Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy fluxes and surface characteristics over a cultivated area in Benin: daily and seasonal dynamics.

Latent and sensible heat surface fluxes are key factors of the western African monsoon dynamics. However, few long-term observations of these land surface fluxes are available; these are needed to increase understanding of the underlying processes and assess their impacts on the energy and water cycles at the surface–atmosphere interface. This study analyzes turbulent fluxes of one full year, measured with the eddy covariance technique, over a cultivated area in northern Benin (western Africa). The study site is part of the long-term AMMA–CATCH (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis–Coupling of the Tropical Atmosphere and Hydrological Cycle) hydrological observatory. The flux partitioning was investigated through the evaporative fraction (EF) and the Bowen ratio (β) at both seasonal and daily scales. Finally, the surface conductance ( G s ) and the decoupling coefficient (Ω) were calculated and compared with specific bare soil or canopy models. Four contrasting seasons were identified and characterized by their typical daily energy cycles. The results pointed out the contrasting seasonal variations of sensible and latent heat fluxes due to changing atmospheric and surface conditions. In the dry season, the sensible heat fluxes were largely dominant (β ~ 10) and a low but significant evapotranspiration was measured (EF = 0.08); this was attributed to a few neighboring bushes, possibly fed by the water table. During the wet season, after the monsoon onset, surface conditions barely affected the evaporative fraction (EF), which remained steady (EF = 0.75); the latent heat flux was dominant and the Bowen ration (β) was about 0.4. During the dry-to-wet and wet-to-dry transition seasons, both EF and β were highly variable, as they depended on the atmospheric forcing or the response to isolated rains. A complete surface–atmosphere decoupling was never observed in 2008 (0 Modeling approaches showed a good agreement of soil resistance with the Sakaguchi bare soil model. Canopy conductance was also well reproduced with the Ball–Berry stomata model. We showed that the skin surface temperature had a large seasonal and daily amplitude, and played a major role in all the surface processes. Consequently, an accurate modeling of the surface temperature is crucial to represent correctly the energy and water budgets for this region.
A cultura da batata-doce.

Clima; Solo; Cultivares; Preparo do solo; Adubacao; Epoca de plantio; Formas de propagacao; Formacao do viveiro; Espacamento; Metodo de plantio; Tratos culturais; Controle da soqueira; Irrigacao; Doencas; Pragas; Colheita; Classificacao e embalagem; Coeficientes de producao.
Increasing the robustness of CNN acoustic models using ARMA spectrogram features and channel dropout

Developing automatic speech recognition systems that are robust to mismatched and noisy channel conditions is a challenging problem, especially when the training and the test conditions are different. Here, we seek to increase the robustness of convolutional neural network (CNN) acoustic models under such circumstances by combining two methods. Firstly, we propose an improved version of input dropout, which exploits the special structure of the input time-frequency representation. Instead of just dropping out random ‘pixels’ of the spectrogram, the proposed channel dropout approach discards whole spectral channels. We expect that this dropout strategy will force the network to rely less on the whole spectrum, and make it more robust to channel mismatches and narrow-band noise. Secondly, we replaced the standard mel-spectrogram input representation with the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) spectrogram, which was recently shown to outperform the former under mismatched train-test conditions. In our experiments on the Aurora-4 database, the proposed channel dropout method attained relative word error rate reductions of 16% with ARMA features (an absolute improvement of 3%), and 20% with FBANK features (an absolute improvement of 7%) over the baseline CNN, when using the clean training scenario. c ⃝ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sosyal Bilimlerde Faktör Analizi ve Geçerlilik: Keşfedici ve Doğrulayıcı Faktör Analizlerinin Kullanılması

Makalede, kesfedici ve dogrulayici faktor analizleri anlatilmis ve bu analizleri dogru ele alabilmek icin gerekli puf noktalara deginilmistir. Uygulamacilarin bu faktor analizlerini gerceklestirirken dikkat etmesi gereken noktalar ve analizler sonucu elde edilecek cikti tablolarinin yorumlanmasi uzerinde durulmustur. Bu tablolarda yer alan degerlerin ne anlama geldigi ve ozellikle de faktor analizlerinin geriye donuk kontrolu baglaminda nasil kullanilabilecegine yonelik ipuclari verilmistir.
A Prediction Smooth Method for Blending Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imagine Spectroradiometer Images

Landsat images have been widely used in support of responsible development of natural resources, disaster risk management (e.g., forest fire, flooding etc.), agricultural production monitoring, as well as environmental change studies due to its medium spatial resolution and rich spectral information. However, its availability and usability are largely constrained by its low revisit frequency. On the other hand, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images for land studies have much more frequent coverage but with a lower spatial resolution of 250–500 m. To take advantages of the two sensors and expand their availability and usability, during the last decade, a number of image fusion methods have been developed for generating Landsat-like images from MODIS observations to supplement clear-sky Landsat imagery. However, available methods are typically effective or applicable for certain applications. For a better result, a new Prediction Smooth Reflectance Fusion Model (PSRFM) for blending Landsat and MODIS images is proposed. PSRFM consists of a dynamic prediction model and a smoothing filter. The dynamic prediction model generates synthetic Landsat images from a pair of Landsat and MODIS images and another MODIS image, either forward or backward in time. The smoothing filter combines the forward and backward predictions by weighted average based on elapsed time or on the estimated prediction uncertainty. Optionally, the smooth filtering can be applied with constraints based on Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). In comparison to some published reflectance fusion methods, PSRFM shows the following desirable characteristics: (1) it can deal with one pair or two pairs of Landsat and MODIS images; (2) it can incorporate input image uncertainty during prediction and estimate prediction uncertainty; (3) it can track gradual vegetation phenological changes and deal with abrupt land-cover type changes; and (4) for predictions using two pairs of input images, the results can be further improved through the constrained smoothing filter based on NDSI or NDVI for certain applications. We tested PSRFM to generate a Landsat-like image time series by using Landsat 8 OLI and MODIS (MOD09GA) images and compared it to two reflectance fusion algorithms: STARFM (Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model) and ESTARFM (Enhanced version of STARFM). The results show that the proposed PSRFM is effective and outperforms STARFM and ESTARFM both visually and quantitatively.
Accelerated Wirtinger Flow: A fast algorithm for ptychography

This paper presents a new algorithm, Accelerated Wirtinger Flow (AWF), for ptychographic image reconstruction from phaseless diffraction pattern measurements. AWF is based on combining Nesterov's acceleration approach with Wirtinger gradient descent. Theoretical results enable prespecification of all AWF algorithm parameters, with no need for computationally-expensive line searches and no need for manual parameter tuning. AWF is evaluated in the context of simulated X-ray ptychography, where we demonstrate fast convergence and low per-iteration computational complexity. We also show examples where AWF reaches higher image quality with less computation than classical algorithms. AWF is also shown to have robustness to noise and probe misalignment.
ACUTE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AIKIDO TRAINING

Background. Aikido is a philosophy and an Eastern martial-art which is conjectured to have many positive effects on mind and body. At this time there is limited, but growing research on this topic. The objective of the current work was to examine for the first time the hypothesis that aikido training, like many other western forms of organized physical activities, has acute psychological benefits as manifested via favourable changes in affect and the flow experience. Methods. Aikidokas (N = 53) took part in an in-situ investigation in which they completed the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) on at least three different occasions before and after their practice. They also completed a flow questionnaire at least on three occasions after their practice. Results. The results indicated that positive affect increased, and negative affect decreased (p < .001) from pre- to post-practice. Aikidokas reported flow experience that on the average was not greater than that reported for other exercises; however it was greater than that reported after video-sport games. The reported flow was independent of the magnitude of change in positive and/or negative affect. The more experienced aikidokas experienced greater skill-challenge harmony, but not oneness with the experience, which are two constructs in flow, than less experienced practitioners. Conclusion. These findings reveal relatively clearly for the very first time in the literature that aikido practice has acute, or immediate, psychological benefits akin to other martial arts and exercises.
Agronomic and Economic Benefits of Pea/Maize Intercropping Systems in Relation to N Fertilizer and Maize Density

Intercropping has been shown to increase crop yields and improve land utilization in many cases but it is unknown how the interspecies relationship is enhanced with improved crop management schemes. In this study, we investigated the effect of different maize densities and N rates on the growth, crop yields and economic benefits of pea (Pisum sativum L.)/maize (Zea mays L.) intercropping. The results indicated that total yields of pea/maize intercropping were higher than the yield of maize alone, and that pea/maize intercropping improved land use efficiency significantly compared to sole crops, the partial land equivalent ratio (LER) of maize and pea with high planting density increased from 0.98% to 9.36% compared to low planting densities during 2012 and 2013. The pea strips provided significant compensatory effects on the growing maize after the earlier-sown, shorter-seasoned pea was harvested. The crop growth rate (CGR) of the intercropped maize was 18.5% to 216.9% greater than that of sole maize after pea harvest, the leaf area index (LAI) of pea/maize intercropping was 6.9% and 45.4% greater compared with the weighted average of sole maize and sole pea in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Net returns and benefit to cost ratios of pea/maize intercropping were increased with an increase of maize planting density. A low rate of N fertilizer was coupled with increased maize plant density, allowing interspecific facilitation to be fully expressed, thus improving the land utilization rate and increasing economic benefits. Overall, our findings show that a higher density of maize and lower N application can be used to increase grain production with no adverse effects on the growth components of either pea or maize crops. It could be considered an advanced farming system for agricultural sustainable development in the oasis region of northwest China.
Overview of Front-end Features for Robust Speaker Recognition

This paper provides an overview of automatic speaker recognition technologies, with an emphasis on front-end features for robust speaker recognition. We categorize the frontend features into low-level features and high-level features. We discussed in detail several selected low-level and high-level features including their motivations, mechanism, reported improvements, and limitations, etc. The goal of this paper is to help beginners in speaker recognition research area to catch the overall picture of current front-end features quickly.
Labour Market Outcomes of Older Versus Younger Apprentices : A Comparison of Earnings Differentials

Over the last decade, there has been a large increase in the number of individuals completing an apprenticeship, with the growth in numbers particularly strong amongst those age 25+ when starting their apprenticeship. This paper analyses the earnings differentials of those who complete their apprenticeship, relative to those who start an apprenticeship at the same level but do not complete. The differentials are estimated using a difference-in-differences framework, thus controlling for differences between groups captured by pre-apprenticeship earnings. The results consistently show that individuals who began their apprenticeship when aged 19-24 receive a larger increase in their daily earnings post-completion, relative to non-achievers, than individuals who began their apprenticeship when aged 25+. Subsequent analysis shows that for women with Intermediate and Advanced Apprenticeships, and for men at the Intermediate level only, this difference between age groups is mostly due to the older apprentices receiving a smaller differential within the same framework. For males with Advanced Apprenticeships, the difference between age groups is mostly due to the older apprentices training in areas with lower differentials. JEL Classification: J24; I28
Anticoagulation in orthopaedic surgery or trauma outside of THA, TKA, and hip fracture : a clinical review

Objective: To better establish rates of DVT with and without pharmacologic prophylaxis in common orthopaedic procedures of the lower and upper extremities other than THA, TKA, and hip fracture. Method: A MEDLINE and Pubmed search was performed for publications of DVT following upper and lower extremity trauma or surgery from 1989 to 2010. Results: Few prospective studies on the rates of VTE in minor orthopaedic surgery were found. Outside of knee arthroscopy, there was no significant difference between pharmacologically prophylaxed patients and those that were not. Knee arthroscopy patients with significant risk factors had higher rates of VTE when not given pharmacologic prophylaxis. Conclusions: In the general population, pharmacologic prophylaxis is not warranted for patients undergoing knee or shoulder arthroscopy, shoulder arthroplasty, surgical or non-surgical treatment of Achilles tendon rupture, and those with lower extremity fractures. Only patients with known major risk factors should be considered for pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis.
The Relationship between Ownership Structure Dimensions and Corporate Performance: Evidence from Bahrain

In this study we examine the relation between ownership structure and corporate performance; the sample of the study included 42 out of 48 companies of all sectors in Bahrain Bourse in five years from 2007-2011. Several dimensions of ownership concentration were studied in addition to managerial and institutional ownership. Two different measurements of performance were used (ROA and Tobin’s Q). The study investigated this relation using several control variables and 2SLS statistical method to overcome the problem of endogeneity that may exist between the study variables. It was found that ownership concentration have a negative effect with statistical significance on company performance. Institutional ownership was found to have a positive effect on company performance. Managerial ownership was not found to have a significant effect on company performance, however it was found that managerial ownership has a positive effect on performance only in the case of declining ownership concentration. Other results were revealed by the study regarding company age, size, growth, board size and liquidity. The study is considered to have theoretical and practical implications. It contributes to the debate about agency theory and managerial entrenchment. It also may help officials in Bahrain in making laws and legislations concerning corporate governance improvement in Bahraini market. This article is available in Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal: http://ro.uow. edu.au/aabfj/vol9/iss4/4 Khamis, Hamdan & Elali | Ownership Structure Dimensions and Corporate Performance
Phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activity of leaf, seed and central-fruit-axis crude extract of Swietenia macrophyll a King

The present study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of Swietenia macrophylla crude methanolic extract of leaf, seed and central-fruit-axis. The antimicrobial activity of the leaf, seed and central fruit-axis extract was evaluated against gram-positive, gram-negative bacteria and fungi based on the inhibition zone using well diffusion assay. The crude extracts of S. macrophylla were subjected to various phytochemical screening tests. The phytochemical tests exhibited the presences of common phytocompounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, glycosides, saponins, volatile oils, amino acids and proteins as major active constituents. The SMCM seed extract had significant level of inhibitory effects on the growth of bacteria viz., Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and fungi viz., Fusarium sp, Helminthosporium sp and Alternaria sp. The antimicrobial activity exhibited a linear relationship with extract concentrations. The seed extracts proved potential extract against fungal growth.
Inventário de habilidades sociais para cuidadores familiares de idosos (IHS-CI): relações com indicadores de bem-estar psicológico

The experience of caring for a dependent elderly person often involves feelings of stress and burden. In this context, a well-developed repertoire of social skills can improve interpersonal relationships, resulting in better psychological wellbeing. The Social Skills Inventory for Caregivers of the Elderly Family Members (SSI-CE) was developed to evaluate interventions that aim to improve caregivers’ social skills. Evidence of the internal validity of the SSI-CE is positive. The objective of this study was to analyze evidence of construct validity by verifying the convergent validity of the SSI-CE, based on relations with other constructs, namely: quality of life, quality of the dyadic relationship, perceptions of burden and depressive symptoms. A total of 205 family caregivers of the elderly, with a mean age of 51 years (SD = 14), with different socioeconomic and educational levels, completed the SSI-CE, the Dyadic Relationship Scale (with two subscales: Positive Interaction and Confl icts), the Beck Depression Inventory and Novelli’s Quality of Life Scale. The SSI-CE was positively correlated with quality of life and with the Positive Interactions subscale and negatively correlated with burden, depressive symptoms, confl icts. The results support the construct validity of the SSI-CE, but other evidence of validity is still needed. Keyword: Caregivers, elderly, social skills, psychological assessment, quality of life. Inventario de Habilidades Sociales para Cuidadores Familiares de Adultos Mayores (IHS-CI): Relaciones con Indicadores de Bienestar Psicológico
Subband Scale Factor Ambiguity Correction Using Multiple Filterbanks

One of the problems with blind system identification in subbands is that the subband systems can only be identified correctly up to an arbitrary scale factor. This scale factor ambiguity is the same across all channels but can differ between the subbands and therefore, limits the usability of such estimates. In this contribution, a method that uses multiple filterbanks is proposed that utilizes overlapping passband regions between these filterbanks to find scalar correction factors that make the scale factor ambiguity uniform across all subbands. Simulation results are provided, showing that the proposed method accurately identifies and corrects for these scale factors at the cost of an increased computational burden.
Pivoting From Evaluative to Educative Feedback During Post-Observation Conferencing: Supporting the Development of Preservice Teachers

In disentangling the, often conflated, evaluative and educative functions of preservice teacher supervision, the authors reimagine supervisory practice within the specific context of the post-observation conference. Claiming the post-observation conference as a teaching space provided the impetus leading to the design of a theoretically grounded post-observation conference protocol foregrounding the educative function of supervision, leveraging the mediating role of the university supervisor in supporting preservice teacher learning, and reflecting the principles of effective feedback. A critical feature of the protocol is the intentional focusing of feedback on one of four superordinate elements of teaching that provides continuity and consistency across post-observation conferences allowing preservice teachers to connect knowledge and skill related to the development of complex practice.
The incorporation of gradient damage models in shell elements

An approach is proposed to incorporate gradient‐enhanced damage models in shell elements. The approach is elaborated for a solid‐like shell element, which is advantageous because of the availability of nodes at the top and bottom shell surfaces, and the presence of a three‐dimensional strain state. Some simple examples are given to demonstrate the versatility and the convergence of the method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG TECHNOLOGY STRESSORS , WORK EXHAUSTION , AND TURNOVER INTENTION IN IS EMPLOYEES

In recent years, research topics on employee turnover are in the comprehensive and broad range. However, the antecedents and the relationships between technology stressors and work exhaustion has not been extensively studied in the IS field. To bridge the knowledge gaps, the present research focuses on a group of specialized technical workers IS employees in the context of ICT to investigate the effects of technology stressors on work exhaustion, and turnover intention. By reviewing previous research which focused on technostress, this research constructs a conceptual model to test and examine the hypothesized relationships among these variables. Through the results of an empirical survey in Taiwan, this research is expected to contribute to the understanding of technology stressors under ICT workplace.