Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated Weed Management in Rabi Popcorn (Zea Mays Var. Everta)

The field experiment conducted during rabi 2013-14 at Junagadh (Gujarat, India) to assess the integrated weed management in popcorn. The weed flora in the experimental site constituted by monocot weeds viz., Brachiaria spp. , Asphodelus tenuifolius, Indigofera glandulosa, Echinochloa colona and Dactyloctenium aegyptium, dicot weeds viz., Digera arvensis, Amaranthus viridis, Physalis minima, Launaea nudicaulis, Euphorbia hirta, Chenopodium album, Portulaca oleracea and Phyllanthus niruri and sedge weed Cyperus rotundus. The results indicated that treatments viz., hand weeding (HW) and intercultivation (IC) twice at 15 and 30 days after sowing (DAS), pre-emergence application (PRE) of atrazine 0.5 kg ha-1 + HW and IC at 30 DAS and pendimethalin 0.9 kg ha-1 as PRE + HW and IC at 30 DAS significantly enhanced growth and yield attributes viz., plant height and dry matter at harvest, cob length, number of cobs per plant, number of grains per cob and grain weight per cob leading to higher grain and fodder yields over unweeded check. These treatments also recorded the lower weed population at 30, 60 DAS and at harvest, dry weight of weed at harvest and weed index as well as higher weed control efficiency along with higher net returns and B:C ratio compared to unweeded check.
Factors Determining the Impact of Aerosols on Surface Precipitation from Clouds: An Attempt at Classification

Abstract The simulation of the dynamics and the microphysics of clouds observed during the Large-Scale Biosphere–Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia—Smoke, Aerosols, Clouds, Rainfall, and Climate (LBA–SMOCC) campaign, as well as extremely continental and extremely maritime clouds, is performed using an updated version of the Hebrew University spectral microphysics cloud model (HUCM). A new scheme of diffusional growth allows the reproduction of in situ–measured droplet size distributions including those formed in extremely polluted air. It was shown that pyroclouds forming over the forest fires can precipitate. Several mechanisms leading to formation of precipitation from pyroclouds are considered. The mechanisms by which aerosols affect the microphysics and precipitation of warm cloud-base clouds have been investigated by analyzing the mass, heat, and moisture budgets. The increase in aerosol concentration increases both the generation and the loss of the condensate mass. In the clouds developing in dry ai.
Effects of land use and climate changes on small reservoir siltation in the agricultural belt of European Russia

Small reservoirs of agriculture-dominated areas experience severely increased sediment input caused by soil erosion on cultivated slopes, also accompanied at some locations by gully erosion. This causes rapid decrease of the reservoir water storage and shortened periods of functioning. In this paper we discuss several examples of the 137 Cs-based short-term siltation chronology of small reservoirs located in different landscape zones within the agricultural belt of European Russia. From two to four time marks could have been established in 137 Cs depth distribution curves constructed from detailed depth-incremental sampling of reservoir infill sediment, allowing reconstruction of sediment microstratigraphy and deposition rates. In combination with other independent information sources this provides insight on the relative importance of recent land use changes and climatic variability in controlling sediment delivery within small agriculture-dominated fluvial systems. In combination with sediment redistribution studies, it has become possible to construct closed sediment budgets for catchments of several reservoirs and make a quantitative assessment of sediment delivery variability. Such information is important for appropriate design and management of small agricultural reservoirs in Russia
Mothers' Judgement Of The Representativeness Of Their Sons' Language Samples In Relation To

The analysis of language elicited during naturally occurring situations forms the cornerstone of a child language assessment protocol and is used for the planning and monitoring of intervention (Dunn, Flax, Sliwinski, and Aram 1996; Evans and Miller 1999). A 1997 survey revealed that 85% of speech-language therapists in the United States of America use language samples during language assessment with children (Kemp and Klee 1997). One reason for the frequent use of language samples is the limitations of standardised language tests (cf., amongst others, Hawkins and Spencer 1985). Another reason is the lack of assessment tools, especially culturally fair ones, for clients from nonmainstream groups (Pena, Quinn, and Iglesias 1992; Toronto and Merrill 1983). Consider the situation of Afrikaans, for example: According to the 2001 census results (Statistics South Africa 2003), this language is spoken as mother-tongue by 13% of the South African population (i.e., by 6 million people). Considering that Afrikaans is not widely spoken outside of the country, it could thus be viewed as a nonmainstream language compared to, for instance, English, the language which has the world's third largest number of mother-tongue speakers, viz. 322 million (Grimes 1996). The lack of assessment tools for clients from nonmainstream groups is exemplified by the fact that there is only one standardised instrument for the assessment of expressive syntax for children who speak Afrikaans, namely the Toets vir Mondelinge Taalproduksie (Vorster 1980). However, this test has poor test-retest reliability (according to Vorster himself) and has only been standardised for children in the age group 4 years 6 months to 10 years 5 months. This leaves speech-language therapists who are required to assess the expressive syntactic abilities of Afrikaans-speaking children not represented by the population sample on which the test was standardised with the choice of either devising their own informal assessment tool(s) or making use of a spontaneous language sample.
Deep State Space Models for Time Series Forecasting

We present a novel approach to probabilistic time series forecasting that combines state space models with deep learning. By parametrizing a per-time-series linear state space model with a jointly-learned recurrent neural network, our method retains desired properties of state space models such as data efficiency and interpretability, while making use of the ability to learn complex patterns from raw data offered by deep learning approaches. Our method scales gracefully from regimes where little training data is available to regimes where data from millions of time series can be leveraged to learn accurate models. We provide qualitative as well as quantitative results with the proposed method, showing that it compares favorably to the state-of-the-art.
A finite-energy bound on the approach of a diffusion to the zeros of its density

Since the drift coefficients of a finite-energy diffusion are undefined on the nodes, or zeros of the density, an important problem has been to show that the sample paths stay away from the nodes. In this paper it is shown that if the drift is locally a gradient and smooth on the complement of the nodes, and if the density is smooth, then the closest approach to the nodes can be bounded solely in terms of the time-integrated energy
Dynamics of Social Capital: Effects of Performance Feedback on Network Change

We present a theory of social capital dynamics. In particular, we examine how individuals in organizations respond to events such as performance evaluations by changing whom they interact with and the extent to which they utilize their contacts. We argue that positive performance feedback from supervisors increases levels of self-efficacy and results in the creation of new social capital as well as the increased utilization of existing social capital (i.e., forming new ties with sources of information and aid, and increasing interactions with existing contacts). In addition, negative feedback decreases self-efficacy, resulting in reallocation of social capital utilization to concentrate on a small number of existing frequently-accessed contacts (i.e., decreasing interactions with some contacts while increasing interactions with others). Our arguments highlight the role of individual agency in social capital dynamics and clarify the role that individual performance evaluations can play in the evolving structure of social networks. To test our hypotheses, we use a longitudinal social network data-set collected over a six-year period in the IT department of a global engineering firm. Using fixed-effects panel regression models, we find support for our hypotheses, suggesting that performance feedback is a determinant factor in social capital dynamics.
Hemispherical wineglass resonators fabricated from the microcrystalline diamond

We present the development of millimeter scale 3D hemispherical shell resonators fabricated from the polycrystalline diamond, a material with low thermoelastic damping and very high stiffness. These hemispherical wineglass resonators with 1.1 mm diameter are fabricated through a combination of micro-electro discharge machining (EDM) and silicon micromachining techniques. Using piezoelectric and electrostatic excitation and optical vibration measurement, the elliptical wineglass vibration mode is determined to be at 18.321 kHz, with the two degenerate wineglass modes having a relative frequency mismatch of 0.03%. A study on the effect of the size and misalignment of the anchor and resonator's radius variation on both the average frequency and frequency mismatch of the 2θ elliptical vibration modes is carried out. It is shown that the absolute frequency of a wineglass resonator will increase with the anchor size. It is also demonstrated that the fourth harmonic of radius variation is linearly related to the frequency mismatch.
Human Nutrition and Metabolism Soy Protein Favorably Affects LDL Size Independently of Isoflavones in Hypercholesterolemic Men and Women 1

We assessed the independent effect of soy protein relative to animal protein and of isoflavones on various electrophoretic characteristics of LDL particles. LDL particles were characterized by polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis in 36 moderately hypercholesterolemic men and women (LDL cholesterol 3.36 mmol/L). All subjects consumed in random order each of the four diets (soy protein depleted of isoflavones, soy protein enriched in isoflavones, animal protein with no added isoflavones, and animal protein with added isoflavones) for 6 wk. Consumption of soy protein was associated with a larger LDL peak particle size relative to animal protein (P 0.01). Soy protein also decreased the cholesterol levels in LDL 25.5 nm by 12.3% (P 0.001) and increased cholesterol levels in LDL 26.0 nm by 14.3% (P 0.05) relative to animal protein. Isoflavones did not affect these LDL particle characteristics. Soy protein shifted LDL particle distribution to a less atherogenic pattern and this effect is independent of soy’s isoflavone component. J. Nutr. 134: 574–579, 2004.
Modeling transient correlations in heartbeat dynamics during sleep

We propose a model to generate stochastic signals with transient correlations, i.e. correlations of different strength and different typical duration within finite segments of the signal. The exponents and crossovers characterizing the correlations in the signal and in its variance can be tuned independently and allow us to generate model time series which are in agreement with data of heartbeat dynamics observed during wake and during different sleep stages. We also propose a model dynamics that reproduces the changes in the heartbeat fluctuations during the entire night, including transitions between different sleep stages.
Effects of Topiramate Drug on Biological, Hormonal and Histological Parameters in Pregnant Albino Rats and Embryos

The present study aimed to elucidate the effect of Topiramate drug (100 mg/kg b.wt) on some parameter in pregnant albino rats including serum reproductive hormones level , Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Estradiol (E2)), body weight gain, uterus weight, on the implantation and desorption of embryo, diameter of follicle in ovary and development of neural tube of embryos in pregnant albino rats for different periods (7,9,12,14 and 21 days) of gestation . The hormonal results showed no significant change (P ≤ 0.05) in the mean levels of LH and FSH hormone for treated groups when compared with control groups for days 7, 9, 12, 14 and 21 of pregnancy, but there was a significant increase (P ≤ 0.05) in the mean levels of E2 hormone for treated groups as compared with control groups. There is significant increase in the numbers of desorption embryos in treated groups for days 7, 9, 12, 14 and 21of pregnancy, as compared with control groups. While the study showed significant decrease in the number of implantation sites in treated groups as compared with control groups. The results of this study revealed no significant increase in the secondary follicle diameters in treated groups of 9 and 12 days and tertiary follicle of 7 days of pregnancy, as compared with control. The diameters of epithelial and marginal layers of neuro-ectoderm in days 9 of pregnancy for treated groups showed significant increase as compared with control groups. Keywords: Topiramate, Rats, Embryo, Neural tube, Ovary.
Melatih Literasi Matematika Siswa dengan Soal PISA

Matematika adalah salah satu disiplin ilmu yang dipelajari pada setiap jenjang pendidikan. Untuk menyelesaikan permasalahan matematika, siswa terlebih dahulu harus menguasi konsep-konsep matematika. Literasi matematika merupakan kemampuan seseorang untuk merumuskan, menggunakan dan menafsirkan matematika dalam berbagai konteks. Capaian literasi siswa Indonesia dapat terlihat dari keikutsertaan Indonesia dalam studi komparatif internasional, seperti PISA (Program for Internastional Student Assessment). Hasilnya, anak Indonesia di PISA mencapai level tertinggi pada level 5 hanya 0,3%. Rendahnya hasil PISA menunjukkan bahwa literasi matematika siswa Indonesia sangat rendah. Oleh karena itu, perlu melatih literasi matematika siswa menggunakan soal PISA. Hasil PISA yang baik akan menunjukkan literasi matematika siswa baik pula.
VIOLENCE AND THE COSTS OF HONESTY

Explanations for bureaucrats’ decisions to take bribes have evolved from accounts of incentives to focusing on expectations of others’ behavior. However, there are plausibly more considerations when making such choices in contexts of widespread violence, where refusal to take bribes may be associated with high costs. Yet, current insight into this topic is limited. This article investigates how violence upholds bribery through interviews with South African officials that enforce resource regulations in communities where gangs run poaching operations. The findings suggest that while citizens commonly give bribes to enable rule violations, this is a process of both temptations and threats: officials that do not take bribes face violent intimidations by citizens and corrupt colleagues. Through reducing direct costs in such settings, bribe taking is partly a strategy of social protection. This suggests that, besides incentives and expectations, administrative reforms may benefit from ‘fixing the security’ of bureaucrats in violent contexts. Aksel Sundström The Quality of Government Institute Department of Political Science University of Gothenburg aksel.sundstrom@pol.gu. se
Large-Scale Extended Emission around the Helix Nebula: Dust, Molecules, Atoms, and Ions

We present new observations of the ionized gas, molecular gas, and cool dust in the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293). The ionized gas is observed in the form of an Hα image, which is constructed using images from the Southern Hα Sky Survey Atlas. The molecular emission was mapped using the H2 v = 1 → 0 S(1) line at 2.122 μm. The far-infrared (FIR) observations were obtained using ISOPHOT on the Infrared Space Observatory. The Hα observations are more sensitive than previous measurements and show the huge extent of the Helix, confirming it as a density-bounded nebula and showing previously unseen point-symmetric structures. The H2 observations show that the molecular gas follows the distribution of molecular material shown in previous work. The molecular emission is confined to that part of the nebula seen in the classic optical image. Furthermore, comparison of the H2 emission strength with time-dependent models for photodissociation regions (PDRs) shows that the emission arises from thermal excitation of the hydrogen molecules in PDRs and not from shocks. The FIR observations, at 90 and 160 μm, represent mostly contributions from thermal dust emission from cool dust grains but include a small contribution from ionized atomic lines. Comparison of the FIR emission with the Hα observation shows that the dust and ionized gas are coincident and extend to ∼1100″ radius. This equates to a spatial radial extent of more than 1 pc (assuming a distance to the Helix of ∼200 pc). Assuming that the outer layers of the circumstellar shell have spherical symmetry, radiative transfer modeling of the emission in Hα gives a shell mass of ∼1.5 M⊙. However, the modeling does not cover the outermost part of the shell (beyond ∼600″ radius), and therefore this is a lower limit for the shell mass. Moreover, the models suggest the need for very large dust grains, with ∼80% of the dust mass in grains larger than 3.5 μm. Comparison of these new observations with previous observations shows the large-scale stratification of the Helix in terms of ionized gas and dust, as well as the coexistence of molecular species inside the ionized zones, where molecules survive in dense condensations and cometary knots.
The differences in acceleration, maximal speed and agility between soccer, basketball, volleyball and handball players

Complex reaction speed, acceleration, maximum speed, speed of whole-body change of direction and agility represent the basic components of sport performance mainly in sport games and combat sports. However, contradictory findings have been reported as to the extent of the relationship between the different speed and agility components. This study comprised 117 players (soccer – 56, basketball – 17, volleyball – 20, and handball – 24) playing youth leagues U15-U17 who were assessed for 10-m sprint (acceleration), flying 30-m sprint (maximum speed), triple-jump (special explosiveness) performance, Illinois agility test (speed of whole-body change of direction) and Fitro Agility Check (agility). Low (0.112-0.425 in soccer) correlation coefficients between the factors were found in soccer, while in the other sport games they were medium (0.329-0.623 in basketball; 0.414-0.686 in handball) to high (0.569-0.768 in volleyball). Negative relationship was observed between Triple jump and all other tests performances in all sports games. The findings suggest that specific training procedures for each speed and agility component should be utilized already in junior ages.
HideMyApp: Hiding the Presence of Sensitive Apps on Android

Millions of users rely on mobile health (mHealth) apps to manage their wellness and medical conditions. Although the popularity of such apps continues to grow, several privacy and security challenges can hinder their potential. In particular, the simple fact that an mHealth app is installed on a user’s phone can reveal sensitive information about the user’s health. Due to Android’s open design, any app, even without per- missions, can easily check for the presence of a specific app or collect the entire list of installed apps on the phone. Our analysis shows that Android apps expose a significant amount of metadata, which facilitates fingerprinting them. Many third parties are interested in such information: Our survey of 2917 popular apps in the Google Play Store shows that around 57% of these apps explicitly query for the list of installed apps. Therefore, we designed and implemented HideMyApp (HMA), an effective and practical solution for hiding the presence of sensitive apps from other apps. HMA does not require any changes to the Android operating system or to apps yet still supports their key functionalities. By using a diverse dataset of both free and paid mHealth apps, our experimental eval- uation shows that HMA supports the main functionalities in most apps and introduces acceptable overheads at runtime (i.e., several milliseconds); these findings were validated by our user-study (N = 30). In short, we show that the practice of collecting information about installed apps is widespread and that our solution, HMA, provides a robust protection against such a threat.
Sorghum and Maize Biomass, Protein and Bioethanol Yields in a Semi-Arid Environment of Central Greece

We investigated biomass and protein productivity of Sudan sorghum and maize crops in relation to nitrogen fertilization (6, 15 and 35 g m­2) in central Greece. Sudan sorghum was cultivated under two management techniques: (a) as a row crop similar to maize cultivation (row­to­row distance: 75 cm; observed shoot density: 27 per m2) with a single harvest per year; and (b) as a very dense crop (row­to­row distance: 10 cm; observed shoot density: 155 per m2) with a three harvests per year, each when plants reached 1 m in height. Results indicated that Sudan sorghum grown at high plant density and harvested three times per season gave 67, 23 and 40% higher fresh, dry, and protein biomass yields, respectively, than maize. This superiority was explained by the fast increase in leaf area early in the season and by the high leaf/stem ratio at harvest. However, this cultivation strategy only yielded well at large amounts of nitrogen fertilizer (P<0.05 among N­levels). Our results are promising and provide an alternative cultivation opportunity for Greek farmers, but future cost/benefit studies are needed to assess whether this cultivation strategy is also profitable.