Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Status of farm mechanization and its impact on maize production in Jhapa District, Nepal

A survey research was carried out in 2020 in maize zone, Jhapa to identify and analyze the status of farm mechanization and its impact in the maize production. Kankai Municipality and Jhapa Rural municipality were purposively selected for the study as these areas were under the command area of prime minister agriculture modernization project, project implementation unit, maize zone Jhapa. Thereafter, a total of 70 samples were selected using random sampling method. Thirty-three samples were selected from Kankai Municipality and remaining thirty-seven were selected from remaining Jhapa rural municipality. Primary data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire, focal group discussion and key informant interview whereas secondary data were obtained through a review of relevant literature. Both descriptive and analytical statistics were used to analyze the data. It was found that the status of mechanization was still in the initial phase in the study area. Results showed that mechanization was limited to two cultural operations namely tillage and threshing of which only in case of tillage, farm machineries were adopted by more than ninety percent of the respondent farmers while in case of sowing more than ninety percent of respondent didn’t use any modern equipment. Insect and pest in maize field was major problem faced by the farmers. Therefore, productivity of maize in Kankai area was higher as compared to Jhapa area as adoption of mechanization was higher in Kankai area.
Concrete Crack Assessment Using Digital Image Processing and 3D Scene Reconstruction

AbstractTraditional crack assessment methods for concrete structures are time consuming and produce subjective results. The development of a means for automated assessment employing digital image processing offers high potential for practical implementation. However, two problems in two-dimensional (2D) image processing hinder direct application for crack assessment, as follows: (1) the image used for the digital image processing has to be taken perpendicular to the surface of the concrete structure, and (2) the working distance used in retrieving the imaging model has to be measured each time. To address these problems, this paper proposes a combination of 2D image processing and three-dimensional (3D) scene reconstruction to locate the 3D position of crack edges. In the proposed algorithm, first the precise crack information is obtained from the 2D images after noise elimination and crack detection using image processing techniques. Then, 3D reconstruction is conducted employing several crack images to .
Examining the predictive relevance of security, privacy risk factors, and institutional logics for e‐government service adoption

Following the increasing debate around the possible influencers on the adoption of electronic‐government (e‐government) services, the current research was aimed at examining the predictive relevance of security and privacy risk factors through the lens of institutional logics for e‐government service adoption. Guided by the research aim, the study adopted the questionnaire method. Based on the review of the relevant literature and the study's aim, the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) was employed to analyze the data by making use of the SmartPLS 3.2. 8 software to assess both the outer and structural models. It was evidenced that privacy and security risk factors as well as institutional logics together account for 61.7% of South African citizens' reasons for adopting e‐government services, while the other 38.3% were explained by factors that did not form part of this study. These findings contributed a new view and an extension of the model, providing the insight that privacy and security risk factors as well as institutional logics together are significant predictors of citizens' willingness to adopt e‐government services. By implication, the results establish the interconnectedness of the predictive relevance of institutional logics and the adoption of e‐government services.
Improving Productivity Estimates by Work Sampling

Theoretical aspects are presented to evaluate the adequacy of work sampling as a surrogate productivity measure. A 10‐week study is described in which work sampling data were gathered simultaneously with earned value information for a 10‐man, small‐bore pipefitter crew. Two forms of work sampling data were gathered that differed principally in the definition of direct work. The direct work percentages are statistically correlated to the ratio of earned to actual man‐hours, and it is shown that the Pearson product‐moment correlation coefficient could be improved by as much as 86% if the definition of direct work is restricted. The probability of a Type I statistical error is also greatly reduced. Data summarized according to 5‐ or 7‐day moving averages is found to be more reliable than daily or weekly averages. It is shown how a prediction equation could be developed. The slope of this equation suggests that rather significant changes in the earned to actual man‐hour ratio are reflected by rather small cha.
Year‐round sub‐seasonal forecast skill for Atlantic–European weather regimes

Weather regime forecasts are a prominent use case of sub‐seasonal prediction in the midlatitudes. A systematic evaluation and understanding of year‐round sub‐seasonal regime forecast performance is still missing, however. Here we evaluate the representation of and forecast skill for seven year‐round Atlantic–European weather regimes in sub‐seasonal reforecasts from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts. Forecast calibration improves regime frequency biases and forecast skill most strongly in summer, but scarcely in winter, due to considerable large‐scale flow biases in summer. The average regime skill horizon in winter is about 5 days longer than in summer and spring, and 3 days longer than in autumn. The Zonal Regime and Greenland Blocking tend to have the longest year‐round skill horizon, which is driven by their high persistence in winter. The year‐round skill is lowest for the European Blocking, which is common for all seasons but most pronounced in winter and spring. For the related, more northern Scandinavian Blocking, the skill is similarly low in winter and spring but higher in summer and autumn. We further show that the winter average regime skill horizon tends to be enhanced following a strong stratospheric polar vortex (SPV), but reduced following a weak SPV. Likewise, the year‐round average regime skill horizon tends to be enhanced following phases 4 and 7 of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) but reduced following phase 2, driven by winter but also autumn and spring. Our study thus reveals promising potential for year‐round sub‐seasonal regime predictions. Further model improvements can be achieved by reduction of the considerable large‐scale flow biases in summer, better understanding and modeling of blocking in the European region, and better exploitation of the potential predictability provided by weak SPV states and specific MJO phases in winter and the transition seasons.
2021 NCC/CATS/CSTCVS/STM expert consensus on perioperative immunotherapy for esophageal cancer

Xiaozheng Kang, Jianjun Qin, Ruixiang Zhang, Zhen Wang, Qingfeng Zheng, Yong Li, Jianping Xu, Jing Huang, Xin Wang, Zhouguang Hui, Liyan Xue, Yousheng Mao, Yin Li, Jie He, Chun Chen, Haiquan Chen, Ke-Neng Chen, Long-Qi Chen, Maoyong Fu, Junke Fu, Qing Geng, Taiqian Gong, Shiping Guo, Yongtao Han, Yi He, Jian Hu, Hongjing Jiang, Jie Jiang, Yuequan Jiang, Mingqiang Kang, Jianqun Ma, Shaohua Ma, Yongde Liao, Hecheng Li, Shanqing Li, Zhigang Li, Shuoyan Liu, Yang Liu, Guibin Qiao, Lijie Tan, Hui Tian, Gaofeng Zhao, Jun Zhao, Shiying Zheng, Yongan Zhou, Magnus Nilsson, Francisco Schlottmann, Riccardo Rosati, Cascinu Stefano, Philip Wai-yan Chiu, Neil B. Newman, Noriyuki Hirahara, Dae Joon Kim, Rutika Mehta, Kimberly L. Johung, Michael Cecchini, Shane Lloyd, Kenneth Meredith
Latin american production on solid waste management in scopus, 2010 - 2020

Solid waste management has become a critical problem in developing countries, therefore, with the aim of analyzing the Latin American scientific production on solid waste management in Scopus, a retrospective descriptive study was conducted considering as the unit of analysis the publications on solid waste management in journals indexed in Scopus, during the period 2010 to 2020. The search included all published and indexed articles, using the fields Article Title, Abstracts, Keywords, having as search term the word "Solid waste management". As result, 494 articles were found, of which 420 are original, 58 are reviews, and the rest are letters, editorials, conference papers, and notes. Brazil stands out as the largest producer of solid waste management knowledge (62.5% of Latin American production), followed by Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. On the other hand, 158 international institutions have participated in the Latin American production and only 10 have produced more than 10 articles, with universities in Brazil and Mexico standing out. Among the most productive journals, Waste Management and Waste Management And Research stand out; and the researchers with the most publications are Lisete Lange and Sandro Donnini Mancini. It is concluded that research on solid waste management in Latin America in the period 2010 - 2020 is still deficient compared to other areas of the environmental field. The Latin American countries with the highest production in this area are Brazil, with more than 50%, followed by Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina.
Surviving Online Foreign Language Learning: The Case for French Language

Similar to the learning of most languages, French language is initially learnt through a formal one-to-one classroom. However, the pandemic has given both teachers and students teaching/learning French as a foreign language to accept online learning as the new norm. The success of learning French language online depends on several factors. Both teachers and learners play different roles to make the lessons successful and meaningful. This study is done to investigate how online learning presence is influenced by learners’ motives to study a foreign language. This quantitative study is done to investigate how learners cope learning French online. 170 respondents were purposely chosen from learners who took French as a foreign language. The survey used has 49 items using 5-Likert scales. Findings revealed interesting information about online teaching and learning of foreign languages. The teacher anchors the online lesson with activities well planned and executed. The teacher takes the bulk of the responsibility to make online learning a success. Once the teacher’s and cognitive presence becomes positive, learners can begin to depend on their peers through social presence to maximise the learning experience.
Real–Time Eye Tracking and Iris Localization

Masalah sistem pengesanan mata yang tegar tanpa sebarang gangguan adalah satu isu yang penting dan mencabar di dalam bidang visi komputer. Masalah ini bukan hanya mengurangkan masalah dalam carian ciri–ciri paras rupa untuk proses pengecaman tetapi juga boleh digunakan untuk memudahkan tugas pengenalpastian dan interaksi antara manusia dan sistem komputer. Walaupun kebanyakan hasil kerja terdahulu telah pun mempunyai keupayaan menentukan lokasi mata manusia tetapi objektif utama rencana ini bukan tertumpu kepada pengesanan mata sahaja. Objektif kajian adalah untuk merekabentuk sebuah sistem masa nyata dan terperinci, iaitu sistem pengesanan muka berskala dengan ciri–ciri petunjuk pergerakan mata berdasarkan pergerakan anak mata (iris) dengan mengunakan teknik penempatan yang terhasil daripada teknik pemprosesan imej dan teknik muatan bulatan. Hasil daripada kajian ini telah pun berjaya diimplimentasikan menggunakan kamera web dengan ralat yang minimum. Kata kunci: Pengesanan mata masa nyata; penempatan anak mata; pemprosesan imej; pengesanan bucu; muatan bulatan Robust, non–intrusive human eye detection problem has been a fundamental and challenging problem for computer vision area. Not only it is a problem of its own, it can be used to ease the problem of finding the locations of other facial features for recognition tasks and human–computer interaction purposes as well. Many previous works have the capability of determining the locations of the human eyes but the main task in this paper is not only a vision system with eye detection capability. Our aim is to design a real–time face tracker system and iris localization using edge point detection method indicates from image processing and circle fitting technique. As a result, our eye tracker system was successfully implemented using non–intrusive webcam with less error. Key words: Real–time face tracking; iris localization; image processing; edge detection; circle fitting
NOVEL ALGORITHMS FOR LARGE SCALE SUPERVISED AND ONE CLASS LEARNING

vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Supervised Learning of High Dimensional Data . 3 1.2 One Class Learning and Extension to Large Data . 6 Chapter 2: Supervised Learning of High Dimensional Data 11 2.
Models for flexural cracking in concrete: the state of the art

Crack formation presents a complex mechanical and geometrical question to be modelled. The available crack width formulations are often based on simplifications. A rigorous formulation of crack widths should be based on the integration of strain differences of reinforcement and concrete between cracks, due to the accumulated slips. In this paper an extensive literature review on crack widths and crack spacing is presented. The basic intention of the present paper is to summarise the development of flexural crack models and collect the most relevant formulae for crack spacing and crack width. It reports not only the possible improvement of design or research equations but also the appearance of new types of reinforcements with different characteristics from those of steel reinforcements. This state-of-the-art Report is a contribution to the work of fib TG 4.1 ‘Serviceability Models’.
Pilot-scale study based on integrated fixed-film activated sludge process for cement industrial wastewater treatment

Due to the lack of freshwater resources in Egypt, cement wastewater treatment was performed to widen the range of the water used in irrigation to face the massive future water scarcity. In this study, integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) was used as a biological treatment method. A laboratory pilot was established as a simulation of the IFAS process. The scale-pilot consists of a primary sedimentation tank, an IFAS tank equipped with an air blower, and a final settling tank. Three experimental attempts were performed using 3 different bio-carriers. In the first trial, Luffa sponges were used as natural bio-carriers and polyurethane sponges (PU) as artificial bio-carriers in the second trial, in addition to a combination between Luffa and PU sponges as a hybrid bio-carrier in the third trial. After analyzing the physicochemical properties of wastewater at the national research center in Cairo, the removal efficiency of TSS (total suspended solids), COD (chemical oxygen demand) , BOD(biological oxygen demand), TN (total nitrogen), and TP (total phosphorous) was 94.5%, 87.8%, 90.8%, 75.9%, and 69.4%, respectively in case of using the combination between Luffa and PU sponges. It can be concluded that using IFAS process was effective for cement wastewater treatment and the effluent wastewater met the Egyptian code limitations for reuse in agriculture purposes.
Noise canceling to compute second order statistic from SPIV

Stereoscopic PIV (SPIV) is performed near the wall in a turbulent boundary layer at high Reynolds numbers (Reτ = 2272, 3840) in the streamwise-wallnormal plane. A novel method for denoising the statistics is proposed by the use to two independent SPIV systems to capture the same field of view, with the objective being that the random noise associated with the velocity fluctuations are not correlated between two independent PIV systems. The derivatives in the third (spanwise) direction are obtained by axisymmetry assumptions [George and Hussein (1991)] and continuity equation. The statistics are in agreement with that of DNS at comparable Reynolds number, from y + = 25 for lower Reτ experiment and from y + = 40 for higher Reτ experiment.
Does Positive Contact Between Residents and Tourists Stimulate Tourists’ Environmentally Responsible Behavior? The Role of Gratitude and Boundary Conditions

This study explored how and when positive contact between residents and tourists stimulates tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior. Drawing on social exchange theory, we verified a moderated mediation model in which gratitude mediated the link between positive contact and tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior, while agreeableness moderated the relationship between positive contact and gratitude. Data were collected from 691 visitors to Mount Wuyi. The findings revealed that positive contact directly affected tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior and that this link was mediated by gratitude. Furthermore, agreeableness significantly moderated the effects of positive contact on gratitude. In particular, the effect of positive contact on gratitude was stronger for tourists with high agreeableness. Additionally, agreeableness also strengthened the indirect relationship between positive contact and tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior through gratitude—which was, again, stronger for highly agreeable tourists.
The Effects of the Gamified Flipped Classroom Method on Petroleum Engineering Students' Pre-class Online Behavioural Engagement and Achievement

The flipped learning is a widely-used teaching method that increases the interaction between the instructor and the students by changing the in-class instructional time and the out-of-class practices. In this method, if students come to the class without studying the pre-course materials, this might lead to failures in its application. Besides, the gamified flipped learning environment was obtained by integrating the gamification elements in the pre-class phase of the flipped learning. The effects of teaching in this environment on students’ online behaviors and achievements were investigated. The participants were fourth-year undergraduate petroleum and natural gas engineering students enrolled in a natural gas engineering course. A true-experimental design was used in the study. Data were collected from a natural gas concept test, weekly quizzes, and data logs from Moodle. The research results indicated that teaching in the gamified flipped learning method showed a significant increase in the students’ participation in the pre-class activities of the flipped learning compared to the control group. Moreover, there was a significant increase in the achievement levels of the experimental group as compared to the control group. Based on these findings, the use of gamification elements in the pre-class phase of the flipped learning method can have a positive effect on the pre-course online behavior engagements of students. Furthermore, it was determined that it has a positive effect on the achievements of students who completed the method.
Two hundred years of engineering geology

On 31 March 2007, a meeting entitled ‘Engineering Geology Through the Centuries’ was held at Keyworth in Nottingham. The meeting was convened jointly by the Engineering Group of the Geological Society of London (GSL) and the Yorkshire Geological Society, and formed part of the celebration of the bicentenary of the GSL. The meeting focused on the lives and achievements of a number of British engineering geologists who have made outstanding contributions to their profession and to science. The meeting formed part of the Society's ‘Local Heroes’ initiative for the bicentenary. The set of papers in this issue of the Quaternary Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology celebrates the contribution over the last 200 years by scientists and practitioners who have influenced the development of engineering geology or whose work has been particularly important to related aspects of human history. In addition to papers on the individuals discussed at the meeting, papers are included that discuss the development of engineering geology, historically and in the context of education and training. Engineering geology has been an important scientific sub-discipline for as long as people have sought to build and construct their living environment. If nothing else, people soon learnt where buildings could be built safely and where poor foundation conditions or the presence of geohazards meant that unacceptable risks were present. However, engineering geology came to greater prominence with the flowering of geology as a major science in the early 19th century, a time that saw the founding of the GSL in 1807. Of course, there have been many other influential engineering geologists in addition to those discussed in this collection of papers and the paper by Turner addresses some of these, as do accounts such as that on North America by Kiersch (1991). For the Keyworth meeting, the editors set out …
METROPOLIS: Modular System for Dynamic Traffic Simulation

METROPOLIS proposes an interactive environment that simulates automobile traffic in large urban areas. The core of the system is a dynamic simulator that integrates commuters’ departure time and route choice behaviors over large networks: Drivers are assumed to minimize a generalized travel cost function that depends on travel time and schedule delay. This simulator is based on a behavioral driver information process. It allows real-time and off-line simulations. The system also includes a scenario builder and a graphical results viewer. The main ideas underlying METROPOLIS are presented, and preliminary computer simulation experiments are discussed for Geneva, Switzerland.
Protective effect of Zataria multiflora Boiss against sodium nitrite-induced hepatotoxicity in rats

Objective: Sodium nitrite (NaNO2) is used as a color stabilizer and antimicrobial agent in preservation of cured meat and fish. However, extensive use of this agent in the meat industries increased worries about its detrimental effects on human health. Zataria multiflora (Z. multiflora) is a well-known plant with therapeutic properties in the traditional medicine. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the protective effect of this plant against sodium nitrite-induced hepatotoxicity. Materials and methods: Thirty-two male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups: Control (without any treatment), nitrite (350 mg/kg by gavage for 60 days), NaNO2 plus Z. multiflora (rats treated with NaNO2 350 mg/kg gavage for 60 days and simultaneously received Z. multiflora extract at 200 mg/kg, ip) and Z. multiflora group (rats treated with Z. multiflora extract at 200 mg/kg, ip). At the end of the study, rats were euthanized and liver tissue samples were taken and studied under microscopy. Also, serum levels of liver function enzymes and antioxidant defense systems were measured. The results were analyzed using SPSS software and a p<0.0. 5 was considered significant. Results: Results showed that NaNO2 induces liver injuries and altered hepatic histo-architecture. Also, NaNO2 significantly altered the biochemical profiles and antioxidant defense parameters of the liver. However, treatment with Z. multiflora improved tissue integrity as well as antioxidant defense status and biochemical conditions of the liver. Conclusion: Administration of Z. multiflora extract has beneficial effects on the NaNO2-induced histological and functional toxicity in the liver.