Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inter-comparison of lidar and ceilometer retrievals for aerosol and Planetary Boundary Layer profiling over Athens, Greece

Abstract. This study presents an inter-comparison of two active remote sensors (lidar and ceilometer) to determine the mixing layer height and structure of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) and to retrieve tropospheric aerosol vertical profiles over Athens, Greece. This inter-comparison was performed under various strongly different aerosol loads/types (urban air pollution, biomass burning and Saharan dust event), implementing two different lidar systems (one portable Raymetrics S.A. lidar system running at 355 nm and one multi-wavelength Raman lidar system running at 355 nm, 532 nm and 1064 nm) and one CL31 Vaisala S.A. ceilometer (running at 910 nm). Spectral conversions of the ceilometer's data were performed using the Angstrom exponent estimated by ultraviolet multi-filter radiometer (UV-MFR) measurements. The inter-comparison was based on two parameters: the mixing layer height determined by the presence of the suspended aerosols and the attenuated backscatter coefficient. Additionally, radiosonde data were used to derive the PBL height. In general, a good agreement was found between the ceilometer and the lidar techniques in both inter-compared parameters in the height range from 500 m to 5000 m, while the limitations of each instrument are also examined.
Evaluation of bioactivity of stem bark extracts of Lovoa trichiliodes (Harm) and Trichilia heudelotii Planc (Harm)

This study evaluated the bioactivity of the stem bark extracts of Lovoa trichiliodes and Trichilia heudelotii using standard methods. The highest yield of 10.20% was obtained from the stem bark extract of T. heudelotii. Qualitative phytochemical examination of the plant extracts indicated the presence of different secondary metabolites which remarkably inhibited the growth of Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella typhii, Aspergillus flavus, Candida albicans and Candida glabrata. However, the cold water extract of L. trichiliodes exhibited no activity against the test pathogens. The highest mean (22.33±0.33 mm) zone of inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2.5 mg/ml were exhibited by the acetone stem bark extract of L trichiliodes against B. subtilis ATCC6633. The results affirmed the traditional uses of the plants in the management and treatment of numerous diseases caused by the test pathogens.
Short Communication: Variation in isozymic pattern of germplasm from three ginger (Zingiber officinale) varieties

Abstract. Setyawan AD, Wiryanto, Suranto, Bermawie N. 2014. Variation in isozymic pattern of germplasm from three of ginger (Zingiber officinale) varieties. Nusantara Bioscience 6: 86-93. Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) has long been as spices, flavoring agent and raw material for herbal medicines. In Indonesia, there were three varieties based on color and size of the rhizome, i.e. gajah (big-white ginger), merah (red ginger), and emprit (small-white ginger). This research was conducted to find out: (i) isozymic pattern of three ginger varieties, and (ii) phylogenetic relationship of those three varieties. The plant materials were gathered from Wonogiri, Surakarta and Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta. Two enzyme systems, namely esterase (EST) and peroxidase (PER, PRX) were used in this study. The relationship among ginger varieties was determined by UPGMA. The result indicated that EST showed two bands (i.e. Rf 0.04 and 0.10), and PRX showed six bands (i.e. Rf 0.04, 0.05, 0.09, 0.10, 0.11, and 0.15). Peroxidase produces more numerous and more diverse isozymic bands than esterase, resulting in a more complex relationship. The data used to compile dendrogram affect the grouping; the more data used, the more obvious clustering of accessions in a population. Dendrogam generated from esterase and peroxidase banding patterns produced distinct clusters based on varieties and location.
The location of personality disorders in the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits

The aim of the paper was to characterize personality disorders in terms of the dimensions of the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits (CPM) developed by Strus, Cieciuch, and Rowinski. It was expected that personality disorders characterized by the profiles of traits from the five-factor model of personality (FFM) would be located in the sector delimited by poles Gamma- and Delta- and including pole Alfa-. The author analyzed data collected in a sample of 2,284 subjects tested by means of the NEO-FFI and three other instruments: the Personality Beliefs Questionnaire, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (SCID-II), and the TALEIA-400A questionnaire ( T est for A xia L E valuation and I nterview for Clinical, Personnel, and Guidance A pplications) for the assessment of personality disorders as well as compared them with the data from the meta-analysis by Saulsman and Page (2004) concerning the relations between personality disorders and FFM traits. The obtained correlations confirmed the research expectations. In Discussion, the author points out the heuristic value of the CPM for differentiating the norm from pathologies, which includes the differential diagnosis of personality disorders.
Betaherpesviruses in Adult Liver Transplant Recipients

Liver transplantation similar to other allograft transplants requires the use of immunossupressive therapy to avoid graft rejection in the host. Immunossupressive drugs can also decrease the capacity of the host immune system to response against infectious agents which would not be a problem to immunocompetent persons. Many infectious agents such as bacteria, fungus, protozoa and viruses can cause serious complication in the post-transplant course (Blair & Shimon, 2005).
The effect of modernization on the representation of women in parliament - a case study of Estonia

This study aims at analyzing the issue of under-representation of women in the Estonian parliament (Riigikogu) with the help of Ronald Inglehart, Pippa Norris and Christian Welzel’s approach of modernization. The analysis of the situation in Estonia, as a unique case makes it possible to test the theory in use. The empirical analysis consists mainly of data derived from semi-structured interviews with experts in the field of gender equality in Estonia. As Estonia has yet to emphasize the importance of gender equality, today, women are still highly under-represented in the Riigikogu. The main results show that while the scholars claim that cultural barriers constitute the main hurdle for women to enter the political sphere, in the case of Estonia, the socioeconomic situation and institutional barriers clearly keep women from the possibility to participate in politics. Further, instead of religion as main cultural influence, in Estonia the cultural heritage is largely defined by the society’s Soviet past. The overall conclusions state that while the theory at use seemed to be applicable universally, in the case of Estonia it cannot be applied fully, as crucial influences are not taken into account by the theory.
Regularizing Land Acquisitions Using Shot Continuation Operators: Effects On Amplitudes

Interpolation of pre-stack data is a key processing tool for the reduction of acquisition costs and it is generally needed when the wavefield sampling needs to be densified along shot and/or receivers. Irregular and sparse sampling of the wavefield in 3D surveys generates spatial aliasing. Wavefield interpolation by 3D shot continuation operator (3D SCO) can yield densely sampled data by interpolating common shot gathers (e.g., from irregular shot/receiver sampling into a regular acquisition). The tests shown here have been carried out on synthetics (the SEG/EAGE Overthrust Model), and on field data. Synthetic 3D data simulate land and OBC acquisitions; field data is part of a 3D land acquisition. For regularly sampled wavefield (e.g., Overthrust model dataset) the interpolation accuracy of 3D SCO is comparable with other methods (e.g., predictive techniques). When the sampling geometry is not regular such as for 3D land data, the 3D SCO interpolates the needed common shot gathers from the neigbouring ones. The comparison of post-stack data shows that the number of the shot points can be halved since the decimated shot gathers yield an interpolated stack-section with interesting quality.
Design and Development of a Two Wheeled Self Balancing Robot for an Application of Object Carrying

Two Wheeled Self Balancing Robot is a foremost research topic in the area of robotics and control engineering. The principle of operation behind a self balancing robot is an inverted pendulum concept. The major focus on this paper is the hardware development of a two wheeled self balancing robot for an application to carry objects from one place to another. The modeling of the self balancing robot is done in terms of the inverted pendulum . Since the two wheeled self balancing robot has some inherent characteristics like instability, non linearity different types of controllers like PID,LQR, LQR with precompensation are used and their performance are compared.Simulations are carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK. A PID controller is incorporated in the hardware section to improve and ensure a good performance for the system Keywords— Self Balancing; Instability; Controlling; PID; LQR
THE ROLE OF TRAINING IN SHAPING PRE-SERVICE TEACHER COGNITION RELATED TO L 2 PRONUNCIATION

his study analyzed changes in the pronunciation-related cognitions of undergraduate TESL students from two Canadian universities during their irst term in their programs. he students from one university attended a 13week course in phonology and pronunciation teaching, while those from the other university received no speciic training in pronunciation. Towards the end of the term, the participants who received specialized training had more favorable views of explicit pronunciation teaching and became more conident in their ability to teach pronunciation than the comparison group. he course also helped the participants increase in awareness of their own speech and limitations. he indings point to the importance of native-nonnative speaker interactions in shaping cognitions and suggest that more support to nonnative-speaking TESL students and more training in the use of communicative activities would be helpful.
Real-time observation of taxa-specific plankton distributions: an optical sampling method

A fundamental problem in limnology and oceanography is the inability to measure the taxonomic composition of plankton quickly over a broad range of scales. Traditional sampling with bottles and nets provides critical data at the species-level, but has limited spatio-temporal coverage and can destroy ubiquitous delicate forms. To augment traditional sampling, recent advances in bio- acoustics and non-imaging optics provide real-time high-resolution data on biomass abundance and size composition. New optical imaging approaches provide coarse taxonomic composition but require manual image identification, preventing real-time observation. Here, we describe a method of opti- cal sampling and analysis, using the Video Plankton Recorder, to automatically identify plankton to major taxa (and to species in some cases) and observe their distributions at sea in real time. We pre- sent a detailed assessment of classifier accuracy, including a comparison of machine- and hand- classification of images. The automated classification method was found to be sufficiently accurate for estimating abundance patterns of dominant taxa but not for less abundant taxa. The range in overall accuracy was 60 to 70% for 7 taxa and 79 to 82% for 2 taxa, with accuracies for individual taxa rang- ing between 45 and 91%. Classification error was small relative to natural variability in abundance of dominant taxa. For a given taxon, the error in the abundance estimate was low in regions of high relative abundance. A manual correction step can be used in areas of low relative abundance to obtain accurate abundance estimates. Example data from 2 cruises are presented to illustrate the util- ity of real-time taxa-specific data collection. These data represent the first real-time automatic iden- tification and mapping of plankton taxa at sea. This methodology represents an intermediate step towards the ultimate goal of real-time identification of plankton to the level of species and life stage. At present, optical imaging methods cannot replace net and bottle surveys, but can be used to obtain coarse taxonomic composition of plankton (including fragile forms) with an identification accuracy that is high enough to produce quantitative high-resolution maps of abundant taxa in real time.
Design for Reliability of Power Electronics for Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems

Power electronics is the enabling technology for optimizing energy harvesting from renewable systems like Photovoltaic (PV) and wind power systems, and also for interfacing grid-friendly energy systems. Advancements in the power semiconductor technology (e.g., wide band-gap devices) have pushed the conversion efficiency of power electronics to above 98%, where however the reliability of power electronics is becoming of high concern. Therefore, it is important to design for reliable power electronic systems to lower the risks of many failures during operation; otherwise will increase the cost for maintenance and reputation, thus affecting the cost of PV energy. Today’s PV power conversion applications require the power electronic systems with low failure rates during a service life of 20 years or even more. To achieve so, it is vital to know the main life-limiting factors of power electronic systems as well as to design for high reliability at an early stage. Knowhow of the loading in power electronics in harsh operating environments (e.g., fluctuating ambient temperature and solar irradiance) is important for life-time prediction, as the prerequisite of Design for Reliability (DfR). Hence, in this paper, the technological challenges in DfR of power electronics for grid-connected PV systems will be addressed, where how the power converters are stressed considering real-field mission profiles. Furthermore, the DfR technology will be systematically exemplified on practical power electronic systems (i.e., gridconnected PV systems).
Stakeholders Orientation: Instrumental or Intrinsic Commitment

The objective of this research is to check if social orientation of citizens firms is undertaking an instrumental approach or intrinsic commitment. Based on a sample composed by most admired firms, we examine - in cross sectional studies and industrial analysis - financial, strategy and social characteristic of these firms. We intend to verify that the realization of the interests of various stakeholders - other than shareholders - can be a tool to increase financial performance. Empirically, the normative approach was examined through the mediation model of the interests of stakeholders. The instrumental approach was assessed by the moderation model. Our data and empirical results have supported and validated the latter approach.
WHAT DO PRODUCTIVITY SHOCKS TELL US ABOUT THE SAVING-INVESTMENT RELATIONSHIP?

This study is a contribution to the empirical literature on the significance of productivity shocks in explaining a high saving-investment correlation, using data from a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1970-2003. The study looks at the distributional properties of the productivity shocks in order to test if productivity shocks can relate saving to investment. To this end, we divide the countries into three groups with respect to the distributional characteristics of productivity shocks in each country with an application of the Fuzzy-c-means (FCM) clustering technique. The results provide some support for the productivity shock argument, indicating that the saving retention coefficients are greater for the countries subject to large productivity shocks in magnitude.
Atlantic and Arctic sea-air CO 2 fluxes, 1990-2009

The Atlantic and Arctic Oceans are critical components of the global carbon cycle. Here we quantify the net sea–air CO2 flux, for the first time, across different methodologies for consistent time and space scales for the Atlantic and Arctic basins. We present the long-term mean, seasonal cycle, interannual variability and trends in sea–air CO2 flux for the period 1990 to 2009, and assign an uncertainty to each. We use regional cuts from global observations and modeling products, specifically a pCO2-based CO2 flux climatology, flux estimates from the inversion of oceanic and atmospheric data, and results from six ocean biogeochemical models. Additionally, we use basin-wide flux estimates from surface ocean pCO2 observations based on two distinct methodologies. Our estimate of the contemporary sea–air flux of CO 2 (sum of anthropogenic and natural components) by the Atlantic between 40 ◦ S and 79 N is −0.49± 0.05 Pg C yr −1, and by the Arctic it is −0.12± 0.06 Pg C yr −1, leading to a combined sea–air flux of −0.61± 0.06 Pg C yr −1 for the two decades (negative reflects ocean uptake). We do find broad agreement amongst methodologies with respect to the seasonal cycle in the subtropics of both hemispheres, but not elsewhere. Agreement with respect to detailed signals of interannual variability is poor, and correlations to the North Atlantic Oscillation are weaker in the North Atlantic and Arctic than in the equatorial region and southern subtropics. Linear trends for 1995 to 2009 indicate increased uptake and generally correspond between methodologies in the North Atlantic, but there is disagreement amongst methodologies in the equatorial region and southern subtropics. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 608 U. Schuster et al.: An assessment of the Atlantic and Arctic sea–air CO 2 fluxes
Last-mile delivery optimization using GPS data a case study

The development of GPS data analysis and processing is contributing to new solutions in urban logistics, such as route characterization or client detection. The city of Quito, Ecuador, has problems regarding freight transportation. The reduction in magnitude of these problems, through the implementation of a responsible enterprise logistics system, can contribute to a better urban and economic development of this Latin-American capital city. This study proposes and analyses a solution in GPS data manipulation methodologies applied to urban freight distribution. The reliability of traditional routing software methods and truck drivers’ empiric knowledge are evaluated by comparing it to mathematical optimization algorithms which consider the city’s transportation network, modeled after the Asymmetric Traveling Salesperson Problem (ATSP). Tools used include Python for manipulating data and optimizing, CartoDB for Graphical Information Systems (GIS), and Compass (a logistics application developed by MIT) for generation of route indicators. The results of this study represent a better understanding of solutions to last-mile delivery operations in Quito, and suggest mathematical optimization is a reliable way to develop freight transportation routes.
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CROSS-WELL RADAR IN LAYERED SEDIMENTS by

At the M-Area basin, Savannah River Site, the saturated and the unsaturated zones have been contaminated with dense non-aqueous phase liquids. To decrease the cost of and the time required for remediation of the contaminated sediments and ground water, some means of monitoring the remediation is needed. One promising technology is cross-well radar: the results of field experiments have shown that radar waves are strongly affected by sediments containing dense non-aqueous phase liquids. To use cross-well radar for monitoring, a sound understanding of how radar waves propagate in layered media is needed; for this reason, a theoretical study was performed. For the study, the layered sediments were represented with a model having three layers: clay, sand, and clay. Radar scans were calculated for three antenna configurations that are commonly used for aquiring cross-well data, and the interpretations of those scans were substantiated with an analysis using mode theory. In general, the results indicate that the radar wave detected by the receiving antenna will have a relatively small amplitude when one or both antennas are in the clay layer but will have a relatively large amplitude when both antennas are in the sand layer. For the latter antenna configuration, the travel times can be used to estimate a bulk dielectric permittivity for the sand layer. The amplitudes, however, cannot be related in a simple, straightforward manner to the properties of the sand layer because they are affected by the properties of all three layers. To predict the suitability of cross-well radar for monitoring the remediation at Savannah River Site, radar wave propagation in models representing contaminated sediments must be simulated; such work will be in a subsequent report. This study was a crucial, necessary step towards that goal.
Observational aspects of galactic accretion at redshift 3.3

We investigate the origin of extragalactic continuum emission and its relation to the stellar population of a recently discovered peculiar z=3.344 Lyman alpha emitter. Based on an analysis of the broad-band colors and morphology we find further support for the idea that the underlying galaxy is being fed by a large-scale (L > 35 kpc) accretion stream. Archival HST images show small scale (~5 kpc) tentacular filaments converging near a hot-spot of star-formation, possibly fueled by gas falling in along the filaments. The spectral energy distribution of the tentacles is broadly compatible with either (1) non-ionizing rest-frame far-UV continuum emission from stars formed in an 60 million-year-old starburst; (2) nebular 2-photon-continuum radiation, arising from collisional excitation cooling, or (3) a recombination spectrum emitted by hydrogen fluorescing in response to ionizing radiation escaping from the galaxy. The latter possibility simultaneously accounts for the presence of asymmetric Lyman alpha emission from the large-scale gaseous filament and the nebular continuum in the smaller-scale tentacles as caused by the escape of ionizing radiation from the galaxy. Possible astrophysical explanations for the nature of the tentacles include: a galactic wind powered by the starburst; in-falling gas during cold accretion, or tails of interstellar medium dragged out of the galaxy by satellite halos that have plunged through the main halo. The possibility of detecting extragalactic 2-photon continuum emission in space-based, broad-band images suggests a tool for studying the gaseous environment of high redshift galaxies at much greater spatial detail than possible with Lyman alpha or other resonance line emission.