Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Raising the productivity of women farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

This overview volume presents the findings of a UNDP-funded, World Bank-executed project on Women's Agricultural Productivity in Africa (WAPIA). The overview is based primarily on four countries - Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia. These studies document women's roles in agriculture, identify and evaluate the key constraints they face in attempting to raise their productivity, and recommend various policies, programs and projects to remove these constraints. All four country studies entailed some field work and benefitted from specialized studies undertaken by local researchers. The report is also based on the evidence from household field surveys in Kenya and Nigeria. This rich body of information has enabled difference in output between male and female farmers to be analyzed and explained. For example, this analysis shows that extension contact in Kenya contributes significantly and positively to output on male-managed plots, but not on female-managed plots, giving an insight into the effectiveness of current extension systems in at least one large country in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
Channel incision and flow increase of the upper Wisłoka River, southern Poland, subsequent to the reafforestation of its catchment

Changes in channel geometry and flows following catchment afforestation are demonstrated for the upper Wisłoka River, southern Poland. The montane part of its catchment was dramatically depopulated in the mid‐1940s, resulting in considerable reduction of agricultural activity in the area. As a consequence, forest cover increased from 30 per cent in 1938 to 67 per cent in 1995, mainly due to natural expansion of forest on hillslopes. Reafforestation and the decrease of human activity have significantly limited sediment delivery to the stream channel. Stabilization of the river course by valley slopes in the montane reach, and due to channelization works in the foothill reach, has prevented the upper Wisłoka from adjusting its transporting ability through an increase in channel sinuosity. Under such conditions, the excess stream power has been dissipated by bed scouring and more than 2 m of channel incision occurred by 1995. River incision has resulted in increased concentration of flood flows in a river cross‐section, the increased velocity of the channel and floodplain flows, and the reduced potential for sediment storage in the floodplain area. Results from this study indicate that successful channel management decisions must take into account changes in river regime resulting from alterations in catchment management.
A predictive model for the water retention curve : application to tailings from hard-rock mines

It is now commonly recognized that many geotechnical problems are related to the unsaturated behavior of soils. Such is the case for phenomena occurring at shallow depths in the so-called vadose zone. Unsaturated flow is also very important for the management of milling wastes, especially for seepage in and around tailings ponds. Suction properties constitute a key element for the functional representation of unsaturated flow conditions. These are usually shown by the water retention curve, which gives the relationship between volumetric water content ( theta ) and matric suction ( psi ). Laboratory measurements have been performed on three different tailings from hard-rock mines in the Abitibi region to study the effect of various factors, including grain size and porosity, on the theta - psi relationship. The main results are presented in this paper. The data are first analyzed using a well-known descriptive model. The experimental results are also used to estimate the air-entry value according to vario.
Integrating spectral, spatial, and terrain variables for forest ecosystem classification

Sets of spectral, spectral-spatial, textural, and geomorphometric variables derived fram high spatial resolution Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) and elevation data are tested to determine their ability to discriminate landscape-scale forest ecosystem classes for a study area in northern Ontario, Canada. First, linear discriminant analysis for various spectral and spectral-spatial variables indicated that a spatial resolution of approximately 6 m was optimal for discriminating six landscape-scale forest ecosystem classes. Second, texture features, using second-order spatial statistics, significantly improved discrimination of the classes over the original reflectance data. Finally, addition of terrain descriptors improved discrimination of the six forest ecosystem classes. It has been demonstrated that, in a low- to moderate-relief boreal environment, addition of textural and terrain variables to highresolution CASI reflectance data provides improved discrimination of forest ecosystem classes.
Modeling electrical dispersion phenomena in Earth materials

It is illustrated that IP phenomena in rocks can be described using conductivity dispersion models deduced as solutions to a 2nd-order linear differential equation describing the motion of a charged particle immersed in an external electrical field. Five dispersion laws are discussed, namely: the non-resonant positive IP model, which leads to the classical Debye-type dispersion law and by extension to the Cole-Cole model, largely used in current practice; the non-resonant negative IP model, which allows negative chargeability values, known in metals at high frequencies, to be explained as an intrinsic physical property of earth materials in specific field cases; the resonant flat, positive or negative IP models, which can explain the presence of peak effects at specific frequencies superimposed on flat, positive or negative dispersion spectra.
Palaeocurrents and provenance of the Mae Rim Formation, Northern Thailand: implications for tectonic evolution of the Chiang Mai basin

The Chiang Mai basin is the largest of a zone of rift basins that define the Northern Thailand Basin and Range Province. This province lies within the Shan Thai block of NW Indochina that extruded out of the India–Asia collision. The Mae Rim Formation crops out along the western side of the Chiang Mai basin. Detachment faults border the Mae Rim Formation on the west and north and juxtapose it against the high-grade Western Ranges metamorphic complex and its low-grade cover of Palaeozoic Shan-Thai rocks. Understanding the age and tectonic relationships between rifting, detachment faulting, ductile shear, uplift and exhumation of the Western Ranges metamorphic complex is critical to understanding the underlying deformational mechanisms that accompanied Indochina's extrusion. To better understand the palaeogeography of the Chiang Mai basin and its relationship to the Western Ranges metamorphic complex, several partial sections were measured, and palaeocurrent and clast-composition data from the Mae Rim Formation were collected. Poorly organized, immature conglomerates of the Mae Rim Formation probably represent alternating debris flows, sheet-flood, and braided channel deposits. The Mae Rim Formation probably accumulated in range-front alluvial fans, and graded rapidly into lacustrine deposits within the buried central part of the Chiang Mai basin. Except for the youngest strata, where gneissic clasts predominate, virtually all clasts in the Mae Rim Formation came from the low-grade metasedimentary rocks that form the cover of the Western Ranges metamorphic complex. Imbricated clasts indicate eastward palaeocurrents away from the metamorphic complex. Most of the Mae Rim Formation accumulated during the uplift of the Western Ranges but before erosion had breached the detachment fault. These new data suggest a tectonic history for the Chiang Mai basin that involved distinct phases of extension from late Oligocene to Quaternary, with at least two intervening periods of basin inversion.
Role of Salts in Development of Granitic Tafoni, South Australia

Fresh Proterozoic and Paleozoic granitic rocks in South Australia possess approximately 0.06% soluble salts (chiefly Ca, Na, S, and Cl), possibly in fluid inclusions. Active tafoni developed in these rocks show small-scale flaking on their ceiling and walls. Fresh and flaking granite are similar in all respects (chemistry, mineralogy, degree of alteration, texture, and structures), except that soluble salts are 2-13x more abundant in the flakes, where they occur as gypsum and halite crystals. An external source for these salts is ruled out by their chemical character. They are most likely a concentration of soluble substances present in the fresh rock and leached to a near-surface location when available moisture is evaporated. Tafoni configuration, distribution, and mineralogy argue against either thermal changes or wetting-and-drying being major contributors to the flaking process. We believe that salts cause flaking by crystal growth. Residual strain energy in the granites could help explain how only 0.4% salts can create 10-20% fracture porosity in an otherwise fresh rock.
Age Determination and Growth Rate of the Freshwater Clam Galatea Paradoxa (Born 1778) from the Volta River Estuary, Ghana

The age and growth of the freshwater clam Galatea paradoxa from the Volta River estuary, Ghana was estimated during a two-year study using surface growth rings, length-frequency distributions and tagging recapture experiment. Mean lengths at ages 1 to 8 years were 19.4, 28.4, 37.1, 44.1, 49.5, 55.5, 65.6 and 73.1 mm, respectively. The von Bertalanffy growth curves obtained by three the methods were: Lt = 80.4(1-e-0.17t), Lt = 105.7(1-e-0.14t) and Lt = 104.5(1-e-0.16t) for surface rings, length-frequency distributions and tagging recapture respectively. All the age determination methods were successful in estimating the age of G. paradoxa indicating that surface ring counting is an appropriate and reasonably accurate method for simple and rapid age estimation in this species. The estimated growth curves obtained from surface rings, length-frequency distributions and the tagging-recapture experiment revealed that the methods provided similar estimates of growth rates.
Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects: A Compendium of Approaches

Billions of US dollars are invested each year by the public, NGO and private sectors in information-and-communication-technologies-for-development (ICT4D) projects such as telecentres, village phone schemes, e-health and e-education projects, e-government kiosks, etc.Yet we have very little sense of the effect of that investment. Put simply, there is far too little impact assessment of ICT4D projects.In part that reflects a lack of political will and motivation. But in part it also reflects a lack of knowledge about how to undertake impact assessment of ICT4D.This Compendium aims to address that lack of knowledge. It presents a set of frameworks that can be used by ICT4D practitioners, policy-makers and consultants to understand the impact of informatics initiatives in developing countries.The Compendium is arranged into three parts:Overview ? explains the basis for understanding impact assessment of ICT4D projects, and the different assessment frameworks that can be used.Frameworks ? summarises a series of impact assessment frameworks, each one drawing from a different perspective.Bibliography ? a tabular summary of real-world examples of ICT4D impact assessment.
Integrating parsimonious models of hydrological connectivity and soil biogeochemistry to simulate stream DOC dynamics

To improve understanding and prediction of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) sources and fluxes in northern peat‐dominated catchments, we present the development and application of a parsimonious tracer‐aided rainfall‐runoff model coupled with a biogeochemistry subroutine able to concurrently simulate streamflow and DOC dynamics. The modeling approach which included quantitative assessment of associated uncertainties was conditioned by geochemical tracers which discriminate dominant water sources. Integration of DOC was predicated on statistical time series models which identified air temperature and streamflow as the key proxies that capture DOC supply and transport processes in two upland catchments in Scotland, UK. Conceptualizing the nonlinear partitioning of quick near‐surface and slower groundwater runoff sources in combination with a DOC mass balance resulted in a coupled, low‐parameter mechanistic model. Model tests showed mostly sensitive parameters and reasonable simulation results with seasonally controlled DOC supply and event‐based DOC transport. Transport is facilitated even for smaller events by overland flow from saturated histosols connected to the stream network. However, during prolonged dry periods, near‐surface runoff “switches off” and stream DOC is dominated by low concentration groundwaters. Furthermore, the model was able to explain subtle differences in DOC dynamics between the two catchments mainly reflecting the distribution of saturated soils and available storage. We conclude that tracers and statistical time series models can successfully guide the development of parsimonious yet structurally consistent water quality models. Parsimonious models provide tools for estimating DOC dynamics and loads with reduced uncertainty and potentially greater transferability.
Onshore evidence for progressive changes in rifting directions during continental break-up in the NE Atlantic

Abstract: Current models for the Palaeogene-aged continental break-up in the North Atlantic invoke a NW–SE extension vector throughout the rift-to-drift process, accommodated by margin-parallel normal faults, and margin-oblique (strike-slip) transfer zones. However, Palaeogene and younger faults in the Faroe Islands provide evidence for a progressive anticlockwise rotation in extension vectors immediately prior to and following North Atlantic break-up. Six deformation stages are recognized: (1) east–west to NE–SW extension, accommodated by dip-slip north–south- and NW–SE-trending faults; (2) continued NE–SW extension accommodated by NW–SE- and NNE–SSW-oriented dykes; (3) north–south extension accommodated by ENE–WSW and ESE–WNW conjugate dykes; (4) crustal extrusion involving both east–west shortening and further north–south extension along ENE–WSW (dextral) and ESE–WNW (sinistral) conjugate strike-slip faults; (5) during the final stages of rifting, the regional extension vector became NW–SE and was accommodated predominantly by slip along NE–SW dextral oblique-slip faults; (6) pre-existing structures were locally reactivated as tensional and extensional–shear features, characterized by the entrainment of clastic material along fault planes. The present study reveals a distinct period of margin-parallel extension immediately prior to break-up that is not accounted for by existing models, illustrating the importance of conducting field-based studies to validate otherwise widely accepted margin-scale models worldwide.
Master Computer Science

Fake news, i.e., misinformation spread intentionally or unintentionally, has a growing impact on our society. While fake news content is rising, fact-checkers are understaffed and overloaded. Thus a practical system for the efficient identification of check-worthy content is desired. Previous attempts to combat fake news on online social media with automated systems have presented high accuracy scores but are rarely deployed in a real-world setting. We identify three potential causes that make real-world adoption infeasible with the current methods: (1) mostly using textual features , (2) the placement of potentially faulty labels , and (3) the use of all tweets concerning the same topic as a single data point. An automated system for combating fake news on online social media with the aim of practical applicability must be devoid of these three causes. Therefore, we introduce a content-agnostic cascade-wise fake news ranking system . The system is trained in a classification setting using the AUC metric on the FakeNewsNet benchmark dataset and evaluated in a ranking setting using the top-k precision metric on the MuMiN dataset. The best performing model, i.e., a random forest with hand-crafted features, achieves an AUC of 79%, which is higher than the current state-of-the-art, i.e., a graph neural network based approach, which achieves an AUC of 73%. The random forest model achieves a top-50 precision of 55% on the evaluation dataset. The random ordering baseline, which is the current practice, achieves a top-50 precision of 40%. We show that, even though the results on a real-world task pale in comparison to the results on the content-agnostic variant of the FakeNewsNet dataset, a content-agnostic cascade-wise fake news ranking system does improve upon the current practice in terms of top-k precision and therefore is a valuable addition to a fact-checkers toolbox.
Development of Corexit 9580—A Chemical Beach Cleaner

ABSTRACT Chemical beach cleaners can facilitate cleanups of oiled shorelines by improving the efficiency of washing with water. The improvement is a result of reduced adhesion of the oil coating, which makes it easier to remove from shoreline surfaces, thereby reducing washing time and lowering the temperature of the wash water needed to clean a given area. The criteria established for use of chemical beach cleaners in the Exxon Valdez spill cleanup included demonstrating enhanced cleaning with low levels of toxicity to marine biota and with minimal oil dispersion. Since no commercially available products satisfactorily met these criteria for use in Alaska, a new product, Corexit 9580, was specifically developed in response to this need. This paper describes the successful development of this chemical, including both laboratory testing and field testing in Prince William Sound.
Pulping Characteristics of Eucalyptus Provenance Trials Grown in the Western Cape: Part 1: Comparison between species

SYNOPSIS For the purpose of Part I of this investigation, eight eucalypt species (irrespective of provenance), 12 years of age and grown along the northern slope of Stellenbosch mountain in the Western Cape were chipped, screened and pulped using the Kraft process. The pulps so obtained were compared with E. grandis pulp, cooked under similar conditions, since E. grandis pulp is known to be excellent papermaking fibre. The pulp evaluations revealed excellent strength development during beating in the case of the E. globulus, E. dunnii and E. nitens. These species also produced high screened yields with low percentages of rejects as well as acceptable strength values for burst, tear, and breaking length at a wetness of 38° SR and compared well with corresponding values obtained for E. grandis. In Part II (to follow) data on Kraft pulping characteristics as well as pulp strength properties of E. dunnii (three provenances), E. globulus (three provenances) and E. nitens (10 provenances) will be presented and .
The effect of land management on carbon and nitrogen status in plants and soils of alpine meadows on the Tibetan plateau

Large‐scale grassland rehabilitation has been carried out on the severely degraded lands of the Tibetan plateau. The grasslands created provide a useful model for evaluating the recovery of ecosystem properties. The purposes of this research were: (1) to examine the relative influence of various rehabilitation practices on carbon and nitrogen in plants and soils in early secondary succession; and (2) to evaluate the degree to which severely degraded grassland altered plant and soil properties relative to the non‐disturbed native community. The results showed: (1) The aboveground tissue C and N content in the control were 105·97 g m−2 and 3·356 g m−2, respectively. The aboveground tissue C content in the mixed seed treatment, the single seed treatment, the natural recovery treatment and the severely degraded treatment was 137 per cent, 98 per cent, 49 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, of that in the control. The corresponding aboveground tissue N content was 109 per cent, 84 per cent, 60 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively, of that in the control. (2) Root C and N content in 0–20 cm depths of the control had an average 1606 g m−2 and 30·36 g m−2, respectively. Root C and N content in the rehabilitation treatments were in the range of 26–36 per cent and 35–53 per cent, while those in the severely degraded treatment were only 17 per cent and 26 per cent of that in the control. (3) In the control the average soil C and N content at 0–20 cm was 11 307 g m−2 and 846 g m−2, respectively. Soil C content in the uppermost 20 cm in the seeded treatments, the natural recovery treatment and the severely degraded treatment was 67 per cent, 73 per cent and 57 per cent, respectively, while soil N content in the uppermost 20 cm was 72 per cent, 82 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively, of that in the control.
Spatial and compositional pattern of alpine treeline, Glacier National Park, Montana

This study sought to quantify the complex patterns of alpine treeline across an extensive area of Glacier National Park, Montana. Satellite image classification, digital terrain modeling, and geographic information system (GIS) measurements of landscape structure provided important tools for the analysis. The study area was topographically partitioned into watersheds and hillslope units in which to measure treeline patterns. Cluster analysis of selected spatial and compositional pattern metrics was used to infer major alpine treeline forms. Six significant treeline types were differentiated using patch richness, contagion, contrast, number of patches, fractal dimension, relative edge density, and forest-tundra juxtaposition. Clusters were validated using split-sample replication and discriminant analysis. Patterns were found to differ among types of terrain, affirming hypothesized sensitivities to topoclimatic gradients, natural disturbances, and geologic substrate.
A Market Segmentation Analysis Using Attitudes Towards Transport

Using attitudes toward travel an exploratory factor analysis was performed followed by a confirmatory factor analysis, showing good validity and reliability indices. Cluster analysis was then used to identify similar respondents based on their travel attitudes. Six distinct groups were extracted: transit enthusiasts, status seekers, car addicts, car-less riders, calm riders and obstinate drivers. The segments showed unique combinations of attitudes with distinct travel behaviors and varying degrees of intention to use public transport. The results show evidence that the design of strategies to influence public transport usage should be targeted at the market segments that are most motivated to change and increase their frequency of use.
MAL/VIP17, a New Player in the Regulation of NKCC2 in the Kidney

In this work, we demonstrate that MAL/VIP17 increases the cell surface retention of NKCC2 at the apical membrane of thick ascending limb cells by attenuating its internalization. This coincides with an increase in cotransporter phosphorylation. Thus, MAL/VIP17 could play an important role in the regulated absorption of Na+ and Cl− in the kidney.