Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Tillage Operations on Soil Moisture Contents in the Southern Guinea Savanna Ecological Zone of Nigeria

An experimental farm plot was set up at the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM), kilometer 12 Ilorin-Idofian Road to investigate the effect of various agronomic operations (mound, ridge and plough tillage) on soil moisture content of varying depth intervals of 0 - 15 cm, 15 - 30 cm, 30 - 45 cm and 45 - 60 cm respectively. The experiment was conducted between year 2007 and 2009. Samples were taken on weekly basis from various depths using hand screw auger. The percentage moisture was determined by oven drying oil sample to a constant weight at the temperature of 105°C. The difference between the initial weight and weight after oven drying was calculated and the percentage determined. Weekly data generated were grouped on monthly basis and the means calculated. Seasonal values were also calculated. ANOVA and the Post Hoc multiple comparison were employed to investigate variations in soil moisture content between tillage systems and within the four soil depths. The result showed mound tillage to be the driest and ridge was then wettest of all the tillage system considered. The difference between varying intervals of seach tillage became more pronounced between depth intervals of 0 - 15 cm and 15 - 30 cm. Generally, the result of ANOVA indicates seasonal variation in soil moisture between the three tillage methods at all depths considered. Again the result of the Pos Hoc multiple comparison shows that variation in soil moisture content between the 3 tillage systems in wet and in dry season in not significant because the p value > 0.05. Suggestions were made on the way forward towards achieving a self sufficient food production status.
Investigating the experiences of women principals in high schools in the Western Cape

This research focused on the experiences of female principals of co-ed high schools in the Western Cape. It investigated the path that their careers followed from the decision to become a teacher to ultimately being appointed as a principal and then having to lead the school. It further investigated the personal, organisational and social factors that were influential along the way. In addition, it probed the motivation and drive behind their career choice as well as the barriers and challenges encountered along the way. The researcher interviewed nine female principals. They were asked to tell their life story, with emphasis on their career route thus far. Key questions were asked, focusing on the motivation behind their career choice, whether they had been actively prepared for promotion and how their appointment was received. The interviews were transcribed in order to prepare them for data analysis. Any content that recorded experiences that contributed to their growth and development in teaching was coded accordingly. This produced a spectrum of codes. The codes were then placed into a diagram and grouped together, based on their meaning and implications. Identified groups included education and training, self-belief, work-life balance, mentorship, support and the stereotyping of women. The interconnectedness of the group was considered, together with their collective impact on the individual principals’ career route. The research findings indicated that the career route of the principals was determined by various factors on a personal level as well as on organisational and social levels. On a personal level, qualifications obtained and the influence of parents, family and own teachers played a role. This was critical in preparing the individual for the career path that was to follow. On an organisational level, opportunities taken, work ethic, mentorship and gender barriers were factors encountered. On a social level, the stereotyping of women and the changing family structure were factors that had to be contended with. Once appointed, it was found that the support from family, colleagues and learners contributed to their success. It emerged that the potential of these women had been identified early on in their careers and that they gained confidence when they were granted opportunities to learn and grow. To become a principal was in most cases never their intention but something that developed as they went about doing their work with commitment and diligence. Throughout, it remained a priority for them to invest in the lives of learners and the greatest joy was derived from seeing learners develop into young adults who were contributing to society. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Eco-friendly Synthesis of Novel Phosphorus Flame Retardants for Multiple Purposes

The synthesis methods of most parts of phosphorus (P)-based flame retardants apply harmful and toxic reagents, and the formation of byproducts is often inevitable. The synthesis of P-based flame retardants (FRs) according to the green chemistry approach has been investigated. Two FRs have been prepared via an addition reaction of phosphorus-pentoxide and alcohols. These molecules can be used as additive FRs after salt formation or as precursors for flame retardant surface treatments of natural fibers. The flame retardant efficacy of the synthesized additives was assessed in a bioepoxy resin system through UL-94 and limiting oxygen index tests, while their mode of action was determined by the investigation of gas-phase degradation products and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The prepared adduct was also used in the formulation of a reactive flame-retardant surface treatment for cellulosic fibers. In TGA tests, the treated fibers produced significant amounts of char residue.
Sky Polarization Pattern Reconstruction and Neutral Line Detection Based on Adversarial Learning

The neutral line, a crucial feature found in sky light polarization pattern images, plays a crucial role in bio-inspired polarization navigation. However, current methods for detecting the neutral line typically assume clear and unobstructed conditions. Unfortunately, the sky polarization pattern (SPP) is susceptible to various weather conditions and geographic environments, leading to distorted patterns caused by random occlusions. Consequently, accurately determining the orientation information of the neutral line becomes challenging. To address this issue, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the distribution characteristics of the neutral line in the SPP using both simulation and real measurement experiments. In addition, we curate a comprehensive dataset known as the SPP dataset. Leveraging an adversarial learning-based approach, we propose a novel method for reconstructing SPP images. Subsequently, we perform neutral line detection on the reconstructed SPPs. Notably, our method showcases exceptional performance in detecting neutral lines, even in the presence of up to 80% occlusions within the area of interest. Experimental evaluations, conducted on both simulated and measured SPPs, validate the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed method. Furthermore, quantitative analyses of the experimental results confirm the stability and reliability of our approach. Our work makes a valuable contribution to the field of SPP reconstruction and neutral line detection under complex conditions. Moreover, it holds significant potential for advancing the measurement and application of polarization techniques. Data and models are available at: https://github.com/WNCI.
Extended Spectrum β-Lactamase-Producing Enterobacterales of Shrimp and Salmon Available for Purchase by Consumers in Canada—A Risk Profile Using the Codex Framework

The extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacterales (ESBL-EB) encompass several important human pathogens and are found on the World Health Organization (WHO) priority pathogens list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They are a group of organisms which demonstrate resistance to third-generation cephalosporins (3GC) and their presence has been documented worldwide, including in aquaculture and the aquatic environment. This risk profile was developed following the Codex Guidelines for Risk Analysis of Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance with the objectives of describing the current state of knowledge of ESBL-EB in relation to retail shrimp and salmon available to consumers in Canada, the primary aquacultured species consumed in Canada. The risk profile found that Enterobacterales and ESBL-EB have been found in multiple aquatic environments, as well as multiple host species and production levels. Although the information available did not permit the conclusion as to whether there is a human health risk related to ESBLs in Enterobacterales in salmon and shrimp available for consumption by Canadians, ESBL-EB in imported seafood available at the retail level in Canada have been found. Surveillance activities to detect ESBL-EB in seafood are needed; salmon and shrimp could be used in initial surveillance activities, representing domestic and imported products.
The spectrum of X-band radiation backscattered from the sea surface

A coherent radar was used to measure the ‘sea clutter’ or backscattering of X-band electromagnetic energy from the sea surface. More than 200 recorded samples of clutter were analyzed to give power spectra of the clutter. Each spectrum was displayed as a function of frequency and of position on the water surface and was also averaged to give the mean spectrum of patches 3750 feet long. Five of the samples showed an anomalous downwind displacement of the clutter by as much as 7 knots. The displays indicate again, as in earlier Control Systems Laboratory measurements, that the upwind edge of the clutter spectrum is smooth for all wind speeds observed, but that the downwind edge, for sea state 3 or above, is broadened in an irregular fashion as a function of range. This irregular broadening implies a considerable variability, from patch to patch, in the downwind side of the probability distribution of velocity of scatterers on the sea surface. The width at half-power of a mean spectrum is proportional, for reasonable assumptions, to the width at half-maximum of the probability distribution of scatterer velocities. The variation of the latter width, Δ0, with sea state can be represented by the equation (expressed in consistent units) Δ0=11H1/3/Tm where the numerical factor is dimensionless, H1/3 is the significant wave height, and Tm is the period corresponding to the maximum of the energy spectrum for the water waves themselves when this spectrum is plotted as a function of frequency. This equation fits the experimental data within about 10 per cent for bandwidths in the range of 2 to 5 knots (64 to 160 cps) and wind speeds in the range of 8 to 19 knots. The bandwidth of the clutter is found to be approximately proportional to the wind speed. The relationships of clutter bandwidths to wave and whitecap velocities, radar depression angle, and wind direction are also discussed.
Volatility of Organic Aerosol: Evaporation of Ammonium Sulfate/Succinic Acid Aqueous Solution Droplets

Condensation and evaporation modify the properties and effects of atmospheric aerosol particles. We studied the evaporation of aqueous succinic acid and succinic acid/ammonium sulfate droplets to obtain insights on the effect of ammonium sulfate on the gas/particle partitioning of atmospheric organic acids. Droplet evaporation in a laminar flow tube was measured in a Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer setup. A wide range of droplet compositions was investigated, and for some of the experiments the composition was tracked using an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer. The measured evaporation was compared to model predictions where the ammonium sulfate was assumed not to directly affect succinic acid evaporation. The model captured the evaporation rates for droplets with large organic content but overestimated the droplet size change when the molar concentration of succinic acid was similar to or lower than that of ammonium sulfate, suggesting that ammonium sulfate enhances the partitioning of dicarboxylic acids to aqueous particles more than currently expected from simple mixture thermodynamics. If extrapolated to the real atmosphere, these results imply enhanced partitioning of secondary organic compounds to particulate phase in environments dominated by inorganic aerosol.
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE

Note Numbers in the text and tables may not add up to totals because of rounding. Preface As lawmakers consider changes in the federal personnel system for law enforcement officers, one issue to be considered is whether the compensation of such personnel across the government is adequate to achieve recruitment and retention goals. Some observers argue that in a number of cities, compensation for federal law enforcement officers is less than that for their state and local counterparts, which may place the federal government at a relative disadvantage in some local labor markets. This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper compares the pay (wages and salaries) of federal law enforcement officers with the pay of nonfederal officers in the national and regional labor markets and in selected federal locality-pay areas. (CBO's analysis excludes comparisons of employment benefits.) The paper was prepared at the request of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization of the House Committee on Government Reform. In accordance with CBO's mandate to provide impartial analysis, this paper makes no recommendations. Mark Musell, formerly of CBO. (The assistance of external reviewers implies no responsibility for the final product, which rests solely with CBO.) Leah Mazade edited the paper, and John Skeen proofread it. Angela Z. McCollough prepared early drafts of the manuscript; Maureen Costantino designed the cover and prepared the report for publication. Lenny Skutnik produced the printed copies, and Annette Kalicki and Simone Thomas prepared the electronic version for CBO's Web site (www.cbo.gov).
Knowledge of disaster risk reduction among school students in Nepal

Because of extreme vulnerability to natural disasters, Nepal is considered a disaster hotspot in the world. For a small country with just a little less than 30-million population, the disaster statistics are always frightening. School students of Nepal are also in extreme risk of natural disasters, especially when they are in schools. In this context, a few education programmes for disaster risk reduction (DRR) have already been initiated and the results have also been already documented. However, an evaluation of the real scenario with the help of an independent research is still lacking. Therefore, this research aims to explore benefits of existing education programmes of DRR in Nepal. Altogether, 124 students from 17 districts were interviewed and various questions related to disaster information, disaster knowledge, disaster readiness, disaster awareness, disaster adaptation, and disaster risk perception were asked. Statistical analysis such as histogram analysis, distribution analysis, bivariate correlations, and independent sample t-tests were conducted to examine the relationship between students in disaster education-related programmes and the key DRR issues-related dependent variables. Findings of this independent research confirmed that initiatives taken for disaster education in Nepal are not enough and a major challenge for DRR in a school community for a country like Nepal is implementing methods, especially at the individual level. Likewise, the disaster education should not only be confined within the school students, but it must also be promoted to families and communities, which is very essential to elaborate knowledge of DRR and to contribute to a disaster safe society in the country.
Early Permian transform margin development of the southern New England Orogen, eastern Australia (eastern Gondwana)

The southern New England orogen, part of the eastern margin of Gondwana, evolved from a zone of high‐angle plate convergence during the Carboniferous, into either a transform margin or a highly oblique‐convergent margin by the Early Permian. Fault‐bounded, narrow, elongate, rapidly filled sedimentary basins that developed along the Peel‐Manning fault system in the Early Permian provide support for this hypothesis. They are similar to sedimentary basins developed along strike‐slip fault zones worldwide. Strike‐slip dislocations provide the best explanation for juxtaposition of terranes with distinctly different geological histories and discontinuities in regional geological trends across these basins. A close spatial relationship also exists between occurrences of serpentinite‐matrix ophiolitic melange, the Peel‐Manning fault system, and related secondary faults. Early Permian transtension may have facilitated the diapiric rise of serpentinites, which originated from an older underlying ultramafic precursor, up these fault zones. Rise and Early Permian emplacement of the Bundarra Plutonic Suite, an S‐type batholith across which regional geological trends are offset, is also best accommodated in a model that involves a transtensional regime. Copyright 1992 by the American Geophysical Union.
Evaluation of the Qvella FAST System and the FAST-PBC cartridge for rapid species identification and antimicrobial resistance testing directly from positive blood cultures

ABSTRACT Blood culture diagnostics require rapid and accurate identification (ID) of pathogens and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Standard procedures, involving conventional cultivation on agar plates, may take up to 48 hours or more until AST completion. Recent approaches aim to shorten the processing time of positive blood cultures (PBC). The FAST System is a new technology, capable of purifying and concentrating bacterial/fungal pathogens from positive blood culture media and producing a bacterial suspension called “liquid colony” (LC), which can be further used in downstream analyses (e.g., ID and AST). Here, we evaluated the performance of the FAST System LC generated from PBC in comparison to our routine workflow including ID by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry using Sepsityper, AST by automatized MicroScan WalkAway plus and directly inoculated disk diffusion (DD), and MICRONAUT-AM for yeast/fungi. A total of 261 samples were analyzed, of which 86.6% (226/261) were eligible for the comparative ID and AST analyses. In comparison to the reference technique (culture-grown colonies), ID concordance of the FAST System LC and Sepsityper was 150/154 (97.4%) and 123/154 (79.9%), respectively, for Gram positive; 67/70 (95.7%) and 64/70 (91.4%), respectively, for Gram negative. For AST, categorical agreement (CA) of the FAST System LC in comparison to the routine workflow for Gram-positive bacteria was 96.1% and 98.7% for MicroScan and DD, respectively. Similar results were obtained for Gram-negative bacteria with 96.6% and 97.5% of CA for MicroScan and DD, respectively. Taken together, the FAST System LC allowed the laboratory to significantly reduce the time to obtain correct ID and AST (automated MicroScan) results 1 day earlier and represents a promising tool to expedite the processing of PBC.
Cruising the ocean from space with Jason‐1

The exceptional results obtained from the TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) mission (see references and recommended reading list at end of this piece) have convinced scientists to continue the research activities needed to improve our understanding of ocean circulation and its interaction with climate. High-accuracy radar altimeter missions alone can provide continuous global observations of ocean circulation. Soon after the launch of T/P in August 1992 and following a comprehensive analysis of the system's performance, the T/P missions Science Working Team recommended that studies be engaged as a follow-on. Early in 1993, the Centre Nationale d Etudes Spatiales France (CNES) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) agreed to jointly build and operate this follow-on satellite, Jason-1, to be launched early in 2001. Fittingly, the new satellite is named after the leader of the Argonauts famous quest to recover the Golden Fleece.
Simulation of strong ground motion in northern Iran using the specific barrier model

SUMMARY In this study, based upon the calibrated specific barrier model (SBM) against the latest available strong motion data, ground motion prediction equations for soil and rock sites in northern Iran are developed. The SBM may provide the most complete, simple and self-consistent description of the faulting process, which is applicable in both ‘near-fault’ and ‘far-field’ regions. Consequently, the SBM may provide consistent ground motion simulations over the entire necessary frequency range and for all distances of engineering interests. To determine source parameters in this study, we used 163 three-component records of 32 earthquakes with magnitude ranging from MW 4.9 to 7.4 in northern Iran. In the database, records with hypocentral distances less than 200 km are chosen and only earthquakes whose moment-magnitude estimates are available have been used. Furthermore, using the best available information, recording sites are classified into two main geologic categories: rock and soil. Because of the lack of site amplification information in the most regions of the world including Iran, we used the H/V ratio method for estimating the site amplification. Moreover, the Kappa factor that shows diminishing the high-frequency amplitude is determined. In this study, two data sets are considered for determining the source parameters (ΔσG and ΔσL) and the H/V ratio and the Kappa factor. Only S-wave part of signals is used in each analysis. Regression analysis is performed using ‘random effects’ method that considers both interseismic (event-to-event) and coseismic (within-event) variabilities to effectively deal with the problem of weighting observations from different earthquakes. The residuals are controlled against available northern Iranian strong ground motion data to verify that the model predictions are unbiased and that there are no significant residual trends with magnitude and distance. At first, it is assumed that no sign of self-similarity breakdown is observed between the source radius and its seismic moment. After controlling the results, the modified SBM should be used as some deviations have been observed. To verify the robustness of the results, the number of observations is changed by removing various randomly selected data sets from the original database, which results in unchanged results of the model. Stochastic simulations are then implemented to predict peak ground motion and response spectra parameters. The stochastic SBM predictions are in relatively good agreement with other available attenuation relationships proposed for Iran, Europe and Middle East. It has been shown that the proposed SBM of this study provides unbiased ground motion estimates over the entire frequency range of most engineering applications. It provides a reliable and physically realistic, yet computationally efficient, way to model strong ground motions.