Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Farmers’ Problem Confrontation in Organic Farming at Magura Sadar Upazila of Bangladesh

The purpose of the study was to determine the problems confronted by the farmers in organic farming and to explore the relationship between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their problem confrontation in organic farming. A number of 24 problems in organic farming were selected. The 12 characteristics of the respondents were selected. Data were collected from randomly selected 61 farmers using a pre-tested interview schedule during January 5 to March 20, 2018. Majority (70.5%) of the respondents belonged to medium problem confrontation category, while 29.5% of the respondents fall in high problem confrontation category related to organic farming. A Problem Confrontation Index (PCI) was used to make comparison among the 24 selected problems. On the basis of PCI lack of knowledge on organic farming ranked first which is followed by lack of own poultry and livestock, very less production per unit area, while low accessibility of land due to share cropping ranked as the last confronted problem. Spearman's Rank Order Correlation was used to ascertain the relationship between the focus variable and personal characteristics of the respondents. Among the twelve selected characteristics of the farmers, educational qualifications and extension contact showed negative significant relationship with their problem confrontation in organic farming. The remaining characteristics showed no significant relationship with their problem confrontation. This meant that the farmers having more education and extension media contact were likely to have lesser problem confrontation in organic farming. South Asian J. Agric. , 7(1&2): 19-24
The Golden Quadrilateral Highway Project and Urban/Rural Manufacturing in India

by Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami and William R. Kerr The World Bank, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network, Economic Policy and Debt Department, September 2013 Policy Research Working Paper 6620 This study investigates the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral highway project on the urban and rural growth of Indian manufacturing. The Golden Quadrilateral project upgraded the quality and width of 5,846 km of roads in India. The study uses a difference-in-difference estimation strat.
Effects of PMS process quality in construction firms

Performance measurement has received significant research interests in the construction industry, but the literature in construction mainly focuses on developing a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) or a conceptual framework (e.g. balanced scorecard). However, little is known about how these KPIs or performance measurement system (PMS) in a much broader scope are designed, implemented, used, reviewed, and updated in a specific organizational context. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify structured processes of developing PMS – including organizing, designing, and implementing (follow the literature in operations management) – and to empirically investigate their effects on perceived PMS effectiveness and organizational performance in construction. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The data were collected in the UK construction industry by a web-based questionnaire survey. Consistent with the theory, the results strongly suggest that PMS process quality can be treated as a hierarchical construct including three dimensions: PMS organization quality, PMS design quality, and PMS implementation quality. The results also point out that the more extensive adoption of structured processes (better PMS process quality) leads to higher perceived PMS effectiveness and organizational performance. While perceived PMS effectiveness does not directly lead to the improvement of organizational performance, it partially mediates the effect of PMS process quality on organizational performance. This paper primarily contributes to providing an alternative approach (in comparison with KPI identification) of developing PMS in construction. It also contributes to the provision of empirical evidence on
Falling Weight Deflectometer for Estimating Subgrade Elastic Moduli

Subgrade soil characterization in terms of resilient modulus (M R ) is essential for pavement design/evaluation. Due to the complexity of the laboratory M R test procedure, highway agencies have been exploring nondestructive tests, such as the falling weight deflectometer. In this study, 12 test sections with subgrade reflecting a range of soil types (fine- and coarse-grain soils) were tested. Falling weight deflector measurements were conducted directly on the prepared subgrade, followed by thin-wall Shelby tube samples from depths up to 1.5 m for laboratory M R tests. Deflection measurements were repeated at the same locations after completion of pavement construction. Results showed that the backcalculated moduli of the prepared subgrade are in good agreement with the laboratory values. Due primarily to confinement and overburden pressure, the backcalculated subgrade modulus, based on deflection measurements on the finished pavement, increases approximately 40 and 100% for fine- and coarse-grain soil, respectively. The modulus increase is substantiated by complementary studies of 20 Mississippi long-term pavement performance sections. In light of these results, the AASHTO factor of 0.33 to adjust for the backcalculated moduli, computed from deflection measurements on finished pavements, warrants further scrutiny and revision.
Reliability Characterization for SIMO Communication Systems With Low-Resolution Phase Quantization Under Rayleigh Fading

This paper investigates the communication reliability for single-input-multiple-output wireless systems with low-resolution phase quantizers. First, the maximum-likelihood detector with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-bit phase quantization is derived when there are <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> antennas at the receiver. Then, three low-complexity antenna selection strategies for data detection are proposed and their symbol error probability performance is characterized. It is shown that having 3 or more bits is sufficient to attain the full diversity order <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, achievable with infinite-bit quantizers, for quadrature phase shift keying modulation under Rayleigh fading. In particular, it is established that the proposed low-complexity max-distance and max-norm antenna selection strategies perform the same as the maximum-likelihood detector in terms of the asymptotic system reliability for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n\geq 3$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. On the other hand, the diversity order decreases dramatically from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\frac {N}{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> when <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is equal to 2, as illustrated by our numerical results and proven for the case of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N=2$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. An extensive numerical and simulation study is performed to illustrate the accuracy of the derived results and asymptotic system reliability performance as well as verifying our hypotheses in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime.
Study on Equivalent Constitutive Model and Optimization Design for Adapter of Submarine-Lunched Missile

V-shape adapter is one of the most used hollow adapter in submarine-lunched missile, studying on influence of mechanical property of adapter on submarine-launched performance has an important significance. Firstly, mechanical analysis on V-shape adapter is done and the equivalent out-of-plane mechanical property of adapter is obtained. Secondly, the equivalent constitutive model is built and the user subroutine VUMAT is developed based on ABAQUS/Explicit, while the stability and reliability of the calculation results are verified. According to the requirements of adapter performance from submarine-lunched missile, optimization design for adapter is carried out. The results show that the equivalent constitutive model can simplify the simulation of adapter and shorten the engineering time in research, and the optimized adapter can have a good effect on vibration reduction and supporting based on some relevant conditions.
Tensile Stiffness of a Thermoplastic Reinforced with Glass Fibres or Spheres

Stiffness under uniaxial tension of injection-moulded polypropylene was found to increase much more rapidly with the addition of glass fibres than with the same amounts, by weight, of glass spheres and to decrease in both cases with strain. The observed increases in stiffness due to the fibres correlated closely with the results obtained from a simple model of a two-phase material, when allowances were made for the apparently low degree of alignment of the fibres which decreased with increasing fibre content. The stiffening effect of the fibres was virtually constant over the strain range considered. The lower increases in stiffness due to the glass spheres also correlated with the results obtained from the simple model but only for strains of less than 0.5 per cent: at higher strains the inclusion of glass spheres reduced the stiffness of the polypropylene.
Skip-Row Planting and Irrigation of Graded Furrows

ABSTRACT GROUNDWATER depletion, declining well yields, and increasing pumping costs are emphasizing the need to efficiently manage and use irrigation water for crop production in the Southern High Plains. Skip-row planting and irrigation of fewer furrows than crop rows, referred to as skip-row irrigation, has been used exten-sively to reduce water application for irrigated cotton. We hypothesized that skip-row irrigation can increase ir-rigation water-use efficiency for production of corn and grain sorghum by reducing water application quantities in graded furrows. Skip-row irrigation field tests were conducted in 1976-77 on corn, and in 1979 on grain sorghum on a site having differential profile permeability associated with prior deep tillage. Tests consisted of planting two 0.75 m rows and leaving out one or two rows between planted strips in 1976, and one row between planted strips in 1977 and 1979. One furrow was irrigated between each pair of crop rows. Skip-row irrigation reduced average water intake from 130 to 60 mm, or to 46 percent of every-row irrigation. Where the residual deep tillage ef-fect almost doubled water intake, skip-row irrigation averaged 34 percent of every-row irrigation. These data suggest that reduction of water intake is greater on more permeable soils. Water intake data indicate that skip-row irrigation is effective in reducing size of graded-furrow irrigation and limiting the potential losses to pro-file drainage. Although skip-row irrigation reduced yields on a total-area basis, yields and irrigation water-use efficiencies on a planted-row basis were increased. An exception was when the number of seasonal irrigations of corn in 1977 was also reduced by one-half, which resulted in major plant water stress and low yields. We concluded that skip-row irrigation resulted in efficient use of irrigation water where planted-row yields were not reduced below conventional yields from every-row irrigation.
SEISMIC PERFORMANCE AND VULNERABILITY OF INDIAN CODE- DESIGNED RC FRAME BUILDINGS

The current seismic design practice in India is based on the force-based design philosophy, with a partial incorporation of the capacity design concepts. In the present study, the adequacy of this philosophy and relative importance of various code provisions are examined by estimating the expected performance of a set of code-designed buildings, in deterministic as well as in probabilistic terms. The FEMA-440 and HAZUS methodologies are used for estimating the seismic performance and vulnerability. It is shown that the Special Moment-Resisting Frame design under the current design provisions of Indian standards has a higher probability of damage, as compared with the Ordinary Moment-Resisting Frame design, because of the higher allowable ultimate drift limit. It is also shown that the deterministic framework of performance-based seismic design does not provide complete insight into the expected performance and associated risks of the designed buildings.
Prognosis of patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia in a tertiary hospital in Turkey

BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 emerged in China and caused a global pandemic in 2020. The mortality rate has been reported to be between 0% and 14.6% in all patients. In this study, we determined the clinical and laboratory parameters of COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality in our hospital. OBJECTIVES: Investigate the relationship between demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters on COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTINGS: Tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia from March until the end of December were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The relationship between demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters and the morbidity and mortality rates of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. SAMPLE SIZE: 124 patients RESULTS: The mortality rate was 9.6% (12/124). Coronary artery disease (P<.0001) diabetes mellitus (P=.04) fever (>38.3°C) at presentation (P=.04) hypertension (P<.0001), and positive smoking history (P<.0001) were significantly associated with mortality. Patients who died were older, had a higher comorbid disease index, pneumonia severity index, fasting blood glucose, baseline serum creatinine, D-dimer, and had lower baseline haemoglobin, SaO2, percentage of lymphocyte counts and diastolic blood pressure. Patients admitted to the ICU were older, had a higher comorbidity disease index, pneumonia severity index, C-reactive protein, WBC, D-dimer, creatinine, number of antibiotics used, longer O2 support duration, lower hemoglobin, lymphocyte (%), and baseline SaO2 (%). CONCLUSIONS: Our results were consistent with much of the reported data. We suggest that the frequency, dosage, and duration of steroid treatment should be limited. LIMITATIONS: Low patient number, uncertain reason of mortality, no standard treatment regimen, limited treatment options, like ECMO. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.
Are the Learning Styles of Elementary School Students Related to Their Academic Success? A Study of Mixed Research Methods

The aim of this study is to point out the relationship between learning styles and the academic. The purpose of this study is to show the relationship between learning styles and academic achievement of 4th grade elementary students. The study was designed according to the convergent parallel design, one of the mixed research designs in which quantitative and qualitative research methods are used together. While the quantitative and qualitative data are collected together in accordance with the convergent parallel design, the data analysis is presented separately in the results section. The study group of the research consists of 163 grade 4 primary school students, 74 girls (n=74) and 89 (n=89) boys, taught in a government primary school in Istanbul Turkey. To find out whether learning styles predict academic achievement, linear regression analysis was conducted. On the other hand, descriptive analysis and content analysis were used in the qualitative data analysis. In this study, it was found that learning styles predict academic achievement. It was also found that students tend to discover their own learning methods, and depending on which method they prefer, the academic area in which they succeed differs.
Terahertz metamaterial absorbers

Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic waves share a few of the characteristics of optical and gigahertz waves, which makes them suitable for a number of interesting and new applications in imaging, spectroscopy, characterization, sensing and monitoring. Recently, there has been a huge interest in developing THz devices that can achieve this potential. One of these devices is a metamaterial THz perfect absorber, which was first proposed in 2008 and is believed to form the basis for future room temperature THz detectors. Since then, a large amount of research has been focused on developing such THz absorbers with various properties, including dual band, multiband, wide band and polarization insensitivity. In this article, we present a brief review of the current state-of-the-art of THz metamaterial absorbers and discuss in more detail two specific THz absorber structures.
A Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Clinician-Directed Interventions to Improve Compliance to Post-Polypectomy Surveillance Guidelines

Introduction: Clinical practice guidelines recommend periodic colonoscopy surveillance following colorectal adenoma excision. Inappropriate use of post-polypectomy surveillance (PPS) is common and lead to improper resource utilization. The aim of this review was to identify structured interventions which can affect PPS practises and to evaluate the effectiveness of these various interventions in improving clinician adherence to PPS guidelines. Methods: A computerized search was performed to identify relevant studies between 1997 and November 2020. Two investigators identified eligible studies and extracted data independently. The quality of the included studies was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa risk of assessment scoring system. Results: The search identified 5,602 citations. Forty-one articles were retrieved for full-text analysis and 7 studies met the inclusion criteria. Compliance to PPS guidelines was higher following interventions which included medical education, specialist nurse coordinators facilitation, continuous quality improvement, and clinical decision support systems. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that medical education, specialist nurse coordinators, continuous quality improvement, and clinical decision support systems are effective in improving clinicians’ compliance to PPS guidelines, and are associated with reduction in over- and underutilization of colonoscopy surveillance resources.
Narrow-bandwidth all-fiber acoustooptic tunable filter with low polarization-sensitivity

We demonstrate a narrow-bandwidth acoustooptic tunable filter with very low polarization-sensitivity using a dispersion-compensating fiber that has a large group index difference between the core and the cladding modes with a specific stress distribution. The 3-dB bandwidth of the filter is 0.8 nm with the interaction length of 10 cm, and the polarization-dependent center-wavelength splitting is 0.04 nm at the wavelength around 1550 nm. The origin of the low polarization-dependence is successfully explained through the analysis on the stress field in the fiber.
Frequency-dependent analysis of a shielded microstrip step discontinuity using an efficient mode-matching technique

The basic concepts of the mode-matching technique are used to formulate the boundary condition problem associated with the microstrip step discontinuity problem. The fields on both sides of a discontinuity are expanded in terms of the normal hybrid modes of the shielded microstrip line. The properties of these hybrid modes are determined by applying a previously developed analytical approach due to R. Mittra and T. Itoh (1971) using singular-integral-equation techniques. In addition to propagating modes, higher-order modes are also taken into account. The higher-order modes are evanescent-type waves. The propagation constants of the evanescent waves in general are found to be complex numbers. A mode-matching procedure is developed to determine the reflection and transmission coefficients of the discontinuity. The use of two types of products to treat the boundary conditions for the continuity of the tangential electric and magnetic fields results in a highly efficient and numerically stable solution. Numerical results are computed for several step discontinuities and the results are compared with previously published data. >
Dynamic stability of forklift trucks in cornering situations: parametrical analysis using a driving simulator

This paper describes the examination of the vehicle dynamics and stability of four-wheeled forklift trucks (FLTs) in cornering situations. Cornering at excessive speed is one major reason for fatal accidents with forklifts caused by lateral tipover. In order to increase the lateral stability of this kind of working machinery, the influence of certain important design properties has been studied using an appropriate vehicle simulation model and a driving simulator. The simulation model is based on a multi-body system approach and includes submodels for the propulsion system and the tyres. The driving behaviour of the operator has not been modelled. Instead, a driving simulator has been built up and a real human driver was employed for ensuring adequate and realistic model input. As there have not been any suitable standardised test manoeuvres available for FLTs, a new driving test has been developed to assess the lateral stability. This test resembles the well-known J turn/Fishhook turn, but includes a more dynamic counter-steering action. Furthermore, the dimensions of the test track are defined. Therefore, the test is better adapted to the driving dynamics of forklifts and reflects the real driver behaviour more closely. Finally, a parametrical study has been performed, examining the influence of certain important technical properties of the truck such as the maximum speed, the position of centre of gravity, rear axle design features and tyre properties. The results of this study may lead to a better understanding of the vehicle dynamics of forklifts and facilitate goal-oriented design improvements.