Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extreme streams: flow intermittency as a control on diatom communities in meltwater streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica 1

In the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, stream biota is limited by the brief availability of liquid water. The benthic microbial mats harbor diatoms that have adapted to hydrologic stresses, including numerous endemic species. We found a strong relationship between diatom community composition and flow intermittency in a data set including seven streams that spanned a gradient in flow intermittency. In particular, two genera represented by numerous endemic species in Dry Valley habitats, Hantzschia and Luticola, had high abundances in moderately and highly intermittent streams, respec- tively. The Shannon Index of diversity was greatest in streams with intermediate flow intermittency, with lower diversity in more stable streams resulting from lower evenness, and lower diversity in highly intermittent streams resulting from lower richness. These results indicate that multiple metrics of biodiversity may be useful in assessing the response of diatom com- munities to changing hydrologic regime. We propose that flow intermittency acts as a species filter that increases habitat heterogeneity in Dry Valley streams and may allow endemic species to persist. Future Antarctic warming may alter diatom community composition and habitats that act as refugia for desiccation-tolerant taxa. Resume : Dans les vallees seches de McMurdo de l'Antarctique, les organismes des cours d'eau sont limites par la courte disponibilite d'eau liquide. Les tapis microbiens benthiques contiennent des diatomees, dont de nombreuses especes endemi- ques, qui se sont adaptees aux stress hydrologiques. Il existe une forte relation entre la composition de la communaute de diatomees et l'intermittence du debit dans un ensemble de donnees qui inclut sept cours d'eau qui couvrent un gradient de discontinuite du debit. En particulier, deux genres qui contiennent de nombreuses especes endemiques dans les habitats des vallees seches, Hantzschia et Luticola, atteignent de fortes abondances, respectivement dans les cours d'eau moyennement et fortement intermittents. L'indice de diversite de Shannon est maximal dans les cours d'eau qui ont un debit moderement discontinu; la diversite est plus basse dans les cours d'eau plus stables a cause d'une equitabilite plus faible et aussi plus basse dans les cours d'eau fortement intermittents a cause d'une richesse reduite. Ces resultats indiquent que l'utilisation de plusieurs metriques de la biodiversite peuvent etre utiles pour evaluer la reaction des communautes de diatomees aux chan- gements de regime hydrologique. Nous croyons que la discontinuite du debit sert de filtre des especes, augmente l'heteroge- neite des habitats dans les cours d'eau des vallees seches et peut permettre aux especes endemiques de survivre. Un rechauffement futur de l'Antarctique modifiera peut-etre les communautes de diatomees et les habitats qui servent de refuges pour les taxons tolerants a la dessiccation. (Traduit par la Redaction)
Governing the Implementation of a Complex Information Systems Network: - The Case of Finnish Electronic Prescription

This paper reports briefly preliminary experiences from implementation case of a complex health care information system, namely Electronic Prescription System (EPS). Theoretical approach of the study is built on inter-organizational networks and their governance. The author claims that the Finnish implementation pilot was a relative failure from network management perspective. Statement is supported by semi-structured interviews collected during the evaluation process.
Ensemble Kalman filter design for battery management systems - State and parameter estimation in li-ion battery cells

Increasing environmental awareness has in recent years motivated the automotive industry to advance towards electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Safe and efficient operation of electrically powered vehicles requires a wide range of systems and functions for managing power storage in battery packs. The performance of these systems is crucially dependent on knowledge about the remaining available charge in the batteries, referred to as stateof-charge (SOC). However, due to the complex electrochemical processes taking place inside battery cells, the SOC is generally hard to determine directly. As this is an important topic for further development of electrically powered vehicles, researchers are exploring the problem of efficiently and accurately estimating the battery cell SOC. In this thesis, we investigate a novel model-based statistical filtering approach to the SOC estimation problem. In the Bayesian inference framework, an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) is implemented to jointly estimate inner battery states and parameters. For efficiency, the battery cell is modelled by a simple Equivalent Circuit Model (ECM), with three parameters that are initially identified using current and voltage measurements. With the objective to determine its viability for the proposed problem, the EnKF is compared to two previously studied and closely related algorithms: the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and the bootstrap Particle Filter (PF). The work has been carried out at National Electric Vehicle Sweden using pre-recorded data of current and voltage measurements for two different lithium-ion battery cell chemistries. Our findings suggest that the accuracy of the EnKF is similar to that of the PF, but with a lower computational cost, and overall more accurate than the UKF. In comparison, the EnKF is also easily implemented, with less tuning parameters than the UKF, and does not require as high dimensionality as the PF for convergence of the estimate. As such, we see good potential for the EnKF in the SOC estimation problem, providing flexibility and high performance.
DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS OF ENLARGED CELLS DERIVED FROM GROUPER SLEEPY DISEASE IRIDOVIRUS (GSDIV) INFECTED HUMPBACK GROUPER Cromileptes altivelis

Characteristic of Megalocytivirus infection has been known to produce formation of inclusion body bearing cells (IBCs) on internals organs of fish predominantly on spleen and kidney. Megalocytivirus that infected grouper is known as Grouper Sleepy Disease Iridovirus (GSDIV). This study was conducted to answer the effect of entry sites of GSDIV on distribution of enlarged cells formed on the internal organs of humpback grouper Cromileptes altivelis . Enlarged cells were observed histologically under the light microscope on spleen, head kidney, trunk kidney, liver, gill, heart, stomach, intestine, muscle and brain. Entry sites were designated to intramuscularly injection, intraperitoneally injection, dipped gill and inoculum added feed. Enlarged cells were formed on spleen, head kidney, trunk kidney, liver, gill, heart, stomach, muscle, except on intestine and brain. All the entry sites resulted in formation of enlarged cells on spleen, head kidney, trunk kidney, liver, heart. Spleen and head kidney were the most frequent observed organ. These results suggested that distribution of enlarged cells were not affected by the entry site of GSDIV.
Influence of inter row spacing and plant densities in cultivate of sorghum on cutting management

El manejo de los cortes en lo cultivo de sorgo es poco estudiado, teniendo en cuenta su importancia para la alimentacion de rumiantes. El objetivo de esta prueba fue evaluar los efectos de la asociacion de la distancia entre plantas (30, 50 y 70 cm) y la densidad de plantas (300, 450 y 600.000 plantas ha -1 ) en tres fechas de evaluacion sobre el desempeno vegetativo productivo y cualitativo del sorgo para el corte. La produccion de forraje aumento linealmente con la adicion de espaciamiento entre hileras, con independencia de la densidad de poblacion a razon de 103,9 kg ha -1 de materia seca (MS) por cada incremento de 10 cm de distancia en las filas. No hubo interacciones significativas (P> 0,05) para el espaciamiento y la densidad en el contenido de fibra detergente neutra (FDN), fibra en detergente acido (FDA) y lignina (LIG) de la planta de sorgo en manejo de corte, y no hubo diferencias estadisticas (P>0,05) entre la duracion del uso del sorgo por la combinacion de los factores densidad de poblacion y espaciamiento entre hileras para los factores FDN y LIG de la planta del sorgo. El NDF y LIG disminuyo con mayor espacio entre lineas, independientemente de la densidad de poblacion en la tasa de 0,34 y 0,32% en la MS por cada incremento de 10 cm de distancia en las hileras. El cambio en el espaciamiento de 30 para 70 cm ha ocasionado una mayor produccion de materia seca, sin cambiar la composicion fisica de la planta, asi como disminuyo los valores de la FDN y LIG. La densidad de siembra no afecto la produccion, la composicion fisica y el valor nutritivo de la planta de sorgo en regimen de corte.
Is the Source of FDI Important to Emerging Market Economies? Evidence from Japanese and U.S. FDI

This paper takes the position that technology transfers associated with foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) are an important determinant of economic growth in developing countries. The paper also posits that technology transfers, ceteris paribus, depend on the attributes of FDI providers, particularly as they relate to the degree of technological advancement and the behavioral aspects of the technology transfer. Japan and the U.S. are two important sources of FDI where multinational corporations domiciled in the two nations exhibit distinct variation in these attributes. Consistent with earlier research, the findings of this paper lend support for a positive role of FDI inflows from the advanced countries in increasing the economic growth of developing countries. The paper further finds some evidence that the relationship between the economic growth of the host countries and FDI inflows is stronger for U.S. originated FDI than that of Japanese originated FDI. This finding is consistent with the notion that U.S. multinational firms are more effective in generating technology transfers and spillovers to developing countries than do Japanese multinational firms.
Estimation of binary choice models using repeated cross sections (preliminary draft)

In this paper we discuss the estimation of a binary choice model with individual effects using a time series of independent cross-sections. We propose a new approach to parameterize the individual effects accounting for both ‘cohort effects’ that could be potentially correlated with the regressors, as well as purely individual effects. Drawing on Mundlak’s (1978) approach, and extending it to suit our setting, we express the ‘cohort effect’ as a linear function of the means of the explanatory variables. In a first setting, we assume that individuals’ choices are not observed and derive the probability that a certain number of individuals choose ‘1’ among the total number of individuals in a given cohort. Then we go on to the special case in which the individual choices are assumed to be observed. Based on the probabilities of cohort means, we estimate the model using the maximum likelihood method and implement it using a heuristic optimization technique (genetic algorithm). Finally, we carry out Monte Carlo simulations to analyze the finite-sample properties of our estimators, in terms of both bias and mean squared error (MSE).
Radiative forcing bias of simulated surface albedo modifications linked to forest cover changes at northern latitudes

Abstract. In the presence of snow, the bias in the prediction of surface albedo by many climate models remains difficult to correct due to the difficulties of separating the albedo parameterizations from those describing snow and vegetation cover and structure. This can be overcome by extracting the albedo parameterizations in isolation, by executing them with observed meteorology and information on vegetation structure, and by comparing the resulting predictions to observations. Here, we employ an empirical data set of forest structure and daily meteorology for three snow cover seasons and for three case regions in boreal Norway to compute and evaluate predicted albedo to those based on daily MODIS retrievals. Forest and adjacent open area albedos are subsequently used to estimate bias in top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) radiative forcings (RF) from albedo changes (Δα, Open–Forest) connected to land use and land cover changes (LULCC). As expected, given the diversity of approaches by which snow masking by tall-statured vegetation is parameterized, the magnitude and sign of the albedo biases varied considerably for forests. Large biases at the open sites were also detected, which was unexpected given that these sites were snow-covered throughout most of the analytical time period, therefore eliminating potential biases linked to snow-masking parameterizations. Biases at the open sites were mostly positive, exacerbating the strength of vegetation masking effects and hence the simulated LULCC Δα RF. Despite the large biases in both forest and open area albedos by some schemes in some months and years, the mean Δα RF bias over the 3-year period (November–May) was considerably small across models (−2.1 ± 1.04 Wm−2; 21 ± 11%); four of six models had normalized mean absolute errors less than 20%. Identifying systematic sources of the albedo prediction biases proved challenging, although for some schemes clear sources were identified.
On Forecasting Taiwanese Stock Index Option Prices: The Role of Implied Volatility Index

This paper aims to propose four volatility measures: The first is the GARCH model advocated by Bollerslev (1986); the second is the GARCHVIX model which extends the GARCH model by including the volatility index (VIX) as explanatory variable for volatility; the last two are HS20D and HS252D, which represent the historical volatilities generated by traditional rolling window technique with 20- and 252-day historical index returns data, respectively. We examine the price information on VIX to improve the predictive performance of GARCH model for valuing TAIEX stock index call options (TXO) over the period from January 2014 to May 2015. Empirical results firstly indicate that both the GARCH and GARCHVIX models consistently perform better than the historical volatility models for forecasting call value of TXO under different moneynesses. Secondly, the GARCHVIX model significantly outperforms the GARCH model for most cases, indicating that the GARCH-based option price forecasts can be effectively improved with the additional information contained in VIX. Finally, the use of GARCHVIX model can greatly reduce model mispricing especially for out-the-money TXO option case. Thus, volatility index is crucial for option traders to efficiently predict TXO option value with GARCH model.
Investigating the impact of national income on environmental pollution. International evidence

This paper analyses how national income (per capita real GDP) influences the environmental pollution (per capita CO2 emissions) using a very heterogenous sample composed by 120 countries during the 2000-2009 period. We firstly apply a panel unit root test suggested by Im et al. (2003) in order to examine the stationarity properties of CO2 emissions and GDP and then a two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator, paying particular attention to the non-linearity of the national income-environmental pollution relationship, to investigate the existence of a Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions. Preliminary evidence showing the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between national income and environmental pollution, validating the Kutznes’s hypothesis, turned out to be measleading once the issue of (non) stationarity has been taken into account. Results also show that as population and industrial output expand, more pressure will be put forth the environment, leading to more emissions, calling for more strict environmental and energy conservation policies.
Examining the Link between Visitors' Motivations and Convention Destination Image

This study aims to devise measures to develop tourism in the metropolis of Gwangju, emphasizing the activation of KimDaeJung Convention Centre which opened in September 2005 with its inaugurating exhibition. The purpose of this study is to suggest the direction for making a value added business of Exhibition & Convention with making use of the appealing tourism source of Gwangju KimDaeJung Convention Centre. Data were collected from 258 in the ‘2006 Gwangju•Jeonnam Regional Innovation Convention & Exposition’ which was held at Gwangju KimDaeJung Convention Centre. It was followed by reliability and adequacy and carried out ANOVA. Results suggested that KimDaeJung Convention Centre has to have a differentiate plan from others, for example, the improvement of traffic system and accommodation for tourists, the development of tourism products related to around sightseeing places, the program developing a substantial course of ‘city tour bus’ and the database of tourism information.
THE IMPINGEMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EARLY INJECTION GDI ENGINE: A NUMERICAL STUDY

This paper describes the use of a Lagrangian discrete droplet model to evaluate the liquid fuel impingement characteristics on the internal surfaces of an early injection gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine. The study focuses on fuel impingement on the intake valve and cylinder liner between start of injection (SOI) and 20° after SOI using both a singleand multi-component fuel. The single-component fuel used was isooctane and the multi-component fuel contained fractions of iso-pentane, iso-octane and n-decane to represent the light, medium and heavy fuel fractions of gasoline, respectively. A detailed description of the impingement and liquid film modelling approach is also provided.
SUNIL KUMAR C AND R J RAMA SREE: EXPERIMENTS TOWARDS DETERMINING BEST TRAINING SAMPLE SIZE FOR AUTOMATED EVALUATION OF DESCRIPTIVE ANSWERS THROUGH SEQUENTIAL MINIMAL OPTIMIZATION

With number of students growing each year there is a strong need to automate systems capable of evaluating descriptive answers. Unfortunately, there aren’t many systems capable of performing this task. In this paper, we use a machine learning tool called LightSIDE to accomplish auto evaluation and scoring of descriptive answers. Our experiments are designed to cater to our primary goal of identifying the optimum training sample size so as to get optimum auto scoring. Besides the technical overview and the experiments design, the paper also covers challenges, benefits of the system. We also discussed interdisciplinary areas for future research on this topic.
An Evaluation with Web Developers of Capturing User Interaction with Rich Internet Applications for Usability Evaluation

The user interaction logging with a Rich Internet Applications can provide valuable information for usability evaluation and user behavior study. However, current research has focused only on issues of implementation and validation of tools for capturing user interaction instead tool usage by web developers. This work presents an evaluation through user testing of a tool called WAUTT for capturing user interaction with Rich Internet Applications. The main goal of this evaluation is to investigate the use of a tool for capturing user interaction with web developers. The results indicate that the participants have good understanding of the tool, found easiness to operate the tool for capturing and analyzing the user interaction, consider its future re-use, and they felt satisfied with the experience. The results also assisted for identifying the user interaction data considered more useful to web developers.
Computer-aided Structure-based Design of 3,3'-Diallyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]- 4,4'- diol Analogs of Eugenol as Potential Ligands for Estrogen Receptor Alpha

The SBVS protocols to identify ligands for estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) were retrospectively validated and could serve as a virtual tool to screen potential ERα ligands. Subsequently, prospective virtual screen campaigns on eugenol analogs and their dimers were performed and have discovered 3,3'-diallyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diol analogs of eugenol as the most potential ERα fragment to be further developed. This article presents the design of 3,3'-diallyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diol analogs of eugenol based on the comparison between the docked poses of ZINC01914469 as a reference compound and 3,3'-diallyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diol analogs of eugenol. The designed compounds were selected based on the docking score using the validated SBVS protocols. The docking scores of the selected compounds revealed that these compounds were statistically similar or better than ZINC01914469.
Intention Towards Online Shopping: A Pakistan Based Study

Online shopping environment is still in an infancy stage in Pakistan. The intent of this research is to develop a model on the basis of the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM), to find factors that affect online shopping adoption in Pakistan. With a survey sample of 286 respondents which includes university students and professionals from various walks of life, the proposed model was evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis. The significant findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, perceived enjoyment, distrust and legal framework are the main factors affecting online shopping acceptance except that the cultural environment has a negligible influence.
Information and Knowledge of Public Sector Decision Makers: Experimental Research in the Context of a Local Government Hospital in Indonesia

This research aimed to test the previous result of experimental research on decision making by Dilla and Steinbart (2005), and to internalize the result in the context of a local government hospital in Indonesia. The subjects in this experiment were 80 members of the House of Representatives in the Cilacap, Brebes and Purbalingga regions in Indonesia. They were asked to evaluate the performance of a fictitious local government hospital and decide whether or not to increase its budget allocation for the coming year. Half of the subjects were given instruction in the performance measures applicable to hospitals; the other half proceeded straight to the experimental task. The first group were labelled “knowledgeable users”; the latter group were classified as “unknowledgeable”. The results of this experiment using real decision makers showed that the knowledgeable group tended to use the unique information given to them to measure performance and make budget allocation plans, whereas the unknowledgeable group used common measures. These results are consistent with Lipe and Salterio (2000), Dilla and Steinbart (2005) and Bawono et al. (2012), indicating that students may be reliable surrogates for real decision makers. Keywords: accountability, public sector, performance measurement, budget allocation plan, knowledgeable and unknowledgeable, decision makers