Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A rule-based approach for crop identification using multi-temporal and multi-sensor phenological metrics

ABSTRACT Accurate classification and mapping of crops is essential for supporting sustainable land management. Such maps can be created based on satellite remote sensing; however, the selection of input data and optimal classifier algorithm still needs to be addressed especially for areas where field data is scarce. We exploited the intra-annual variation of temporal signatures of remotely sensed observations and used prior knowledge of crop calendars for the development of a two-step processing chain for crop classification. First, Landsat-based time-series metrics capturing within-season phenological variation were preprocessed and analyzed using Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform. The developmental stage of each crop was modeled by fitting harmonic function. The model’s output was further used for the automatic generation of training samples. Second, several classification methods (support vector machines, random forest, decision fusion) were tested. As input data for crop classification, composites based on Sentinel-1 and Landsat images were used. Overall classification accuracies exceeded 80% when the seasonal composites were used. Winter cereals were the most accurately classified, while we observed misclassifications among summer crops. The proposed approach offers a potential to accurately map crops in the areas where in situ field data are scarce or unavailable.
Cost Reduction Strategy and Firm Profitability during Recession Period : Nigerian Banking Industry Experience

Nigeria banks faced financial crisis due to financial meltdown and government treasury single account policy. This has forced banks to employed strategic cost management techniques like downsizing of employee and reduction of staff salary to survive and sustain their competitiveness in banking industry. This study examines the influence of downsizing of staff and reduction of staff salary on bank profitability. The specific objective is to ascertain the influence of downsizing of employee and reduction of staff salary on return on asset. Survey design was used for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample frame from first generation of banks that are licensed with international authorization in Nigeria This study obtained secondary data from the Nigerian Stock Exchange Fact-book and Annual Report and Accounts of the sample population for the period 2006 to 2016. A linear regression analysis was used in estimating the parameter of the model. The study finds out that there is negative relationship between downsizing of employee, reduction of staff salary and profitability. It was discovered that the period after banks downsize their employee, bank performance was at its low ebb. We strongly recommend that banks can reduce their employee salary instead of laying them off. Then, salary increment can be done when the financial performance is improving.
A 30‐Year Simulation of the Outer Electron Radiation Belt

As society becomes more reliant on satellite technology, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the radiation environment throughout the Van Allen radiation belts. Historically most satellites have operated in low Earth orbit or geostationary orbit (GEO), but there are now over 100 satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO). Additionally, satellites using electric orbit raising to reach GEO may spend hundreds of days on orbits that pass through the heart of the radiation belts. There is little long‐term data on the high‐energy electron flux, responsible for internal charging in satellites, available for MEO. Here we simulate the electron flux between the outer edge of the inner belt and GEO for 30 years. We present a method that converts the >2‐MeV flux measured at GEO by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites spacecraft into a differential flux spectrum to provide an outer boundary condition. The resulting simulation is validated using independent measurements made by the Galileo In‐Orbit Validation Element‐B spacecraft; correlation coefficients are in the range 0.72 to 0.88, and skill scores are between 0.6 and 0.8 for a range of L∗ and energies. The results show a clear solar cycle variation and filling of the slot region during active conditions and that the worst case spectrum overlaps that derived independently for the limiting extreme event. The simulation provides a resource that can be used by satellite designers to understand the MEO environment, by space insurers to help resolve the cause of anomalies and by satellite operators to plan for the environmental extremes.
Fundamental properties of devices for quantum information technology

This thesis reports a theoretical investigation of the influence of the electronphonon interaction on semiconductor cavity quantum electrodynamical systems, specifically a quantum dot coupled to an optical microcavity. We develop a theoretical description of the decay dynamics of the quantum dot interacting with the cavity and the phonons. It is shown that the presence of the phonon interaction, fundamentally changes the spontaneous emission decay behavior of the quantum dot. Especially in the regime where the quantum dotcavity spectral detuning is significantly larger than any linewidth of the system, the effect of the phonon interaction is very pronounced. A simple approximate analytical expression for the quantum dot decay rate is derived, which predicts a strong asymmetry with respect to the quantum dot-cavity detuning at low temperatures, and allows for a clear interpretation of the physics. Furthermore, a study of the indistinguishability of single photons emitted from the coupled quantum dot-cavity system is performed, with special emphasis on non-Markovian decoherence due to the phonon interaction. We show that common theoretical approaches fail to predict the degree of indistinguishability, on both a qualitative and quantitative level, for experimentally relevant parameters regimes. The important role of non-Markovian effects in the shorttime regime, where virtual processes dominate the decoherence of the quantum dot-cavity system, is emphasized. Importantly, our investigations lead to a maximum achievable degree of indistinguishability, a prediction which eludes common approaches.
Puzzle-based learning in engineering mathematics: students’ attitudes

ABSTRACT The article reports on the results of two case studies on the impact of the regular use of puzzles as a pedagogical strategy in the teaching and learning of engineering mathematics. The intention of using puzzles is to engage students’ emotions, creativity and curiosity and also to enhance their generic thinking skills and lateral thinking ‘outside the box’. Students’ attitudes towards this pedagogical strategy are evaluated via short questionnaires with two groups of university students taking a second-year engineering mathematics course. Students’ responses to the questionnaire are presented and analyzed in the paper.
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Crepidomanes latealatum (Bosch) Copel

Abstract The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Crepidomanes latealatum (Bosch) Copel. was determined in the present study. The genome is 145,943 base pairs (bp) in length and comprised two inverted repeats (32,990 bp) between a large single copy (92,170 bp) and a small single copy (20,783 bp). It contains 88 coding genes, 8 rRNA genes, 34 tRNA genes, and 1 pseudogene of trnL-UAA, and the GC content is 37.6%. Molecular phylogenetic analysis based on the plastid genome sequences of related taxa strongly supported the monophyly of the family Hymenophyllaceae, and the genus Vandenboschia was a sister group of Crepidomanes. In addition, compared to C. minutum, two large deletions of 453 bp and 878 bp were found in the IGS regions of petA-psbI and rrn16-trnV-GAC of C. latealatum cp genome, respectively.
How Does Intellectual Capital Affect Micro, Small, and Medium Business Resilience During the Covid-19 Pandemic?

Many previous studies examined the relationship between Intellectual Capital (IC) and a firm’s performance, whereas most of the time, IC has been shown to affect a firm’s performance positively. However, two years during the COVID-19 pandemic differs from the ordinary years. There was a massive change in people's economic activities. Restrictions on people's movement and mobility are needed to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. Apart from causing crises in the health sector, this pandemic also causes concerns in the social and economic sectors, including MSMEs. Therefore, this research was conducted to understand the effect of IC, including Human Capital (HC), Structural Capital (SC), and Relational Capital (RC), on MSME resilience during the pandemic period. This information is essential to formulate the best support for MSMEs in the IC context. This research is quantitative research using Ordinary Least Square (OLS). Data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 174 MSMEs in Bandung using the random sampling technique. The type of data used is cross-section data. This study found that HC and RC positively affect MSME resiliency during the pandemic, meanwhile, SC does not. This study suggests that the most appropriate form of support for MSMEs in times of crisis is to provide education and knowledge sharing which can expand the skills and knowledge of MSME businesspeople. And in addition, it is also important to support MSMEs in developing their relationships with various parties to maintain their business during the pandemic.
Mucinous and Signet-Ring Cell Colonic Adenocarcinoma in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Case–Control Study

Simple Summary Chronic active inflammation is a known risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), while the adenoma–carcinoma sequence appears to be associated with sporadic CRC. In the general population, mucinous and signet-ring cell adenocarcinomas are characterized by a worse prognosis. In IBD, a higher frequency of these CRC histotypes has been reported. In the present study, we investigated the frequency and characteristics of mucinous and signet-ring cell adenocarcinomas in patients with IBD versus age-matched non-IBD Controls. CRC was more frequently represented by mucinous/signet-ring cell adenocarcinoma in IBD than in Controls. In rectal CRC, there was a higher proportion of mucinous/signet-ring cell adenocarcinoma vs. standard adenocarcinoma in IBD but not in non-IBD Controls. No risk factors for these two CRC histotypes were identified in IBD. Present findings support that the frequency of mucinous/signet-ring cell colorectal adenocarcinoma is higher in IBD, being associated with rectal involvement of CRC. Abstract A higher frequency of mucinous and signet-ring cell colonic adenocarcinoma has been reported in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The primary aim was to investigate the frequency of mucinous and signet-ring cell colorectal adenocarcinoma in patients with IBD (Cases) versus age-matched non-IBD Controls. The secondary aims were to compare the characteristics of these two histotypes of colorectal cancer (CRC) in IBD patients vs. Controls and to search for specific risk factors in IBD. In a case–control study, all IBD patients with CRC diagnosed from 2000 to 2022 were enrolled and matched for age (1:2) with non-IBD Controls with CRC. The study population included 120 CRC patients (40 IBD, 80 Controls). In IBD, CRC included standard adenocarcinoma in 23 (57.5%) patients mucinous/signet-ring cell adenocarcinoma in 17 (42.5%) patients. The proportion of mucinous/signet-ring cell adenocarcinoma was higher in IBD than in Controls (17 [42.5%] vs. 18 [22.5%]; p = 0.03). In rectal CRC, the proportion of mucinous/signet-ring cell adenocarcinoma was higher than standard adenocarcinoma in IBD (8 [47.1%] vs. 4 [17.4%]; p = 0.04) but not in Controls (4 [22.2%] vs. 20 [32.2%]; p = 0.59). In rectal CRC, the proportion of these two histotypes was higher in Cases than in Controls (8/12 [66.6%] vs. 4/24 [16.6%]; p = 0.008), with no risk factors identified in IBD. CRC was more frequently represented by mucinous/signet-ring cell adenocarcinoma in IBD than in age-matched non-IBD Controls. In IBD, these two CRC histotypes were more frequent in the rectum.
Status and performance of the ASTRI-Horn dual mirror air-Cherenkov telescope after a major maintenance and refurbishment intervention

The ASTRI-Horn telescope has been developed under the leadership of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) as a prototype of a compact aplanatic dual-mirror (4 m diameter) Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) with a large FoV (8 ◦ ). It is the pathfinder of the small-size telescopes adopted for both the ASTRI Mini-Array (Tenerife, Canary Islands) and the SST/CTA array (Paranal, Chile) to perform 1-200 TeV gamma-ray astronomy with an unprecedented combination of high angular/energy resolution and flux sensitivity across a large Field of View. ASTRI-Horn is a complete end-to-end system; since 2014 it is installed in Italy at the INAF "M.G. Fracastoro" observing station (Mt. Etna, Sicily). The telescope already successfully demonstrated, first time ever, the optical behavior of a dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder telescope as a Cherenkov system, and also obtained the first gamma-ray source detection, the Crab Nebula. During 2020-2022, ASTRI-Horn - which operates in a harsh environment on an active volcano - has been subject to significant maintenance and refurbishment to restore systems and improve performance. Mirrors have been substituted, adopting high-performance new-recipe coatings, and the camera electronics has been further optimized. Now the telescope is extensively used for cosmic rays, gamma rays, and muon-radiography of the Etna volcano investigations.
Discrete sliding mode control for hybrid synchronization of continuous Lorenz systems with matched/unmatched disturbances

This paper is concerned with the hybrid synchronization of master-slave Lorenz systems with uncertainties. A new systematic design procedure to synchronize continuous master-slave Lorenz chaotic systems is proposed by using a discrete sliding mode control (DSMC). In contrast to the previous works, the design of DSMC can be simplified and only a single controller is needed to realize chaos synchronization. The proposed DSMC ensures the occurrence of the sliding mode. When the controlled system is in the sliding manifold, the effect of disturbances including matched and unmatched cases are discussed. The proposed results conclude the synchronization error of controlled master-slave systems with matched disturbances can be fully derived to zero or robustly suppressed in an estimated bound even with unmatched disturbances, which is not addressed in the literature. The numerical simulation results demonstrate the success and effectiveness of the proposed DSMC developed in this paper.
Interpretation of multimessenger anomalies of galactic cosmic rays with spatially dependent propagation model

Recent observations of cosmic rays have presented compelling evidence for the presence of a two-component spectra anomaly that is observed across all primary and secondary particles, as well as the connecting ratios within the galactic plane. In this study, we propose a syngenetic origin for this two-component phenomenon, suggesting that it originates from two diffuse regions. With this scenario, we demonstrate that all anomalies, with the exception of the positron spectrum, can be naturally reproduced. Specifically, the break-off in the electron spectrum at TeV energies can be understood as a transition process from a regime where diffusion dominates to one where energy cooling effects become prominent. Moreover, we find that extending the two-component spectra model to encompass the entire galactic plane enables us to recreate the ultra-high energy emissions detected by the AS 𝛾 experiment. Consequently, our work establishes a clear physical framework for understanding the formation of galactic cosmic rays. Notably, the high-energy cosmic rays primarily originate from recent accelerators and remain confined to nearby locations, while the low-energy cosmic rays predominantly originate from remote sources within the galactic sea. In other words, cosmic rays below 200 GV
An implicit scheme for singularly perturbed parabolic problem with retarded terms arising in computational neuroscience

A class of time‐dependent singularly perturbed convection‐diffusion problems with retarded terms arising in computational neuroscience is considered. In particular, a numerical scheme for the parabolic convection‐diffusion problem where the second‐order derivative with respect to the spatial direction is multiplied by a small perturbation parameter ϵ 2 ; ϵ ∈ ( 0 , 1 ] and the shifts δ , η are of o ( ϵ ) is constructed. The Taylor series expansion is used to tackle the shift terms. The continuous problem is semidiscretized using the Crank‐Nicolson finite difference method in the temporal direction and the resulting set of ordinary differential equations is discretized using a midpoint upwind finite difference scheme on an appropriate piecewise uniform mesh, which is dense in the boundary layer region. It is shown that the proposed numerical scheme is second‐order accurate in time and almost first‐order accurate in space with respect to the perturbation parameter ϵ . To validate the computational results and efficiency of the method some numerical examples are encountered and the numerical results are compared with some existing results. It is observed that the numerical approximations are fairly good irrespective of the size of the delay and the advance till they are of o ( ϵ ) . The effect of the shifts on the boundary layer has also been observed.
Mixing mechanism in a two-dimensional bubble column

The present contribution investigates the mixing of a passive scalar by a homogeneous bidimensional bubble swarm rising at high Reynolds number in a liquid initially at rest. Mixing experiments are performed in a Hele-Shaw cell for gas volume fractions α ranging from 3.0% to 14.0%. A weakly diffusive passive dye is injected within the swarm, and the temporal evolution of the spatial distribution of concentration is measured. The vertical distribution of concentration shows an upward propagation and a spreading due to the mixing induced by the unsteady open wakes of the bubbles. A one-dimensional large-scale model involving an intermittent and convective mechanism has been developed to describe the global evolution of the concentration distribution in the vertical direction. Based on experimental observations, it assumes that each bubble catches a given volume of ﬂuid V t in its wake and transports it over a certain length L before releasing it. A good agreement is found between the experimental concentration proﬁles measured in the vertical direction and the model prediction. The comparison between the model and the experiments allows the determination of the transported volume V t and the transport length L as a function of the gas volume fraction. It appears that the transported volume is related to the characteristic length of the velocity deﬁcit at the rear of the bubble. The transport length, which is related to the correlation length of the dye patches, shows two regimes. At low gas volume fraction, it is controlled by the viscous length related to the ﬂow damping at the walls, whereas, at higher gas volume fraction, it is limited by the distance between two successive bubbles. The mixing properties are ﬁnally characterized from the ﬁrst three-order moments of the dye distribution, which are determined by means of the model. The upward propagation of the dye is shown to scale as αV , where V is the bubble rise velocity. The spreading of the concentration distribution is characterized by an effective diffusivity, which presents strong similarities with the diffusion coefﬁcient measured in a three-dimensional bubble column [Almeras et al. J. Fluid Mech. 776, 458 (2015)]. At low gas volume fraction, it √ increases as α, whereas it saturates at high gas volume fraction. The dye distribution also is asymmetric with a signiﬁcant skewness coefﬁcient which slowly decreases in time. Therefore, the dye transport cannot be described as a purely diffusive process over the time required for the dye to spread over the cell.
Digital technology in medical visits: a critical review of its impact on doctor-patient communication

With the rapid advances of digital technology, computer-mediated medical practices are becoming increasingly dominant in medical visits. However, the question of how to ensure effective, patient-centered communication in this transition remains crucial. In this mini-review, we explore this topic by reviewing quantitative and survey-based studies, as well as discursive-interactional studies that focus on the visit as a communicative event. The review is organized into four sections: the introductory section provides a brief synthesis of the two main models used in medical practice and describes the effects of patient-centered communication practices on patients’ health and well-being. The second section presents and discusses qualitative and quantitative studies that assess the effect of technology on medical interaction and its impact on patient-centered communication. The third section focuses on whether and how the digital medical record represents a “potential communication risk” during doctor-patient interactions and explores how certain pen-and-paper literacy practices could help mitigate these challenges. In the concluding section, we outline and analyze three key considerations for utilizing technologies to foster and enhance patient-centered communication during medical visits.
Raindrop shapes as seen by a polarimetric Doppler radar

Direct observations of effective raindrop shapes from dual-polarization radar measurements, are not straightforward. In order to interpret dualpolarization radar measurements one would need to know not only raindrop size-shape relation but also drop-size distribution (DSD). Goddard et al. (1982); Thurai and Bringi (2005) have used disdrometer data to address this problem. Recently Gorgucci et al. (2000) have introduced an additional shape parameter, , into polarimetric rain rate retrieval algorithm that represents the equivalent slope of the sizeshape relationship. This approach uses re ectivity (Zh), differential re ectivity (Zdr) and speci c differential phase (Kdp) measurements to estimate : Use of Kdp restricts applicability of the proposed technique to moderate to heavy rain events. Moreover, use of Kdp implies reduction of the range resolution, and therefore results in range averaged estimates of . Recently, Williams (2002) has shown that nonlinear least square optimization procedure can be used for a joint retrieval of three parameters of gamma DSD, vertical air motion and spectral broadening from vertical incident pro ler Doppler measurements. Therefore, by combining Doppler spectra observations taken at a suf ciently high elevation angle with dual-polarization measurements of precipitation one should be able to retrieve both DSD information and raindrop size-shape relation on a short time and spatial scales. To facilitate investigation of on small time and spatial scales in this study we introduce a new retrieval method of raindrop size-shape relation that is based on dual-polarization spectral measurements of precipitation. In this method the drop-size distribution information, spectrum broadening and ambient air velocity are obtained from Doppler power spectra measurements and given this information the parameter is obtained from differential re ectivity measurements. The measurements should be