Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Banana cultivar distribution in Rwanda

Rwanda is part of the East African plateau where banana (Musa spp.) reach their greatest importance as a staple food crop, covering 23% of land and grown by 90% of households. The region is considered a secondary centre of diversity for banana and many cultivars do exist although limited information is available on the diversity and their distribution in the country. In the past, banana have been a highly sustainable crop in Rwanda, but with the introduction of various diseases and pests in the last 10 -20 years, production has fallen by over 40%. The objectives of this study were to (i) establish the current diversity and distribution of banana cultivars, (ii) understand factors that affect the distribution, and (iii) identify possible synonyms and material for expansion of the National Banana Germplasm Collection. A study was conducted in four major banana growing regions of Rwanda. Twelve sites and sixty farms were used in this study. A quadrat method was used to make observations and counts of cultivars grown per farm. Farmer interviews were carried out on each farm to make assessments on the distribution of cultivars. Cultivar identification was done by farmers and subsequently verified using the national banana germplasm collection database of the ISAR-Rubona Research Institute. Clone set identification was done using the Karamura classification system. The Kigali region had the highest diversity index, followed by Kibungo and Cyangugu; while Lake Kivu border region scored the lowest diversity index. Cultivar evenness also differed, with Cyangugu being the highest and Kivu Lake the lowest. There were two major banana subgroups determined at all sites, Lujugira-Mutika with 77.8% abundance and Pisang Awak with 11.9% abundance. A total of 104 cultivar names were recorded, with 53 synonyms identified for 51 cultivars. Forty cultivars belonged to Lujugira-Mutika subgroup, with ‘Intuntu’, ‘Intokatoke’, ‘Injagi’, ‘Mbwaziruma’ being the most abundant cultivars, while eleven cultivars were exotic. Gisubi (ABB), Gros Michel (AAA), and ‘Kamaramasenge’ (AAB) were the most abundant. Farms with a higher proportion of Gisubi contained fewer other cultivars. Also, new cultivars were identified and these should be added to the National Banana germplasm collection.
Visual Question Answering as Reading Comprehension

Visual question answering (VQA) demands simultaneous comprehension of both the image visual content and natural language questions. In some cases, the reasoning needs the help of common sense or general knowledge which usually appear in the form of text. Current methods jointly embed both the visual information and the textual feature into the same space. Nevertheless, how to model the complex interactions between the two different modalities is not an easy work. In contrast to struggling on multimodal feature fusion, in this paper, we propose to unify all the input information by natural language so as to convert VQA into a machine reading comprehension problem. With this transformation, our method not only can tackle VQA datasets that focus on observation based questions, but can also be naturally extended to handle knowledge-based VQA which requires to explore large-scale external knowledge base. It is a step towards being able to exploit large volumes of text and natural language processing techniques to address VQA problem. Two types of models are proposed to deal with open-ended VQA and multiple-choice VQA respectively. We evaluate our models on three VQA benchmarks. The comparable performance with the state-of-the-art demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The group velocity and radiation pattern of Rossby waves

The propagation properties of mid-latitude Rossby waves are well known and are usually revealed in terms of the dispersion equation either in its diagnostic or wave normal forms, both of which show that phase propagation is entirely westward and is permitted only if the wave frequency is less than a certain critical frequency. Here we show that the group velocity diagram is an ellipse whose focus lies at the origin. This simple result supplements the Longuet-Higgins (1964) interpretation in which the wave normal curve is an offset circle, in elucidating the propagation properties of Rossby waves. In the case of a general , which describes both topographic zonal variations as well as the latitudinal and spatial variations of the Coriolis effect, we show that these results hold through a rotation to a new set of coordinates. The stationary phase method shows that the radiation pattern generated by a time harmonic spatially compact source consists of two sets of hyperbolae exhibiting westward pointing “Mach-Froude” like lines, in a manner analogous to the generation of capillary-gravity waves by a moving object on the surface of deep water. These results are confirmed by the Green’s function for the system which consists of a westward propagating wave superimposed on the Hankel function of zero order, appropriate to the 2-D Helmholtz equation.
A Mixed Method Study of the Effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader Program on Middle School Students’ Reading Achievement and Motivation

The mixed-method explanatory research design was employed to investigate the effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program on middle school students’ reading achievement and motivation. A total of 211 sixth to eighth-grade students provided quantitative data by completing an AR Survey. Thirty of the 211 students were randomly selected to participate in semi-structured interviews and classroom observations over the course of a semester and the selected students’ AR pretest and posttest scores were collected to provide quantitative data. Constant analyses using the content comparative method led to the identification of important themes related to the review of students using the AR program. The results showed that Accelerated Reader neither improved students’ reading scores nor promoted intrinsic reading motivation for middle school students, but did increase the amount of time they read. Reading Achievement and Motivation in AR Programs • 229 A Mixed Method Study of the Effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader Program on Middle School Students’ Reading Achievement and Motivation SuHua Huang, Ph.D. Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX Abstract The mixed-method explanatory research design was employed to investigate the effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program on middle school students’ reading achievement and motivation. A total of 211 sixth to eighth-grade students provided quantitative data by completing an AR Survey. Thirty of the 211 students were randomly selected to participate in semi-structured interviews and classroom observations over the course of a semester and the selected students’ AR pretest and posttest scores were collected to provide quantitative data. Constant analyses using the content comparative method led to the identification of important themes related to the review of students using the AR program. The results showed that Accelerated Reader neither improved students’ reading scores nor promoted intrinsic reading motivation for middle school students, but did increase the amount of time they read.The mixed-method explanatory research design was employed to investigate the effectiveness of the Accelerated Reader (AR) program on middle school students’ reading achievement and motivation. A total of 211 sixth to eighth-grade students provided quantitative data by completing an AR Survey. Thirty of the 211 students were randomly selected to participate in semi-structured interviews and classroom observations over the course of a semester and the selected students’ AR pretest and posttest scores were collected to provide quantitative data. Constant analyses using the content comparative method led to the identification of important themes related to the review of students using the AR program. The results showed that Accelerated Reader neither improved students’ reading scores nor promoted intrinsic reading motivation for middle school students, but did increase the amount of time they read.
Environmental Influence on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State

This study examined the influence of environmental factors on the academic performance of students in Port Harcourt local government area of Rivers State. Four research questions guided this study. The population of the study consists of six hundred teachers and students. Whereas the sample was two hundred and fifty (250), teachers and students. An instrument titled "Environmental influence on Academic Performance of Secondary School Students Questionnaire" was utilized to elicit information from the respondents. Data was analysed, percentages were used to find solutions to the research questions. The major findings of the study were; 1. Performance is affected by environment 2. That improper maintenance of fixtures led to lower than average student’s performance. 3. Home background has effect on the academic performance of students. 4. The use of internet has made students to be lazy in their academic works. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made; school should try to maintain the school facilities and dull colored points should not be used on painting that there should be interactions between teachers and students. Teachers should relate to all the students no matter their background. Teachers should change their ways of setting questions so as to stop students coping directly from internets.
Perceived Parental Rearing Practices, Supportive School Environment, and Self-Reported Emotional and Behavioral Problems among Lithuanian Secondary School Students

Previous research rarely addressed parental rearing practices, perceived safety at school, teachers’ support and school climate in the same study. Most often those two contexts-home environment and school context-are analyzed separately. Several authors have advocated the need for incorporating those two contexts in the study of emotional and behavioral problems (Suldo et al., 2012). Thus, the main purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived parental practices (parents’ reactions to adolescents’ behavior, i.e., guilt induction and emotional warmth) and supportive school environment (school attachment, school climate, perceived teacher support, and feelings of safety at school) with adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems. The data used is from an ongoing longitudinal Positive Youth Development study (POSIDEV) that examines the mechanisms and processes through which young people develop their competences. The sample comprised 2625 Lithuanian students (1146 boys and 1479 girls, age 14-20 (M = 16.69; SD = 1.17)) from the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades of 8 upper secondary schools. The results showed that parents’ emotional warmth was negatively, and psychological control was positively related to students’ depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior. Furthermore, perceived teacher support, feelings of safety at school were negatively associated with adolescents’ depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior, when students’ perceptions of negative school climate were positively associated with adolescents’ depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior. After entering school context variables in the regression, demographic characteristics and mother’s guilt induction practice remained significant, but mother’s emotional warmth was no longer significant. This suggests the possibility that school context acts as a mediator between emotional warmth by mother and delinquent behavior. This finding has important practical implications in terms of shedding some insight on how multiple systems might be interlinked in influencing wellbeing in adolescents and confirms the importance of intervening at the double platform of both the family and the school system.
Relationship between Secondary Structure and Surface Hydrophobicity of Soybean Protein Isolate Subjected to Heat Treatment

This study investigated relationship between secondary structure and surface hydrophobicity of soy protein isolate (SPI) subjected to a thermal treatment at 70~90°C. Heat denaturation increased the surface hydrophobicity and surface hydrophobicity decreased as aggregate formed. Heat caused an increase in the relative amount of α-helix structures and an overall decrease in the amount of β-sheet structures when compared with nontreated SPI. The relative amounts of secondary structures varied with time, temperature, and intensity of heat treatment applied. The β-sheet structure was most important for its significant role in denaturation of 7S globulin and following formed aggregates and even in denaturation of 11S globulin. The amount of β-sheet structure in SPI had an inverse correlation with the surface hydrophobicity when the temperature was kept below 90°C. Besides, β-turn structure increased as β-7S/B-11S aggregate formated.
A Characterization of the Judicial System in Spain: Analysis with Formalism Indices

In this paper, a previously proposed measure of “procedural formalism” of the judicial system for dispute resolution has been adapted in order to characterize the judicial enforcement of contracts in Spain in the long run (1966-2006). Spain has a multiplicity of procedures for the same type of civil dispute depending on the amount of the conflict. In this paper all those procedures are analyzed. The result of this research indicates that formalism of the Spanish judicial system has diminished in the most recent years. That result helps to explain the recent developments of the resolution, congestion and pending cases rates of the Spanish Judicial System. The results also contests the level of formalism assigned to Spain by previous works in this field.
Fixação de nitrogênio e produção de ácido indolacético in vitro por bactérias diazotróficas endofíticas

O objetivo deste trabalho foi isolar e quantificar bacterias diazotroficas associadas a raizes de arroz, e avaliar a producao de acido indolacetico e o potencial de fixacao biologica de nitrogenio dessas bacterias, a fim de selecionar isolados promissores para inoculacao em plantas. Bacterias fixadoras de nitrogenio, habitantes do interior das raizes de cultivares de arroz do Rio Grande do Sul, foram isoladas e quantificadas em nove cultivares. Raizes de arroz superficialmente esterilizadas foram maceradas e introduzidas em meios de crescimento, elaborados sem fonte de nitrogenio e em condicoes semi-solidas. Entre os 58 isolados nos meios NFb, LGI e LGI-P, foram escolhidos UFSM-BD-02-06, UFSM-BD-08-06, UFSM-BD-14-06, UFSM-BD-20-06, UFSM-BD-26-06, UFSM-BD-31-06, UFSM-BD-36-06, UFSM-BD-42-06, UFSM-BD-48-06, UFSM-BD-54-06. Avaliaram-se a fixacao biologica de nitrogenio e a producao de acido indolacetico in vitro, pelos metodos Kjeldahl e colorimetrico, respectivamente. Azospirillum brasilense e A. lipoferum apresentam maiores valores para N total, 41,08 e 46,82 µg mL-1, respectivamente. A. brasilense e UFSM-BD-31-06 sao os maiores produtores de acido indolacetico, 41,09 mg mL-1 e 13,47 µg mL-1, respectivamente.
Association between serum fetuin-A concentrations and vascular calcifications among patients on maintenance hemodialysis * *

1Department of Diagnostics, Chair of Clinical Biochemistry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków Head of Department: Professor Bogdan Solnica, MD, PhD 2Chair and Department of Nephrology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków Head of Department: Professor Władysław Sułowicz, MD, PhD 3Department of Medical Diagnostics, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków Head of Department: Associate Professor Ryszard Drożdż, MD, PhD
NEURAL CONNECTIVITY OF THE AMYGDALA IN THE HUMAN BRAIN: A DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING STUDY

Sev eral diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have reported on the anatomical neural tracts between the amygdala and specific brain regions. How- ever, no study on the neural connectivity of the amygdala has been reported. In the current study, using probabilistic DTI tractography, we attempted to investigate the neural connectivity of the amygdala in normal subjects. Forty eight healthy subjects were recruited for this study. A seed region of interest was drawn at the amygdala using the FMRIB Software Library based on probabilistic DTI tractogra- phy. Connectivity was defined as the incidence of connection between the amygdala and each brain region at the threshold of 1 and 5 streamlines. The amygdala showed 100% connectivity to the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, and medial tem- poral cortex regardless of the thresholds. In contrast, regarding the thresholds of 1 and 5 streamlines, the amygdala showed high conncetivity (over 60%) to the globus pallidus (100% and 92.7%), brainstem (83.3% and 78.1%), putamen (72.9% and 63.5%), occipito-temporal cortex (72.9% and 67.7%), orbitofrontal cortex (70.8 and 43.8%), caudate nucleus (63.5% and 45.8%), and ventromedial prefrontal cor- tex (63.5% and 31.3%), respectively. The amygdala showed high connectivity to the hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, medial temporal cortex, basal gan- glia, brainstem, occipito-temporal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. We believe that the methods and results of this study provide useful information to clinicians and researchers studying the amygdala.
AGE DEPENDENCE OF WIND PROPERTIES FOR SOLAR-TYPE STARS: A 3D STUDY

Young and rapidly rotating stars are known for intense, dynamo-generated magnetic fields. Spectropolarimetric observations of those stars in precisely aged clusters are key input for gyrochronology and magnetochronology. We use Zeeman Doppler imaging maps of several young K-type stars of similar mass and radius but with various ages and rotational periods to perform three-dimensional (3D) numerical MHD simulations of their coronae and follow the evolution of their magnetic properties with age. Those simulations yield the coronal structure as well as the instant torque exerted by the magnetized, rotating wind on the star. As stars get older, we find that the angular momentum loss decreases with , which is the reason for the convergence on the Skumanich law. For the youngest stars of our sample, the angular momentum loss shows signs of saturation around , which is a common value used in spin evolution models for K-type stars. We compare these results to semianalytical models and existing braking laws. We observe a complex wind-speed distribution for the youngest stars with slow, intermediate, and fast wind components, which are the result of interaction with intense and nonaxisymmetric magnetic fields. Consequently, in our simulations, the stellar wind structure in the equatorial plane of young stars varies significantly from a solar configuration, delivering insight about the past of the solar system interplanetary medium.
The Relationship between Selected Factors of Rating Dissatisfaction and Employees’ Satisfaction on the Appraisal Decisions

This study aims to determine the relationship between selected factors of rating dissatisfaction and employees’ satisfaction on the appraisal decisions. The factors of rating dissatisfaction that examine in this study are including raters’ attitude, rater’s error, halo effect, recency effect. This study used positivism as a research philosophy and quantitative methodology was used to examine the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables involves. A cross - sectional survey was used to collect data from different groups of respondents at from a variety of personnel departments in different categories of works in broadcasting agency, Sarawak, Malaysia. Questionnaire was the research instrument used in this study to collect data. Validity and reliability issues of the instrument were taken care by conducting the best practice goodness of data preparation. 150 sets of the questionnaires were distributed and only 130 completed sets of the questionnaires were successfully collected and used for further analysis. The data that collected were analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 14.5. Descriptive statistic used to explain the demographic characteristics of respondents. Pearson Correlation Analysis used to identify the relationship between the selected variables involves. The findings of this study have shown that raters’ attitude, recency effect and deflation of marks are significantly related to dissatisfaction among employees in performance appraisal decisions. Based on the findings of the study, the top management of departments can gain some insight into their employees’ satisfaction of their performance appraisals decisions. It is recommended that there is a need for more transparent performance appraisal processes and more professional roles of the raters in performing their job. This study contributes significantly to the body of knowledge, human resource practitioners, policy makers and others interested parties on issues pertaining to the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Implications and recommendations for future research have also been put forth in this paper.
Interactive comment on “ Scale-dependent relationships between soil organic carbon stocks , land-use types and biophysical characteristics in a tropical montane landscape ” by Marleen de

We agree that the title was rather unclear. To emphasize that we look at “spatial variability” of SOC, we changed the title into: “Spatial variability of soil organic carbon in a tropical montane landscape: Associations between soil organic carbon and land use, soil properties, vegetation and topography vary across plot to landscape scales”. The title now explicitly state at which spatial scales we investigated.
Enhancing Service Quality in Public Transport Systems

This paper describes how public transport systems face the challenge of attracting users in order to fight the loss in market share, mostly because of the increasing use of private cars. Therefore, the concepts of ‘quality’ and ‘customer’ must change and the focus must be on meeting people’s needs. At the same time, transport systems should be flexible enough to respond to changes in people’s requirements and needs. Thus, the aim for public transport must be enhancing quality of the service. This requires a clear understanding of travel behavior and consumer needs and expectations. Accordingly, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of including service quality indicators and quality specifications in contracts between operators and public transport authorities. The development of quality measures in the designing of contracts for public transport raises important aspects that must be considered. This paper examines issues concerning the definition of service quality measures for public transport. This will give a better understanding of pertinent questions and of improvement strategies open to public transport management. Next, it outlines some critical aspects that must be considered when including such measures in contracts between operators and public transport authorities.