Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of on-farm testing on adoption of banana production technologies among smallholder farmers in Meru region, Kenya

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of on-farm testing on the adoption of banana production technologies among smallholder farmers in the Meru region, Kenya.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a pragmatic paradigm and a cross-sectional survey design, sampling 370 and 30 farmers proportionately from 269,499 to 19,303 smallholder banana farmers in Meru and Tharaka-Nithi Counties of Kenya, respectively.FindingsThe study revealed that there was an association between belonging to a banana farming testing group and the adoption of banana technology. The study also revealed that most farmers were not interested in adopting banana technologies as they preferred the use of conventional methods, due to unstable market prices, lack of subsidized banana production input, inaccessibility to technological materials, few extension experts and lack of enough demonstrations.Research limitations/implicationsSome respondents were not willing to freely offer the information required for this study. This was delimited by assuring the informants of the confidentiality of their responses.Originality/valueThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The agricultural extension service providers will have more light on the underlying issues that need to be considered if meaningful interventions are to be done on various aspects of the banana value chain.
Assessment of genotyping markers in the molecular characterization of a population of clinical isolates of Fusarium in Colombia

Abstract: Introduction: Fusarium is a very heterogeneous group of fungi, difficult to classify, with a wide range of living styles, acting as saprophytes, parasites of plants, or pathogens for humans and animals. Prevalence of clinical fusariosis and lack of effective treatments have increased the interest in the precise diagnosis, which implies a molecular characterization of Fusarium populations. Objective: We compared different genotyping markers in their assessment of the genetic variability and molecular identification of clinical isolates of Fusarium. Materials and methods: We evaluated the performance of the fingerprinting produced by two random primers: M13, which amplifies a minisatellite sequence, and (GACA)4, which corresponds to a simple repetitive DNA sequence. Using the Flunter Gaston Discriminatory Index (HGDI), an analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), and a Mantel test, the resolution of these markers was compared to the reference sequencing-based and PCR genotyping methods. Results: The highest HGDI value was associated with the M13 marker followed by (GACA)4. AMOVA and the Mantel tests supported a strong correlation between the M13 classification and the reference method given by the partial sequencing of the transcription elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1-α) and rDNA 28S. Conclusion: The strong correlation between the M13 classification and the sequencing- based reference together with its higher resolution demonstrates its adequacy for the characterization of Fusarium populations.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND ANTI-MICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF THE VOLATILE OILS OF AVERRHOA CARAMBOLA L. (STAR FRUIT) GROWN IN NIGERIA

The chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils extracted from the leaf and fruit of Averrhoa carambola L. (family Oxalidaceae) grown in Nigeria were evaluated. These extractions were carried out via hydrodistillation using a Clevenger apparatus. Essential oils from the leaf and fruit were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The essential oil of the fruit revealed the presence of seventeen components, whose major compounds were estragole (62.312 %), trans-α-bisabolene (12.209 %) and pinene (8.246 %). Seven components from the essential oil of the leaf were identified; the major compounds were estragole (66.847 %), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (11.964 %) and α-ocimene (9.699 %). The volatile oil from the fruit showed antimicrobial activity against the test organisms (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus) with minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging from 10 to 20 μg/ml; while that of the leaf inhibited the growth of only Staphylococcus aureus with minimum inhibitory concentration of 20 μg/ml. These results show that the plant, Averrhoa carambola, is a good antimicrobial agent. Keywords: Averrhoa carambola, volatile oil, hydrodistilation , antimicrobial activity, estragole, pinene, α-ocimene, star fruit
Effect of light quality and extended photoperiod on flower bud induction during transplant production of day-neutral strawberry cultivars

Abstract: Day-neutral (DN) strawberry cultivars are increasingly grown in Canada because they produce flowers and fruits continuously until October. Appropriate artificial lighting conditions during preparation of high-quality transplants is critical. Unfortunately, systematic evaluation of appropriate artificial lighting conditions during transplant production is limited. The objective of this study was to determine how an extended photoperiod supplemented with different light quality affects the vegetative and reproductive growth of a day-neutral cultivar during transplant production. In the first trial, we investigated the photoperiodic nature of the DN cultivar ‘Albion’ under low intensity incandescent light. Transplants were grown under three light combinations with different far-red : blue ratios (1:5, 5:1 and 1:1), supplemented for long day (LD; 24 h), short day (SD; 10 h) photoperiods and during a night interruption (NI) for 2 h. ‘Albion’ cultivar exhibited similar degree of flowering sensitivity regardless of photoperiod duration when incandescent light was used as predominant light source. In case of light emitting diodes (LEDs), dominant blue (1:5) LEDs prompted a significant increase in flower bud induction (FBI), more explicitly under the LD photoperiod. Furthermore, transplants grown under dominant blue light (1:5) supplied during NI produced eight flower buds per plant, the highest among all treatments, and promoted flower development outside the crown. Based on the results, it appears that lower wavelengths advance flowering and higher wavelengths contribute towards the morphological traits especially during transplant production. Results suggest that combination of far-red and blue LEDs at 1:5 ratio could be a potential light source to improve flower bud induction and floral development to subsequently increase fruit production.
Increased Use of Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor Following the Implementation of the ECCO–ESPGHAN Guidelines and its Impact on the Outcome of Pediatric Crohn's Disease: A Retrospective Single-Center Study

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text ABSTRACT Objectives: The first ECCO-ESPGHAN guidelines for the medical management of pediatric Crohn disease (CD) were published in 2014. Whether their implementation, and the consequent increased use of an upfront anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy, have changed the course of the disease has not been investigated yet. We aimed at comparing the evolution of pediatric CD patients diagnosed and treated before and after 2014. Methods: Single-center retrospective study including all children diagnosed with CD from January 2010 to December 2018. Patients diagnosed between 2010 and 2014 (group 1) were compared to those diagnosed after 2014 (group 2). For each patient, at baseline and every 6-month, number of relapses, the occurrence of complication, therapy received and biological parameters were noted, as well as any endoscopic or radiologic evaluation. Results: One hundred and fifty-four patients were included in the analysis, 78 (51%) diagnosed after 2014. The cumulative probability of a relapse-free and surgery-free course was significantly higher for patients treated according to the guidelines (log rank hazard ratio [HR] = 1,818, P = 0.003 and HR = 3,15, 95% confidence interval, P = 0.04, respectively). Mucosal healing rate was significantly higher among patients of group 2 at 1 and 2 years (P = 0.04 and P = 0.05, respectively), while no significant difference was observed for transmural healing rates, as well as for the risk of complications. Conclusions: The implementation of the 2014 CD guidelines appears to have a significant impact on disease outcomes, with a significantly lower risk for relapse and surgery, while no effect could be observed on the risk of developing complications.
Development of an efficient stabiliser mixture for physical stability of nonfat unfizzy doogh

The effects of locust bean, carboxymethyl cellulose, a mixture of locust bean and carboxymethyl cellulose and Persian gum on different properties of nonfat doogh were studied over a period of 28 days. The results showed that samples containing a mixture of locust bean and carboxymethyl cellulose had the highest stability. Furthermore, the rheological behaviour of the doogh changed from Newtonian to pseudoplastic. Better sensory acceptability was shown for the treatments containing a mixture of locust bean gum and carboxymethyl cellulose. In general, it was shown that a mixture of locust bean and carboxymethyl cellulose could be of practical use in the industrial production of nonfat doogh. © 2018 Society of Dairy Technology
Does Poverty Matter for Tax Revenue Performance in Developing Countries?

This article explores the effect of poverty on tax revenue performance (tax revenue share), using an unbalanced panel data set of 102 developing countries over the period from 1996 to 2015. Based on the two-step system generalized methods of moments (GMM) approach, the empirical analysis shows that higher poverty rates significantly reduce tax revenue performance in developing countries. However, the magnitude of this negative effect is lower in least developed countries (LDCs) than in other countries of the sample. The analysis has also revealed that the tax revenue performance effect of poverty depends on the level of household consumption as well as the prevailing unemployment rate in the economy. Finally, development aid inflows help to mitigate the negative effect of poverty on tax revenue performance in developing countries. These findings not only highlight the importance of poverty for tax revenue performance in developing countries, but they additionally show that the provision of higher amounts of development aid to these countries could help them mitigate the adverse tax revenue effect of poverty, and even allow them to enjoy higher tax revenue performance, which is key for attaining their development objectives. JEL Classification: I30, I32, H20
International Journal of Innovation in Teaching and Learning (IJITL)Volume VI- Issue II (December 2020)

In recent years there has been an increased rate of awareness about occupational stress and its effects on work competencies. The teaching profession is one of the sensitive profession on which the future of any country depends. As far as Pakistan is concerned teachers and teaching both are unfortunately not enjoying very good and healthy social and financial status. Thus, the study was designed to examine the determinants of occupational stress among secondary school teachers. The main objectives of the study were: to examine the occupational stress of teachers teaching at public and private secondary schools and to identify the reasons for occupational stress among teachers of secondary schools. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers selected descriptive research design. Population of the study included all public and private sector school teachers. The sample size was comprised of one hundred teachers (50 male and 50 female) through a stratified random sampling technique. David Fontana Professional Life Stress inventory (1989) and inventory used in UCU Health and Safety by John Bamford was adapted. Data were analyzed through mean, standard deviation, percentages, and t-test. Findings of the study revealed that private school teachers have a significantly higher level of professional life stress as compared to the teachers of public schools, a job is the primary cause of occupational stress, and teachers were not satisfied with their role in schools which is one of the determinants of stress. It is recommended that the administration of a private sector school may provide a tension-free environment for teachers.
Some new uniqueness and Ulam stability results for a class of multiterms fractional differential equations in the framework of generalized Caputo fractional derivative using the Φ-fractional Bielecki-type norm

: In this research article, a novel Φ -fractional Bielecki-type norm introduced by Sousa and Oliveira [23] is used to obtain results on uniqueness and Ulam stability of solutions for a new class of multiterms fractional differential equations in the framework of generalized Caputo fractional derivative. The uniqueness results are obtained by employing Banach’ and Perov’s fixed point theorems. While the Φ -fractional Gronwall type inequality and the concept of the matrices converging to zero are implemented to examine different types of stabilities in the sense of Ulam–Hyers (UH) of the given problems. Finally, two illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the validity of our theoretical findings.
A Constitutive Stress–Strain Law for Metals with Sigmoidal Curves

A formulation is proposed for true stress–true strain relationships in the plastic regime that exhibit sigmoidal shapes, such as those of certain metastable austenitic stainless steels (MASS). It contains two terms, broadly accounting for contributions to hardening from conventional plasticity and from mechanical stimulation of martensite formation. It is a continuous function, designed to cover the plastic strain range from zero up to several tens of percent. It is shown that it is suitable for capture of a range of curve shapes of this type—experimental data from tensile testing of a MASS alloy over a range of temperature, with good fidelity. The formulation incorporates six independent parameters, although there may be scope for limiting the range of values that they can have, facilitating convergence operations. Information is presented about how convergence is obtained. The equation is thus expected to be suitable for use in finite element method (FEM) models for simulation of plastic deformation in various scenarios, including indentation. Future work will involve exploration of the details of this.
Challenges and Opportunities for Telecommuting in the School System: Building a Sustainable Online Education in the Context of the SARS-Cov-2 Pandemic

The main idea of this investigation is to identify a series of challenges and opportunities presented by telecommuting within the school system as a result of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic. The objective of the paper is to identify key elements which are able to provide concrete assistance in building a sustainable online education system, with particular reference to Romania, as a system that can be used beyond the timeframe of the current pandemic. The methodology used for our scientific investigation is quantitative, based on an eight-item data collection instrument/questionnaire with 459 respondents (bachelor, masters, doctoral, and postdoctoral students—which makes this research a study from the perspective of the students’ perceptions) with ages ranging from 18 to 53. In terms of results, the eight items were evaluated on a Likert Scale from 1 to 5, leading to the formulation of seven hypotheses (H1 to H6), of which six were accepted and one was rejected (H7) (the questionnaire has a margin error/confidence interval of ±4.5% and a confidence level of P = 95%). We concluded from the six validated hypotheses, coupled with the one which was invalidated, that telecommuting to online education was not only successful but also garnered a system characterized by sustainability. Despite the swiftness of telecommuting to online education and the perceptions of the student population, online learning can be efficient and sustainable, in which case further government policies can only improve a system that has already been proven to work.
The Influence of Novick Constructivism Learning Model on Critical Thinking Skills and Motivation in Online Learning

This study aims to determine the influence of the Novick constructivism learning model on 1) critical thinking skills and motivation, 2) the extent of influence of the Novick constructivism model on the aspects of critical thinking skills, 3) the extent of influence of the Novick constructivism model on learning motivation, and 4) the effectiveness of the model on critical thinking skills. The method used was quasi-experimental with a non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design. The population was the tenth-grade science students. The critical thinking skills were assessed using a cognitive test, and the motivation was assessed using questionnaires. The MANOVA analysis was used to determine the model's influence. The regression analysis was used to determine the extent of the model's influence. The N-gain was used to determine the model's effectiveness. The MANOVA analysis obtained a significant value of 0.02, which was lower than 0. 05. Thus, H0 was rejected. The regression analysis showed the values of critical thinking skills ranged from high to low. The values consisted of strategies and tactics (46.49%), advance clarification (14.02%), basic support (13.96%), elementary clarification (13.62), and inference (11.88%). The motivation aspects ranging from high to low: relevance (26.35%), attention (25.98%), confidence (25.40%), and satisfaction (22.25%). The N-Gain score obtained by the experimental class was 0.437 in the moderate category. Based on the results, it can be concluded that 1) there was an influence of Novick constructivism model on critical thinking skills and motivation on online learning, 2) there was an unequal influence of the model on critical thinking aspects, and 3 ) motivation aspects, and 4) Novick constructivism model was relatively effective to be used in online learning.
Deep Learning Based Wheat Crop Yield Prediction Model in Punjab Region of North India

ABSTRACT Crop yield prediction is an important aspect of agriculture. The timely and accurate crop yield predictions can be of great help for policy makers and farmers in planning and decision making. Generally, statistical models are employed to predict the crop yield which is time consuming and tedious. Emerging trends of deep learning and machine learning has come up as a major breakthrough in the arena. Deep learning models have the inherent ability to perform feature extraction in large dataset thus more suitable for predictions. In this paper, a deep learning-based Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model is employed to predict wheat crop yield of northern region of India. The present study also employed LSTM to unravel the vanishing gradient problem inherent in RNN model. Experiments were conducted using 43 years benchmark dataset and proposed model results were compared with three machine learning models. Evidently, the results obtained from RNN-LSTM model(RMSE: 147.12,MAE: 60.50), Artificial Neural Network(RMSE: 732.14,MAE: 623.13), Random Forest (RMSE: 540.88, MAE: 449.36) and Multivariate Linear Regression (RMSE: 915.64,MAE: 796.07), proved the efficacy of model. Also, predicted crop yield values were found to be more close to true values for RNN-LSTM model proving efficiency of the proposed work.
Production of Reducing Sugars from Hydroxylated Mature Spear Grass (Heteropogon Contortus)

Mature black Spear grass ( Heteropogon contortus ) was hydrolyzed using different concentrations of dilute sulphuric acid for the first time as lignocellulosic substrate for producing reducing sugars at different pH and retention time. The maximum total reducing sugar (TRS) from Spear grass hydrolysate (SGH) was 2.48g/L using 6% H 2 SO 4 at 121 o C for 4h with higher amount of xylose than glucose and arabinose. BC yield was comparable to those from reported lignocellulosic hydrolysates. The result of the study proved that mature back spear grass, commonly known as tanglehead, which is less useful as fooder due to lower nutrient, clogs animal furs and, sticks to human walker’s clothes, can be hydrolyzed with little cost to produce fermentable sugars used as substrates for producing such biotechnological products as, biofuels, biogas, and bacterial cellulose. Keywords : Reducing sugar, Spear grass hydrolysate, pH, Gluconacetobacter xylinus
ALMA observations of Titan’s atmospheric chemistry and seasonal variation

Abstract Results are presented from our ongoing studies of Titan using ALMA during the period 2012-2015, including a confirmation of the previous detection of vinyl cyanide (C2H3CN), as well as the first spatial map for this species on Titan. Simultaneous mapping of HC3N, CH3CN and C2H5CN reveal characteristic abundance patterns for each species that provide insight into their individual photochemical lifetimes, and help inform our understanding of Titan’s unique, time-variable atmospheric chemistry and global circulation. A time-sequence of HC3N maps covering 38 months reveals a dramatic change in the distribution of this gas consistent with high-altitude photochemical production followed by advection towards the southern (winter) pole, combined with rapid loss in the north after Titan’s 2009 seasonal equinox. The 2015 C2H3CN and C2H5CN maps show abundance peaks in Titan’s southern hemisphere, similar to those observed for the short-lived HC3N molecule. The longer-lived CH3CN, on the other hand, remains more concentrated in the north.
Superconductivity in the twisted bilayer graphene: emergent mystery in the magic angle, the topological bosons and the Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer – Bose Einstein unconventional crossover

ABSTRACT Theory of superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) is presented, based on the fact that Dirac fermions are pairing creating the topological bosons as consequence of topologically protected Lifshitz topological transition (TPLTT). We have shown that multiple TPLTTs are realised at low twisting angles in tBLG. At TPLTT the Berry phase changes from 2π in bilayer graphene to π in tBLG. It is favourable to form the Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer – Bose Einstein unconventional crossover (BCS-BEUC) when the attractive interaction for pairing dominates the repulsive screened Coulomb interaction. The theory yields a second-order phase transition for BCS-BEUC, and values of specific heat and the Ginzburg−Landau coherence length are calculated. The problem has been solved of emergent mystery in the magic angles at which there exists possibility for observation of BCS-BEUC. The solution is connected with the Umklapp processes when the quasiwave vector of the superconducting carriers is shifted from the Brillouin zone to other cell of the reciprocal space. The table is given of the allowed magic angles which include the corresponding effective masses of the pairing Dirac fermions.