target interest rate

It has been a long debate whether Fed funds target interest rate (FFTR) has significant explanatory power on interest rates in other countries. In this paper, we analyze the effects of FFTR on Bank of England (BOE) bank rate and European Central Bank (ECB) key interest rate employing the rather new and trustworthy technique of Bounds testing developed by Pesaran et al. (2001). Our empirical results are consistent with a priori expectations as BOE and ECB interest rates are highly dependent on FFTR. This finding can be interpreted as a clear signal of how globally tight-knit the world currencies have been. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of US dollar as the world currency and rather serves as an argument against alternative global currency propositions.
Title Bayesian robust linear transceiver design for dual-hop amplify-and-forward MIMO relay systems

In this paper, we address the robust linear transceiver design for dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) MIMO relay systems, where both transmitters and receivers have imperfect channel state information (CSI). With the statistics of channel estimation errors in the two hops being Gaussian, we formulate the robust linear-minimum-mean-square-error (LMMSE) transceiver design problem using the Bayesian framework, and derive a closed-form solution. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm reduces the sensitivity of the relay system to channel estimation errors, and performs better than the algorithm using estimated channel only.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Solving Person Re-identification in Non-overlapping Camera using Efficient Gibbs Sampling

This paper proposes a novel probabilistic approach for appearance-based person reidentification in non-overlapping camera networks. It accounts for varying illumination, varying camera gain and has low computational complexity. More specifically, we present a graphical model where we model the person’s appearance in addition to camera illumination and gain. We analytically derive the solutions for the person’s appearance and camera properties, and use a novel constant time Gibbs sampling scheme to estimate the identification labels. We validate our algorithm on two indoor datasets and perform a comparative analysis with existing algorithms. We demonstrate significantly increased re-identification accuracy in addition to significantly reducing the computational complexity on our datasets.
Dimethylsulfide and Coral Bleaching: Links to Solar Radiation, Low Level Cloud and the Regulation of Seawater Temperatures and Climate in the Great Barrier Reef

Coral reefs produce atmospheric dimethylsulfide (DMSa) which oxidises to non-sea-salt (nss) sulfate aerosols, precursors of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and low level cloud (LLC), reducing solar radiation and regulating sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Here we report measurements of solar radiation, SST, LLC, DMS flux, , and rainfall before, during and after a major coral bleaching event at Magnetic Island in the central Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Measurements are compared with those made at the nearby fringing reef of Or-pheus Island where coral bleaching did not occur. Extreme solar radiation levels occurred from November to late January and could have reflected cloud radiative effects that increased downwelling of solar radiation. High levels of LLC often coincided with high periodic fluxes of DMS from the unbleached coral reef at Orpheus Island (e.g. 14 - 20 μmol·m-2·d-1), in direct contrast to the very low fluxes of DMS that were emitted from the bleached, human-impacted Magnetic Island fringing reef (nd-0.8 μmol·m-2·d-1) when SSTs were >30°C. Continuous SSTs measurements at the Magnetic Island reef revealed various heating and cooling periods, interspersed with stable SSTs. Cooling periods (negative climate feedback) ranged from -1°C to -3°C (7 day mean -1.6°C), and often seemed to occur during low tides, periodic pulses of DMS flux and LLC, keeping SSTs °C. In contrast warming periods of +1°C to +3°C (positive climate feedback, 7 day mean +1.52°C), seemed to occur during increasing tides, decreasing DMS flux and low to medium levels of LLC which increased solar radiation and caused SSTs over 30°C and corals to bleach. Alternation between these two states or types of feedback is indicated in this research and may be a function of enhanced scattering of solar radiation from nss-sulfate aerosols that originate from oxidation of DMSa produced from the coral reefs in the GBR. The net radiative forcing from clouds can be as high as four times as large as the radiative forcing from a doubling of CO2 levels in the atmosphere, which needs to be taken into account when ascribing coral bleaching events in the GBR solely to GHG warming. Further studies are needed to more critically assess the importance of this GBR coral reef-cloud feedback to the climate of northern Australia and the western Pacific, where the greatest biomass of coral reefs occurs.
Peri-Urban Organic Agriculture and Short Food Supply Chains as Drivers for Strengthening City/Region Food Systems—Two Case Studies in Andalucía, Spain

Discussions on food security in the Global North have raised questions about the capacity of peri-urban organic agriculture to provide sufficient healthy food for the urban market. Dealing with food security requires more attention to how to protect peri-urban organic farming systems from urban pressures while strengthening the sustainability of local food systems. Given that short food supply chains (SFSCs) have been proven to be effective at reconnecting people with food production, this study focuses on identifying the barriers that hinder their development and the opportunities derived from the comparative advantage provided by their urban proximity. This study is based on documentary and empirical research addressing food supply chain characteristics in the organic sector. This study is focused on Mediterranean peri-urban agriculture, where, historically, there have been close relationships between the city and the countryside. These relationships are based on the fact that many cities are traditionally located next to areas of high agricultural activity, where a wide variety of vegetables is produced almost continuously due to the relatively mild winter climate. This study deals with two medium-sized metropolitan areas in Andalucia in the south of the Iberian Peninsula—the coastal city of Malaga, which is of a tourist-residential nature, and the inland urban agglomeration of Granada. Our research shows, when compared with other studies, that the local organic food sector seems to have great potential to find innovative solutions based on a collective approach, local embeddedness, and collective knowledge and by prioritizing horizontal and sustainable processes at the local/regional scale.
Long‐range transport across the Atlantic in summertime does not enhance the hygroscopicity of African mineral dust

We present the first direct evidence that the hygroscopic properties of super micron (>1 µm) African dust particles did not change despite undergoing long‐range transport across the Atlantic toward the Caribbean. Concurrent measurements of chemical composition show that most of mineral dust was chemically unprocessed and externally mixed. A minor portion of mineral dust was internally mixed with sulfate and chloride (~13–24% by number) or aggregated with sea‐salt particles (~3–6%). Only dust particles aggregated with sea salt showed significant hygroscopic growth above 75% relative humidity (RH), resulting in a decrease in extinction mass efficiency by up to a factor 2.2. All other dust particles did not take up significant amounts of water when exposed to up to 94% RH. These results demonstrate that the direct radiative effect of African dust in this region remained independent of RH and an external mixing state could be considered for evaluating the climate effects of dust.
THE SOFTHAND PROH : A PROSTHETIC PLATFORM FOR WORK-ORIENTED APPLICATIONS

Body-powered prostheses are typically favored for heavy-duty use and employed in hostile environments, such as farm or factory work. With adequate training and practice, individuals with limb loss can become proficient in the usage of body-powered hooks (BPH) to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. Despite this versatility, there are drawbacks to this type of technology [1]. In this work, we present a novel prosthetic platform to address three of the most common issues in the use of BPH: 1. The need to frequently change terminal devices to task-specific solutions. 2. The loading of the shoulder due to the use of the figure-of-nine harness (the typical control system of body-powered prosthetic systems for users with unilateral limb loss). 3. The lack of functional, anthropomorphic solutions for users who prefer body-powered prosthetic solutions. In contrast, myoelectric prostheses (MPs) are externally powered and controlled by muscle activity in the residual limb. Further, unlike the body-powered devices described above, they are typically anthropomorphic but more fragile, costly, and heavy. The most advanced versions offer multiple grasp postures, but are more difficult to control. Indeed, controlling even single degree of freedom (DOF) MPs can be challenging for some individuals, either because of their physiology or because of environmental factors [2]. The Pisa/IIT SoftHand [3] is a 19 DOF anthropomorphic robotic hand that combines intuitiveness, adaptivity and robustness. The mechanical design is based on studies on human kinematic synergies and leverages underactuation to simplify control and imparts adaptability to the grasp pattern. A previous prosthetic implementation of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, the myoelectrically-controlled SoftHand Pro, has been developed and is being tested with individuals with limb loss [4]. This work presents the possibility of applying the SoftHand technology to tackle the issues identified above. For this reason, we examined the feasibility of combining the benefits of both body-powered and myoelectric prostheses in a hybrid solution focusing on work-oriented applications. This solution uses a shoulder harness to control an externally-powered anthropomorphic prosthetic hand. We started by analyzing the placement of the main moveable components of the prosthesis (motor, battery pack and electronics) on the terminal device, socket, or user’s body. Eight potential configurations were selected as feasible solutions, depending on situational requirements. This work presents this analysis as well as one of these solutions, which has been implemented as a functional prototype, the body-controlled, servo-assisted SoftHand Pro-H and featured in the Cybathlon 2016 Powered Arm Prosthesis Race.
Cognitive research for conference interpreters : making the latest findings accessible and relevant to student interpreters

Ce memoire a pour objet d'etudier les contributions les plus recentes dans le domaine des sciences cognitives sur le sujet de l'attention et de la concentration. L'objectif des auteurs est de rendre plus accessibles des travaux qui sont susceptibles d'aider des etudiants en interpretation de conference ou des interpretes actifs a mieux comprendre les mecanismes qui sous-tendent les fonctions cognitives pendant l’interpretation simultanee. Ces mecanismes sont encore trop souvent mal compris ou mal interpretes alors que pour les etudiants interpretes et les interpretes ils sont un des facteurs cles de leur reussite professionnelle. Les auteurs de cette contribution passent d'abord en revue les principales theories relatives a l'interpretation, ensuite ils presentent les bases de l’approche cognitive. La memoire et l'attention, des fonctions integrales, sont analysees en detail en lien avec l’interpretation de conference.
Understanding Alumni-Alma mater commitment relationships upstream and downstream

ABSTRACT This study collects reliable information about the commitment relationship (CR) between alumni and higher education institutions (HEIs) to increase the existing knowledge in terms of both theoretical and practical issues. Based on the literature review and findings from a previous qualitative research a theoretical model for a sample of 2008 alumni was tested through structural equation modeling. HEIs’ commitment, cognitive commitment, and affective commitment are drivers of CR, whereas the desire to share experiences, provide help, and participate in alumni meetings are the CR’s indicators. Findings offer insights to guide communication policies, focusing on overall quality, the key role of students in co-creation, strategies to involve students in campus life, the solicitation actions, and the advantages alumni can gain from their engagement. A contribution to the literature is also given because it reinforces the importance of strengthening aspects related to alumni-alma mater CR in contexts with a weak alumni culture.
Communicating Sustainability: Using Community Media to Influence Rural People’s Intention to Adopt Sustainable Behaviour

Sustainable development is a big challenge for developing countries, due to lack of effective communication about sustainability to the rural population. This paper aims at building a theoretically and statistically sound model to communicate sustainability more effectively in rural areas in order to achieve sustainable development. To this end, the constructs and items of the hypothesised model are identified, based on a focus group discussion and backed by the literature reviewed. Both partial least squares and covariance-based structural equation modelling approaches were used to test the hypotheses and validate the model against multiple indices after analysing survey data collected from 300 community radio listeners in Bangladesh. It was found that the unique media characteristics of community radio positively increased the acceptability of sustainability communications, which in turn affects the behavioural determinants (popular theory: attitudes, self-efficacy belief and social norms) and changed the intention to adopt sustainable behaviour. Example cases from around the world also support the statistically sound model. The paper also provides implications and directions for future research.
A standard protocol for reporting species distribution models

Species distribution models (SDMs) constitute the most common class of models across ecology, evolution and conservation. The advent of ready-to-use software pack - ages and increasing availability of digital geoinformation have considerably assisted the application of SDMs in the past decade, greatly enabling their broader use for informing conservation and management, and for quantifying impacts from global change. However, models must be fit for purpose, with all important aspects of their development and applications properly considered. Despite the widespread use of SDMs, standardisation and documentation of modelling protocols remain limited, which makes it hard to assess whether development steps are appropriate for end use. To address these issues, we propose a standard protocol for reporting SDMs, with an emphasis on describing how a study’s objective is achieved through a series of model - ing decisions. We call this the ODMAP (Overview, Data, Model, Assessment and Prediction) protocol, as its components reflect the main steps involved in building SDMs and other empirically-based biodiversity models. The ODMAP protocol serves two main purposes. First, it provides a checklist for authors, detailing key steps for model building and analyses, and thus represents a quick guide and generic workflow for modern SDMs. Second, it introduces a structured format for documenting and communicating the models, ensuring transparency and reproducibility, facilitating peer review and expert evaluation of model quality, as well as meta-analyses. We detail all elements of ODMAP, and explain how it can be used for different model objectives and applications, and how it complements efforts to store associated metadata and define modelling standards. We illustrate its utility by revisiting nine previously published case studies, and provide an interactive web-based application to facilitate its use. We plan to advance ODMAP by encouraging its further refinement and adoption by the scientific community.
Non-stationary random response of MDOF Duffing systems

This paper presents a method to solve non-stationary random responses of nonlinear multi-degrees-of-freedom (MDOF) Duffing systems subjected to evolutionary random excitations. Specific phase-lags between the excitations can also be taken into account. The power spectral density (PSD) of the input excitations is not confined to simple white noise or filtered white noise, in fact it can also take more complicated forms. The MDOF nonlinear random differential equations are iteratively solved by means of the Equivalent Linearization Method (ELM) combined with the Pseudo Excitation Method (PEM). This combined method is easy and efficient. Two examples are given in which this method is well justified by the Monte-Carlo numerical simulations. Although only a Duffing model is dealt with in this paper for computational simplicity, the proposed method is in fact quite general, e.g. it can also deal with nonlinear hysteretic structures that will be dealt with in a separate paper.
Underlying factors for effective collective decision on community-driven infrastructure in developing countries

Abstract The prevailing collective decision in the emerging communities in Sub-Sahara Africa illustrates the paradigm shift from top-down decision making to bottom-up democratic practices in procuring community-based infrastructure, in the era of dwindling financial capacity of government. This paper analyses factors influencing the success of the community-driven project in selected communities surrounding the largest city of Ibadan. We collected survey data through copies of semi-structured questionnaire, backed with an interview. Factor analysis categorizes the major factors into seven groups, including social integration and commitment to the community development project, governance structure and leadership, democracy, selfless services, networking and accountability, openness in selecting professionals for development, and joint agreement. We subject the items of the factors into SWOT analysis to understand the values. Community-based organizations (CBOs) serve as potential means to address infrastructure deficit if CBOs take note of the main factors, use the opportunities that match the strengths, attempt to overcome the weaknesses to attain the opportunities, use the strength to reduce the vulnerability to the threats and prevent the weaknesses to avoid susceptibility to the threats.