Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of elevated carbon dioxide on Bromus rubens and nutritional consequences for the desert tortoise

Effects Of Elevated CO2 On Bromus rubens And Nutritional Consequences For The Desert Tortoise by Kristen Marie Murphy Dr. Stanley D. Smith, Examination Committee Chair Professor o f Biology University of Nevada, Las Vegas The purpose o f this research was to determine the effect o f elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide conditions on forage quality for the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), using a common diet component, Bromus rubens. Nitrogen balance was monitored for tortoises fed pelleted diets reflecting the nitrogen levels of Bromus plants grown under elevated and ambient CO2 conditions, with varying potassium levels (3.5% and 1.4% DWB). Nitrogen content in the diet approached a positive correlation with total diet intake (p = 0 .1 1 ), and was positively correlated with nitrogen loss at a = 0 . 1 0 (p 0.08) and yet remained positively correlated with nitrogen retention (p = 0.07) in high potassium diets. When consuming lower potassium diets, no significant responses were seen with respect to nitrogen content o f diets, although nitrogen retention approached significance (p = 0.11). These results, suggest that under elevated C0 2 -conditions, if dietary nitrogen levels decrease, nitrogen retention abilities are likely to be compromised, especially when plants simultaneously contain large amounts of potassium.
THINKING SKILLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PERSPECTIVE OF NEW STUDENTS OF BIOLOGY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT THROUGH BLENDED PROJECT BASED LEARNING MODEL

This study aims to analyze the difference of thinking skills between treatment (using Blended Project Based Learning Model) and control (non treatment) classes. This is quasi-experimental study of new students of Biology Education as research subject. The thinking skills difference between treatment and control was found out through statistical test of SPSS. The result shows that there is difference of thinking skills (self-regulated, critical, and creative thinking) between treatment and control classes. The mean of self-regulated thinking of treatment class (16.0) is higher than control group (13.4). Meanwhile the mean of critical thinking of treatment class (19.7) is higher than control class (16.7). Therefore the mean of creative thinking of treatment class (14.3) is higher than control class (11.8). Therefore, it can be concluded that the model of Blended Project Based Learning is effective to develop thinking skills of new students of Biology Departement. © 2015 Science Education Study Program FMIPA UNNES Semarang
The medical device development landscape in South Africa: Institutions, sectors and collaboration

A characterisation of the medical device development landscape in South Africa would be beneficial for future policy developments that encourage locally developed devices to address local healthcare needs. The landscape was explored through a bibliometric analysis (2000–2013) of relevant scientific papers using co-authorship as an indicator of collaboration. Collaborating institutions thus found were divided into four sectors: academia (A); healthcare (H); industry (I); and science and support (S). A collaboration network was drawn to show the links between the institutions and analysed using network analysis metrics. Centrality measures identified seven dominant local institutions from three sectors. Group densities were used to quantify the extent of collaboration: the A sector collaborated the most extensively both within and between sectors; local collaborations were more prevalent than international collaborations. Translational collaborations (AHI, HIS or AHIS) are considered to be pivotal in fostering medical device innovation that is both relevant and likely to be commercialised. Few such collaborations were found, suggesting room for increased collaboration of these types in South Africa.
Carbon payback times for crop-based biofuel expansion in the tropics: the effects of changing yield and technology

Biofuels from land-rich tropical countries may help displace foreign petroleum imports for many industrialized nations, providing a possible solution to the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. But concern is mounting that crop-based biofuels will increase net greenhouse gas emissions if feedstocks are produced by expanding agricultural lands. Here we quantify the ‘carbon payback time’ for a range of biofuel crop expansion pathways in the tropics. We use a new, geographically detailed database of crop locations and yields, along with updated vegetation and soil biomass estimates, to provide carbon payback estimates that are more regionally specific than those in previous studies. Using this cropland database, we also estimate carbon payback times under different scenarios of future crop yields, biofuel technologies, and petroleum sources. Under current conditions, the expansion of biofuels into productive tropical ecosystems will always lead to net carbon emissions for decades to centuries, while expanding into degraded or already cultivated land will provide almost immediate carbon savings. Future crop yield improvements and technology advances, coupled with unconventional petroleum supplies, will increase biofuel carbon offsets, but clearing carbon-rich land still requires several decades or more for carbon payback. No foreseeable changes in agricultural or energy technology will be able to achieve meaningful carbon benefits if crop-based biofuels are produced at the expense of tropical forests.
Stochasticity in halo formation and the excursion set approach

The simplest stochastic halo formation models assume that the traceless part of the shear field acts to increase the initial overdensity (or decrease the underdensity) that a protohalo (or protovoid) must have if it is to form by the present time. Equivalently, it is the difference between the overdensity and (the square root of the) shear that must be larger than a threshold value. To estimate the effect this has on halo abundances using the excursion set approach, we must solve for the first crossing distribution of a barrier of constant height by the random walks associated with the difference, which is now (even for Gaussian initial conditions) a non-Gaussian variate. The correlation properties of such non-Gaussian walks are inherited from those of the density and the shear, and, since they are independent processes, the solution is in fact remarkably simple. We show that this provides an easy way to understand why earlier heuristic arguments about the nature of the solution worked so well. In addition to modelling halos and voids, this potentially simplifies models of the abundance and spatial distribution of filaments and sheets in the cosmic web.
Dynamical downscaling techniques: Impacts on regional climate change signals

There are many different techniques for dynamical downscaling of global climate change projections to study regional climate change, including high-resolution global atmospheric models, stretched- grid models, and the most popular technique, limited-area models. All these methods require some information from fully-coupled atmospheric-oceanic-ice global coupled models (GCMs), ranging from ocean temperatures through to full atmospheric data every six hours as forcing. A systematic study of these various techniques and their impact on the simulated regional climate is required in order to assess the validity and assumptions that influence the results of the simulations. In this preliminary study, the impact on the precipitation when downscaling with and without atmospheric forcing (in the form of a digital filter) and with and without bias-corrected sea surface temperatures (SSTs) is investigated using the CSIRO Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM). The CCAM is a variable-resolution global atmospheric model with enhanced resolution over a selected region and does not require lateral boundary conditions. Significant improvement in the distribution of precipitation in the current climate is obtained when bias- corrected sea surface temperatures from global coupled models are used as lower boundary conditions. Using uncorrected SSTs and atmospheric forcing from the GCMs to drive CCAM, the basic large-scale features of the GCMs are preserved in the downscaled run. The results demonstrate the flexibility of using the variable-resolution CCAM for dynamical downscaling.
Conditions for Fault Recovery of Interconnected Asynchronous Sequential Machines with State Feedback

—In this paper, fault recovery for parallel interconnected asynchronous sequential machines is studied. An adversarial input can inﬁltrate into one of two submachines comprising parallel composition of the considered asynchronous sequential machine, causing an unauthorized state transition. The control objective is to elucidate the condition for the existence of a corrective controller that makes the closed-loop system immune against any occurrence of adversarial inputs. In particular, an e ﬃ cient existence condition is presented that does not need the complete modeling of the interconnected asynchronous sequential machine.
e-Agriculture Prototype for Knowledge Facilitation among Tribal Farmers of North-East India: Innovations, Impact and Lessons

Abstract Purpose: This case study deals with the implementation methodology, innovations and lessons of the ICT initiative in providing agricultural extension services to the rural tribal farming community of North-East India. Methodology: This study documents the ICT project implementation challenges, impact among farmers and briefly indicates lessons of the e-agriculture project. Findings: The e-agriculture prototype demonstrated that the Rs. 2,400 (USD 53) cost of the extension services to provide farm advisory services was saved per farmer per year, expenditure was reduced 3.6 times in comparison with the conventional extension system. Sixteenfold less time was required by the farmers for availing the services and threefold less time was required to deliver the services to the farmers compared with the conventional extension system. However, this article argues that in less developed areas, information through ICTs alone may not create expected development. Along with appropriate agricultural information and knowledge, field demonstrations and forward (farm machinery, manure, seeds) and backward linkages (post-harvest technology and market) need to be facilitated with appropriate public–private partnership between knowledge and other rural advisory service providers for agricultural development. Practical implications: This article lists a number of practical lessons which will be useful for the successful planning and implementation of e-agriculture projects in developing countries. Original value: This article is a first case study on ICTs for agricultural extension initiatives among the tribal farmers who dominate the less developed North-East India.
Comparison between Ribbed Slab Structure using Lightweight Foam Concrete and Solid Slab Structure using Normal Concrete

The aim of this study is to demonstrate that one-way ribbed slab with lightweight foam concrete can be used to reduce the dead load on slab concrete structure. This would allow the structural designer to reduce the size of column, footing and other load bearing elements. In addition, the scope of this study is to design one-way ribbed slab and two-way solid slab by using Esteem® software. The methodology employed in this study consists of two parts, the first part is the Lab tests for the density and compression strength while the second part is the analysis of the data made by using the ESTEEM® software. The result of this study shows that one-way ribbed slab with beam used in residential building is more preferable from the economical point of view since it is less expensive than the two-way solid slab with beam. Furthermore, one-way ribbed slab with L.W. F.C. is more efficient. As a conclusion, it seems that L.W. F.C. could be considered as an-alternative in place of other frequently used conventional cement due to its capability to reduce the weight of building. On the other hand, ESTEEM® software is considered as an efficient and accurate method of making the analysis and the optimization of building structure.
A Computational Network Control Theory Analysis of Depression Symptoms

Abstract Rumination and impaired inhibition are considered core characteristics of depression. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms that contribute to these atypical cognitive processes remain unclear. To address this question, we apply a computational network control theory approach to structural brain imaging data acquired via diffusion tensor imaging in a large sample of participants, to examine how network control theory relates to individual differences in subclinical depression. Recent application of this theory at the neural level is built on a model of brain dynamics, which mathematically models patterns of inter-region activity propagated along the structure of an underlying network. The strength of this approach is its ability to characterize the potential role of each brain region in regulating whole-brain network function based on its anatomical fingerprint and a simplified model of node dynamics. We find that subclinical depression is negatively related to higher integration abilities in the right anterior insula, replicating and extending previous studies implicating atypical switching between the default mode and Executive Control Networks in depression. We also find that subclinical depression is related to the ability to “drive” the brain system into easy to reach neural states in several brain regions, including the bilateral lingual gyrus and lateral occipital gyrus. These findings highlight brain regions less known in their role in depression, and clarify their roles in driving the brain into different neural states related to depression symptoms.
Addressing Multiculturalism for E-Learning in Higher Education Environments: A View of South East Europe

World Wide Web with the rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in HE has caused changes in the way teaching and learning is viewed increasing the diversity of the students’ cohorts. Thus, students will increasingly be asked to interact with other students in multicultural environments for which they may be ill-prepared. This study identifies potential communication problems of students from South East Europe when they collaborate and co-operate in a synchronous chat and investigate if these problems can be related and attributed to differences arising from the diversity of students’ cultural backgrounds. This study followed a mixed method approach to research by employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods of data collection and analysis was employed in a sample of 40 students. The results of this study showed that communication problems may arise between the participants from the investigated countries concerning the power distance cultural dimension. Although communication problems were identified, communication never broke down and the groups were all able to fulfill the goals of the activity more or less. The paper concludes that a sound appreciation or at least acknowledgment of the problems associated with diversity is essential for the survival of a multicultural teaching and learning activity not only for cultures with obvious differences such as between Chinese and American cultures that have already been proven, but for closer cultures of the same region (SEE Region) as well. This research is one of the few studies, which examines cultural communication problems between students coming from close cultures with common historical background.
Impact of Terrorism on Investment Decisions of Farmers

This article provides evidence for a particular channel through which sustained terrorism in rural areas may affect growth in developing countries. Using micro-level data from agricultural surveys during the period of insurgency in Punjab (India), I find significant negative effects of terrorism on the level of investment in long-term agricultural technology, but effects are small and insignificant for short-term investment. The presence of a major terrorist incident in a district in a year reduces long-term fixed investment by around 17 percent after controlling for district fixed-effects, time trends, district trends, and other farm-level controls. These negative effects are greater for richer farmers and those living in bordering districts. This results in a farmer losing close to 4 percent of his income annually because of the insurgency.
An application of the extended Technology Acceptance Model in understanding technology-enabled financial service adoption in South Africa

The last 10 years have seen a significant increase in the provision of consumer services through technology. Computers, mobile phones, the Internet and self-service kiosks are examples of technology platforms that have enabled services to be offered to consumers in new ways. In South Africa, technology-enabled financial services have the potential to expand financial inclusion, especially at the bottom of the pyramid. There is a need to understand how consumers adopt technology-enabled services. Using grounded theory, an enhancement to the Technology Acceptance Model is proposed and developed to explain adoption of technology-enabled financial services. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to validate the model against data obtained from a survey. The proposed model fits the data well. Implications of the model are discussed.
School–Specific Subjective Wellbeing and Emotional Problems among High School Adolescents

Wellbeing is a broad concept, and includes all manner of healthy and successful human functioning, and comprised of people’s both private and public wellbeing experiences. The purpose present study investigated the predictive effect of students subjective wellbeing on several specific adolescents’ emotional problems, including anxiety, depression, negative self–concept, somatization, and hostility. Participants of the study comprised of 541 high school students attending two public high schools in a small city of Turkey. They were 39.6% female and 60.4% male adolescents, ranging in age from 14 to 18 years (Mean = 16.19, SD = 1.11). Findings from Pearson product-moment correlation analysis indicated small–to–moderate associations between subjective wellbeing and anxiety, depression, negative self–concept, somatization, hostility, and overall problems. Additionally, the path analyses demonstrated the predictive effect of school–specific subjective wellbeing on adolescents’ emotional problems, and students with higher level of subjective wellbeing had lower level of anxiety, depression, negative self-concept, somatization, hostility, and overall emotional problems. The results were discussed in context of literature, and several suggestions were presented for research and practice.
Agricultural development and nutrition among rural populations: A case study of the middle valley in Senegal

Food production in Sahelian countries is very dependent on erratic rainfall. To eliminate this climatic risk, modern irrigated agriculture was introduced and spread into the Senegal Valley in the course of the last thirty years. In such a context of changes in farming systems and food consumption patterns, a nutritional and dietary study was conducted three different times at six month intervals among 37 families of a village community which farmed a recently established irrigated area. Women played an important part in agricultural tasks. Average food consumption met the recommended intake for energy but deficiencies persist for certain nutrients. The prevalence of malnutrition was high, with 16% stunting and 13% wasting among children between the ages of 0 and 10 years; a third of the older children and 20% of the adults presented an emaciated appearance. Rice production has increased food security but, in comparison with the situation in the valley 35 years ago, nutritional gains were slight and there .
Stochastic weather generators: an overview of weather type models

A recurrent issue encountered in environmental, ecological or agricultural impact studies in which climate is an important driving force is to provide fast and realistic simulations of atmospheric variables such as temperature, precipitation and wind at a few specific locations, at daily or hourly temporal scales. Spatio-temporal dynamics and correlation structures among the variables of interest, as well as weather persistence and natural variability have to be reproduced accurately in a distributional sense. This quest leads to a large variety of so-called stochastic weather generators (WGs) in the literature. Here, we provide an up-to-date overview of weather type WG models.Weather types classically represent daily characteristics of the relevant atmospheric information at hand. There are many ways to build such weather states, either hidden or observed, and to infer their properties. This overview should help statisticians as well as meteorologists and climate product users to understand the probabilistic concepts and models behind weather type WGs, and to identify their advantages and limits. Resume : Pour realiser des etudes d’impact dans lesquelles le climat est un parametre d’entree important, un probleme frequemment rencontre consiste a produire des series temporelles de variables climatiques telles que temperatures, precipitation, vent ou humidite relative, en plusieurs sites simultanement, au pas de temps journalier et parfois horaire. Ces series doivent etre faciles a generer. Elles doivent aussi etre realistes en ce sens que les distributions des statistiques liees a la dynamique spatio-temporelle, telles que les correlation entre variables, la persistence temporelle et les differentes sources de variabilite doivent etre correctement reproduites. De nombreux generateurs stochastiques de conditions meteorologiques ont ete proposes dans ce but. Dans cet article, nous proposons de passer en revue la classe particuliere des generateurs stochastiques a base de types de temps. En regle generale, un type de temps est une caracterisation grossiere des conditions atmospheriques journalieres. Il existe de nombreuses facons de definir les types de temps, qu’ils soient observes ou caches dans une structure latente, et d’en inferer leur proprietes. Cette revue a pour objet d’aider les statisticiens, les scientifiques du climat et les utilisateurs de produits climatiques a apprehender les concepts et modeles probabilistes utilises dans les generateurs stochastiques de conditions meteorologiques et d’en cerner les avantages et leurs limites.