Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regional Climate Model Evaluation System powered by Apache Open Climate Workbench v1.3.0: an enabling tool for facilitating regional climate studies

Abstract. The Regional Climate Model Evaluation System (RCMES) is an enabling tool of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to support the United States National Climate Assessment. As a comprehensive system for evaluating climate models on regional and continental scales using observational datasets from a variety of sources, RCMES is designed to yield information on the performance of climate models and guide their improvement. Here we present a user-oriented document describing the latest version of RCMES, its development process and future plans for improvements. The main objective of RCMES is to facilitate the climate model evaluation process at regional scales. RCMES provides a framework for performing systematic evaluations of climate simulations, such as those from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), using in-situ observations as well as satellite and reanalysis data products. The main components of RCMES are: 1) a database of observations widely used for climate model evaluation, 2) various data loaders to import climate models and observations in different formats, 3) a versatile processor to subset and regrid the loaded datasets, 4) performance metrics designed to assess and quantify model skill, 5) plotting routines to visualize the performance metrics, 6) a toolkit for statistically downscaling climate model simulations, and 7) two installation packages to maximize convenience of users without Python skills. RCMES website is maintained up to date with brief explanation of these components. Although there are other open-source software (OSS) toolkits that facilitate analysis and evaluation of climate models, there is a need for climate scientists to participate in the development and customization of OSS to study regional climate change. To establish infrastructure and to ensure software sustainability, development of RCMES is an open, publicly accessible process enabled by leveraging the Apache Software Foundation's OSS library, Apache Open Climate Workbench (OCW). The OCW software that powers RCMES includes a Python OSS library for common climate model evaluation tasks as well as a set of user-friendly interfaces for quickly configuring a model evaluation task. OCW also allows users to build their own climate data analysis tools, such as the statistical downscaling toolkit provided as a part of RCMES.
STUDY ON 3D POINT CLOUDS ACCURACY OF ELONGATED OBJECT RECONSTRUCTION IN CLOSE RANGE – COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT SOFTWARE

The image based point clouds generated from multiple different oriented photos enable 3D object reconstruction in a variety spectrum of close range applications. The paper presents the results of testing the accuracy the image based point clouds generated in disadvantageous conditions of digital photogrammetric data processing. The subject of the study was a long shaped object, i.e. the horizontal and rectilinear section of the railway track. DSLR Nikon D5100 camera, 16MP, equipped with the zoom lens (f=18÷55mm), was used to acquire the block of terrestrial convergent and very oblique photos at different scales, with the full longitudinal overlap. The point clouds generated from digital images, automatic determination of the interior orientation parameters, the spatial orientation of photos and 3D distribution of discrete points were obtained using the successively tested software: RealityCapture, Photoscan, VisualSFM+SURE and iWitness+SURE. The dense point clouds of the test object generated with the use of RealityCapture and PhotoScan applications were filtered using MeshLab application. The geometric parameters of test object were determined by means of CloudCompare software. The image based dense point clouds allow, in the case of disadvantageous conditions of photogrammetric digital data processing, to determine the geometric parameters of a close range elongated object with the high accuracy (m XYZ < 1 mm). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2017. 188
Flavor mixings in flux compactifications

A multiplicity of quark-lepton families can naturally arise as zero-modes in flux compactifications. The flavour structure of quark and lepton mass matrices is then determined by the wave function profiles of the zero-modes. We consider a supersymmetric $SO(10)\times U(1)$ model in six dimensions compactified on the orbifold $T^2/{\mathbb Z_2}$ with Abelian magnetic flux. A bulk $\mathbf{16}$-plet charged under the $U(1)$ provides the quark-lepton generations whereas two uncharged $\mathbf{10}$-plets yield two Higgs doublets. Bulk anomaly cancellation requires the presence of additional $\mathbf{16}$- and $\mathbf{10}$-plets. The corresponding zero-modes form vectorlike split multiplets that are needed to obtain a successful flavour phenomenology. We analyze the pattern of flavour mixings for the two heaviest families of the Standard Model and discuss possible generalizations to three and more generations.
An improved SWOT evidential reasoning based approach for strategy evaluation under uncertainty

Article history: Received May 15, 2013 Accepted July 25, 2013 Available online July 28 2013 Formulation and evaluation of strategy play important role in the strategy management. Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats (SWOT) is a famous approach to formulate strategy planning, which relies on external and internal factors. Identifying these factors precisely is very critical for any organization and manager. This study aims at providing a quantitative basis to analytically determine the ranking of the factors in SWOT analysis via Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach. This paper applies SWOT and Richard Rumelt's criteria to evaluate strategies in Evidential Reasoning approach. The ER approach has been developed to support MADA under uncertainty. It is based on Dempster’s rule for evidence combination and uses belief functions for dealing with probabilistic uncertainty and ignorance. This research is the first study in the ranking the factors of SWOT and Richard Rumelt approach. An illustrative example is also presented to show the efficiency of our model. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Estimating and determining the position of target in WSN's

2 Abstract: In the proposed paper the major issue is the target tracking in wireless sensor networks and to obtain exact position of the target as to be measured so that we can expect improvement in the tracking resolution. so there is need of finding accurately sensor and targets trajectory path as to be studied with special care and captured at regular basis. We also studied correlation properties and sensitivity in mobile sensors from the system parameters and maintained good resolution for tracking of mobile sensors at different speeds. Our simulation results gave satisfactory system parameters like sensor density, sensor and target mobility compared static sensor network environment.
COLUMN STUDY OF ORGANIC SUBSTRATES: PASSIVE ACID MINE DRAINAGE TREATMENT

The Hughes Borehole is a 3,500 gpm (maximum) acid mine drainage (AMD) discharge located in Pennsylvania that has significantly impacted water quality in the Little Conemaugh River via its uncontrolled discharge. A column study was initiated to evaluate the feasibility of passive treatment of the discharge utilizing sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). Two six-foot long, six-inch diameter PVC columns were developed for the study. One column was packed with a dry weight mix of 80% saw dust and 20% cow manure (100% column) and the second with a volumetric mixture of 50% limestone and 50% of the above organic substrate (50/50 column). Four sampling ports were installed in each column; one in the influent tubing (raw water), two in the columns at 2 feet and 4 feet from the top, and one in the effluent tubing. Discharge from the borehole was collected on a regular basis and delivered to the laboratory for use in the study. After incubation to establish anaerobic conditions, the columns were operated in downflow at a regulated flow rate of approximately 5 milliliters per minute. Results show that the 50/50 substrate was more effective in treating the AMD discharge than the 100% substrate. In the 50/50 column, pH increased from an average influent level of 3.2 to an average effluent level of 5.8. Additional results such as decreased metals concentrations, decreased oxygen and oxidation-reduction potential, and generation of alkalinity and sulfide indicated that SRB were present. Data from the 100% column indicated that treatment was occurring, but at a much less effective rate. Additionally, a steady decline in treatment efficiency in the 100% column indicated questionable long-term effectiveness of the 100% substrate. Pre- and post-study substrate metals concentrations were also determined to evaluate metals loading rates and its impact on the substrates.
SEED-BORNE MYCOFLORA OF CAPSICUM ANNUUM IMPORTED FROM INDIA

Using standard blotter and deep-freezing techniques, seed-borne mycoflora of 40 samples from consignments of Capsicum annuum L. (red chillies var. Dhora, imported from India) was studied. Of the 47 fungal species Absidia corymbifera, Acremonium fusidioides, Aspergillus tamarii, Blakeslea sp. , Cephaliophora irregularis, Cladosporium accacicola, Scopulariopsis sp. , Streptomyces sp. , Tritirachium sp. , and Ulocladium tuberculatum have been not reported before from seeds as well as pericarp of C. annuum.
Hidden Markov models for unaligned DNA sequence comparison

Comparison of similarity between sequences can provide information for inferring the function of a newly discovered sequence, and understanding the evolutionary relationships among genes, proteins, and entire species. This paper presents a technique for computing the similarity between unaligned DNA sequences. The computation is based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence of hidden Markov models. We used the data sets taken from the threonine operons of Escherichia coli K-12 and Shigella flexneri to test the proposed method. The result obtained agrees with an alignment-based method. We further tested the proposed method with a data ~et of 34 complete mammalian mtDNA genomes. The phylogenetic tree derived from the second experiment shows reasonable evolutionary relationships between these species.
Cell architecture in the morphogenesis of coenocytic alga Vaucheria sessilis. I. The morphology of germination and the behaviour of nuclei

Summary Four stages in the germination of aplanospores in Vaucheria sessilis were identified based on morphological pecularities of the thallome and the position of nuclei. Nuclear division starts before the appearance of germinative changes, and mitoses occur until the formation of vegetative thallomes takes place. Two populations of nuclei are formed during the germination: a) the apically positioned cluster of non-dividing nuclei with constant locations and number, and b) randomly distributed, dividing nuclei which can migrate throughout a basal part of the branch.
Credit Where Due: A Debate

This paper reviews earlier work in order to get a single point of consensus regarding current global crises, which overlap the economy of whole world. We find contradictory explanations for the current episode of crises where different methodologies had been adopted in scrutinizing the situation. Overall few put the blame on macroeconomic variables and little on financial vulnerabilities. Some suggest for monetary policy reevaluation and others for fiscal policy to fill in the gap. We find fiscal policy a superior instrument for scheming such circumstances. We propose that interest free financial system would be a better option as an alternative. Keywords: Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy, Credit Issues, Interest free solution.
What tames the Celtic Tiger? Portfolio implications from a Multivariate Markov Switching model

We use multivariate regime switching vector autoregressive models to characterize the time-varying linkages among the Irish stock market, one of the top world performers of the 1990s, and the US and UK stock markets. We find that two regimes, characterized as bear and bull states, are required to characterize the dynamics of excess equity returns both at the univariate and multivariate level. This implies that the regimes driving the small open economy stock market are largely synchronous with those typical of the major markets. However, despite the existence of a persistent bull state in which the correlations among Irish and UK and US excess returns are low, we find that state comovements involving the three markets are so relevant to reduce the optimal mean–variance weight carried by ISEQ stocks to at most one-quarter of the overall equity portfolio. We compute time-varying Sharpe ratios and recursive mean–variance portfolio weights and document that a regime switching framework produces out-of-sample portfolio performance that outperforms simpler models that ignore regimes. These results appear robust to endogenizing the effects of dynamics in spot exchange rates on excess stock returns.
Value Relevance of Financial Accounting Information of Quoted Companies in Nigeria: A Trend Analysis

This research paper examines the value relevance of accounting information of quoted companies in Nigeria using a trend analysis. Secondary data were sourced from the Nigerian Stock Exchange Fact Book, Annual Financial Reports of Sixty six (66) quoted companies consisting of financial and non-financial firms in Nigeria and the Nigerian Stock Market annual data. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method was employed in the analysis. The study reveals that accounting information on quoted companies in Nigeria is value relevant. However, the study reveals further that the value relevance of accounting information does not follow a particular trend within the period under study. While the value relevance was weak in the periods of political crisis caused by military dictatorship (1992-1998) and global economic crisis (2005-2009), it was high in the other periods. Based on the finding that accounting information directly influences the value of securities in the capital market, it is therefore recommended that Accounting Standards should be complied with by Nigerian companies and that more standards that can curtail information overload should be introduced. As a result of the trend experienced between 1992 and 1998, the study also advocates stable political atmosphere in Nigeria. Keywords: Value Relevance; Accounting Information; Book Value; Cash Flow; Financial Statement
Construction of a Strategic Business Process Reengineering Model: Empirical Research on the After-sale Service Process of SH

For the past decade, business process reengineering (BPR) has gradually evolved from a revolutionary principle, which provided enterprises with methods to eliminate problems, into a set of management approaches for enterprises to face unpredictable and uncontrollable circumstances. This study puts forward an integrated model, strategic business process reengineering model,, which focuses on analysis of the three stages of BPR, and explores how BPR develops into competitive advantage with strategic basic factors – positioning, unique activities, trade-offs and fit. The authors undertake SH, a famous Taiwanese brand of small appliance, for case study and analysis. The research results show that the process reengineering activities held after strategic positioning should be improved through unique activities and trade-offs, such as technology-oriented, cross-departmental labor integration and trade-offs, cross-departmental rotation and talent cultivation, and cross-organizational support for channel manufacturers in their training of technicians. During the activities, mutual fit would lead to a set of behavior system, where construction plays an essential role, as it is difficult to imitate in competitive advantage.
Financial Valuation and Risk Management Working Paper No . 528 Health and ( other ) Asset Holdings

The empirical literature on the asset allocation and medical expenditures of U.S. households consistently shows that risky portfolio shares are increasing in both wealth and health whereas health investment shares are decreasing in these same variables. Despite this evidence, most of the existing models treat financial and health-related choices separately. This paper bridges this gap by proposing a tractable framework for the joint determination of optimal consumption, portfolio and health investments. We solve for the optimal rules in closed form and show that the model can theoretically reproduce the empirical facts. Capitalizing on this closed-form solution, we perform a structural estimation of the model on HRS data. Our parameter estimates are reasonable and confirm the relevance of all the main characteristics of the model.
A Survey on Face Recognition Techniques

Face detection is a computer technology that determines the locations and sizes of human faces in arbitrary (digital) images. It detects facial features and ignores anything else, such as buildings, trees and bodies. Face detection can be regarded as a specific case of object-class detection. In object-class detection, the task is to find the locations and sizes of all objects in an image that belong to a given class. Examples include upper torsos, pedestrians, and cars. Face detection can be regarded as a more general case of face localization. These days face detection is current research area. The face detection is normally done using ANN, CBIR, LDA and PCA. Keywords: - ANN, CBIR, LDA and PCA
Pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana strain 202 against sap-sucking insect pests

Bugti G.A. , Bin W. , Na C. , Feng L.H. (2018): Pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana strain 202 against sap-sucking insect pests. Plant Protect. Sci., 54: 111–117. An experimental trial was conducted to determine the pathogenicity of Beauveria bassiana strain 202 (Bb-202) against multiple targeted sucking insect species that are serious pests of crops and ornamental plants. The insect species, Myzus persicae Sulzer (Hemiptera: Aphididae), Jacobiasca formosana Paoli (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), and Stephanitis nashi (Hemiptera: Tingidae) were exposed to conidia of B. bassiana at rates of 1.0 × 102, 3.5 × 103, 5 × 104, and 6.75 × 105 conidia/mm2 to determine the pathogenicity of B. bassiana. The fungal strain Bb-202 showed the highest pathogenicity to M. persicae and 100% corrected mortality observed in the treatments over 1.0 × 102 conidia/mm2, followed by the J. formosana with the final corrected mortality of 86.6, 94.4, and 97.4% after 10 days of fungal inoculation with 3.5 × 103, 5 × 104, and 6.75 × 105 conidia/mm2, respectively. The strain Bb-202 also showed good pathogenicity to B. tabaci and corrected mortalities of 77.9 and 81.1% were recorded when exposed to 5 × 104 and 6.75 × 105 conidia/mm2. Relatively weak pathogenicity was observed in S. nashi, in which the highest corrected mortality of 63.7% occurred at 6.75 × 105 conidia/mm2. Accordingly, the LC50 and LT50 values of concentrations 1 × 105, 1 × 106, 1 × 107, and 1 × 108 conidia/ml were calculated for M. persicae, J. formosana, B. tabaci, and S. nashi that were determined as 6.7 × 104, 1.3 × 106, 3.6 × 106, and 1.2 × 107 conidia/ml and LT50 was observed as 5.2~8.24, 5.1~6.6, 7.2~9.0, and 7.9~9.6 in days, respectively.
Intersecting transcriptomic profiling and long noncoding RNAs in the jejunal mucosa of pre-weaning calves fed different diets

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) emerged as important regulatory components of mechanisms involved in biological processes regulating developmental, metabolic and immunological states of cells and tissues (e.g., Mercer et al. 2009, Rinn & Chang 2012, Chen et al. 2017). LncRNAs were defined as transcripts with more than 200 nucleotides in length that have no or low protein-coding potential (Guttman et al. 2009). They are transcribed similar to mRNAs, but their poor sequence conservation and low tissue-specific expression impede an accurate identification (Derrien et al. 2012, Iyer et al. 2015), and functional annotation and characterization of lncRNAs is a challenging task. Thus, lncRNAs are rarely annotated in the reference genomes of domesticated and farm animals and are just beginning to be explored (Weikard et al. 2016). The holistic approach of whole transcriptome analysis by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) allows to discover previously unknown transcripts (including lncRNAs), to identify complex transcript catalogues specific for cells and tissues and to unravel novel regulatory mechanisms on transcriptional level. We performed RNA-seq analysis to monitor changes in the jejunal mucosa transcriptome in response to different milk feeding regimen in pre-weaning calves. We hypothesized that lncRNAs play a regulatory role in mediating the effects of different early life milk diets in the gastrointestinal transcriptome of calves in the pre-weaning period because lncRNAs are known to act as regulatory integral in the modulation of immunological, metabolic, cellular and developmental processes. Thus, our analysis of the RNA-seq dataset had a focus on the identification of lncRNAs present in the jejunal mucosa of pre-weaning calves and aimed to functionally annotate lncRNAs differentially expressed between calf groups experienced a different diet in early life.
THE INFLUENCE OF MANAGERIAL ATTRIBUTION ON CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

In this paper, we explore the role of managerial attribution on changes in CE. Specifically, we look at how a manager attributes past performance and how it impacts subsequent CE behavior. Previous research into the link between performance and entrepreneurial activities such as RD Himmelberg, & Petersen, 1991; Bougheas, Gorg & Strobl, 2003), especially in high tech firms. However, RD Filatotchev & Piesse, 2009; Levesque et al., 2012). We argue that how managers attribute past performance will affect their future investments into CE activities. More specifically, the extent to which managers attribute performance to the firm itself have differential investments in CE than those who attribute performance to competitive pressures or environmental uncertainties.
A HIGHER ORDER LARGE-DEVIATION APPROXIMATION FOR THE DISCRETE DISTRIBUTIONS

For a sum of independent discrete random variables, its higher order largedeviation approximation is discussed. An approximation to the tail probability of the distribution of the sum is provided, and its numerical comparison with other approximations is done in the binomial case. Consequently, the approximation formula is seen to be more accurate.
Preferences and Power in the European Community: A Liberal Intergovernmentalist Approach

The European Community (EC) is the most successful example of institutionalized international policy co-ordination in the modem world, yet there is little agreement about the proper explanation for its evolution. From the signing of the Treaty of Rome to the making of Maastricht, the EC has developed through a series of celebrated intergovernmental bargains, each of which set the agenda for an intervening period of consolidation. The most fundamental task facing a theoretical account of European integration is to explain these bargains. Today many would revive neo-functionalism’s emphasis on sui generis characteristics of EC institutions, in particular the importance of unintended consequences of previous decisions and the capacity of supranational officials to provide leadership. This article joins the debate by reasserting the self-critique, advanced almost two decades ago by Emst Haas and other leading neo-functionalists, who