Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Adapted N-Fertilisation Strategies on Nitrate Leaching and Yield Performance of Arable Crops in North-Western Germany

Groundwater pollution with nitrate is a big challenge for drinking water abstraction in regions with intensive agricultural land-use, specifically with high livestock densities on sandy soils in humid climates. Karst aquifers with high water flow velocities are extremely vulnerable to this problem. To cope with this situation, a field trial with an installation of ceramic suction cups under a randomised block design with a typical north-German cropping sequence of silage maize–winter wheat–winter barley was established in a karst water protection zone. Over three years, reduced nitrogen (N) application rates and N type (mineral or combined organic + mineral fertilisation) were tested for their effects on crop yields and leachate water quality below the root zone. Results showed no significant reductions in crop yields with 10/20% reduced N rates for cereals/maize and only slight reductions in cereal protein content. Nitrate concentration from adapted N rates was significantly lower in treatments with an application of organic fertilisers (−7.74 mg NO3-N l−1) with greatest potential after cultivation of maize; in only mineral fertilised plots the effect was smaller (−3.80 mg NO3-N l−1). Cumulative leaching losses were positively correlated with post-harvest soil mineral nitrogen content but even in unfertilised control plots losses >50 kg N ha−1 were observed in some crop-years. Reduced N rates led to decreased leaching losses of 14% (6.3 kg N ha−1 a−1) with mineral and 29% (20.1 kg N ha−1 a−1) with organic + mineral fertilisation on average overall cops and years. The presented study revealed the general potential of adapted fertilisation strategies with moderately reduced N applications (−10/−20%) to increase leachate water quality without affecting significantly crop yields. However, regionally typical after-effects from yearlong high N surpluses in livestock intensive farming systems are a limiting factor.
Residual effects of paper mill biosolids and liming materials on soil microbial biomass and community structure

Abstract: Repeated annual application of paper mill biosolids (PB) and liming materials may impact soil functioning, such as nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and microbial activities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the residual effect of 9 yr annual applications of PB and different liming materials on soil microbial community structure and microbial biomass C, N, and P. Treatments consisted of PB at four rates (0, 30, 60, and 90 wet Mg ha-1), three liming by-products (calcitic lime, lime mud, and wood ash, each at 3 wet Mg ha-1 with 30 Mg PB ha-1), and a mineral N fertilizer surface-applied after annual crop seeding. Three years after treatment application ended, soils were sampled from 0–15 to 15–30 cm layers in each plot after corn harvest. Soil microbial community and microbial biomass C, N, and P were higher in the surface layer than deeper. Application of PB significantly increased soil microbial biomass C, N, and P and fungal biomass in both layers and induced changes in microbial community structure. In contrast, application of liming by-products did not affect microbial biomass and community. This study revealed that repeated PB application improved soil biological attributes, and those improvements can be sustained for years.
Analysis and Design of a Flyback Converter for Universal Input and Wide Load Ranges

Flyback converters exhibit the advantages of simple structure, low cost, small volume, isolation, and control simplicity. However, flyback converters demonstrate disadvantages like leakage inductance; hence, losses are incurred. Losses pertain to the requirement of an external cooling system and external costs. It also results in low efficiency and the use of flyback converters in low-power applications. The discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) is used for low-power applications to achieve efficiency. In flyback converters, the reverse recovery losses of the diode are eliminated with DCM. There are many applications of flyback converters in industrial systems, such as led drivers, battery charge systems, telecommunication systems. In this study, analysis and design of a flyback converter for universal input and wide load ranges was performed. The detailed theoretical analysis was conducted and verified with the implementation of a DCM flyback converter for 85 V-265 V RMS AC input voltage, 12 Vo output, 100 kHz switching frequency, and 48 W output power. The overall efficiency of the proposed converter at full load was measured as 81%. Additionally, external cooling systems were not required, which highlighted the development of a compact design with small volume and ease of application for an industrial system that requires the inclusion of more serial flyback converters.
Stability Determination of Asphaltenes through Dielectric Constant Measurements of Polar Oil Fractions

Asphaltenes represent the heaviest and the most polar fraction of crude oil. The interaction of asphaltenes with other fractions of crude oil can affect its overall polarity and stability. Because of the complex nature of the molecules constituting asphaltenes, determining the polarity of asphaltenes—and, thereby, predicting their stability—is, however, difficult. A more practical way to estimate asphaltenes instability would have important implications in predicting oil production performance. In this study, we present a method of combining dielectric constant measurements of crude oil fractions with a modified effective medium approximation to estimate the instability of asphaltenes. Furthermore, we show that the dielectric constant of resins fractions comprising mainly organic constituents with minimum impurities provide the best representation of crude oils, with regard to physical properties such as density and viscosity. Two new analytical correlations relating the overall dielectric constant of cru.
Families of people with Marfan syndrome. The relationship between the functioning of the family system and the life quality of the affected persons.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of the study was to analyze the functioning of afamily as perceived by a person with Marfan syndrome and to look for relationships between the characteristics of the system and the overall quality of life of the ill. METHODS Participants included 33 individuals with Marfan syndrome and 33 individuals without chronic illness. We used the Family Evaluation Scale - the Polish adaptation of the FACES-IVby D.H. Olson and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) by Diener, Emmons, Larson and Griffin. RESULTS People with Marfan syndrome perceive their families as significantly less coherent and significantly more disengaged than people without chronic illness. This family system of people with Marfan syndrome can be characterized by low scores on the "Cohesion" and "Flexibility" and high scores on the other four scales showing the level of imbalance of the family as a system, which makes this family profile similar to an ‛unbalanced' system. Life satisfaction of people with Marfan syndrome correlated positively with "Cohesion", "Flexibility" and "Family Satisfaction" as features of family system perceived by them. CONCLUSIONS The obtained results confirm the importance of supporting families of people with Marfan syndrome and specialist help aimed at dealing with emotional burden related to the health of the patient.
Diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome using data mining techniques

Chronic gastrointestinal disorders impose a heavy economic burden and stress on society and the health care system. Among these chronic disorders is irritable bowel syndrome. This disease can be diagnosed by careful evaluation of clinical signs, medical records and simple tests that only require a lot of time and high knowledge. On the other hand, data mining is one of the multidisciplinary fields derived from scientific fields such as statistics, mathematics, computers and artificial intelligence, whose applications are expanding in various fields such as health and treatment. Applying data mining on medical data brings vital, valuable and effective achievements and can enhance the physician's knowledge to take the necessary measures and also speed up the diagnosis process. Therefore, in this study, the best data mining algorithm for the diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome was determined using WEKA software. For this purpose, the data mining process using Decision Stump, Random Tree and j48 algorithms on 59 samples collected from the files of people referring to Erfan Hospital in Tehran (to collect information about patients) and questionnaires distributed among employees of a company. Software was used to collect information from healthy individuals. Finally, the total data included 55.93% male sample and 44.06% female sample. The results were compared in terms of speed, accuracy and computational cost. Finally, j48 algorithm with 96.6% accuracy was introduced as the optimal algorithm for IBS detection.
Effects of barefoot walking on the flat foot in school going children: A Randomised control trial

Flat foot is also called Plano-valgus foot, and it is a term, that is commonly used in describing lat foot. Some studies have suggested, that certain foot-speci ic exercises and barefoot weight bear walking can change foot function like lat foot, and also con irm that shoed walking children are more likely to get a lat foot. An Assessor blinded, Randomized controlled trial with thirty-eight children with lat foot aged 6 – 14 years, both male and female were randomised to the control group (n=19) and intervention group (n=19). The control group had performed barefoot walking for 45minutes a day for eight weeks, and the intervention group had received foot-speci ic exercises with barefoot walking for eight weeks. Foot posture was evaluated by the arch index, while the Oxford foot and ankle questionnaire was used to measure the subjective wellbeing of children. Measurements were taken before and after the eight weeks of intervention. The outcome of the randomised control trial showed that the barefoot walking group faired far better than that which didn’t (p-value <0.05). The intervention group outcomes measure Arch Index, and Oxford Foot and Ankle Questionnaire were p-values is <0.05 from seventh and eight weeks. This study results suggest that barefoot walking and speci ic foot exercises are effective in improving the lat foot in school-going children.
Prevalence, Risk Factors, Burden and Prevention of Low Back Pain among Nurses at University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

Background: Low Back Pain (LBP) and its negative effects on the nurses’ quality-of-life are worrisome. Studies on LBP among nurses are scanty in Nigeria. Study assessed prevalence, risk-factors, burdens and prevention of LBP among clinical nurses at University College Hospital, Nigeria. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study that utilized quota and convenience sampling techniques in selecting 406 nurses. Self-administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square test. Level of Significance, p≤0.05. Results: Mean age of respondents was 39.51±8.525. Prevalence of LBP was very high (83.7%) among clinical nurses in the study setting. Risk-factors identified by respondents include some nursing activities, perceived stress and lack of job satisfaction. Analgesic use, movement restriction, low productivity, and psychological concern were among the burdens of LBP identified by the respondents. Preventive measures suggested include training of nurses on relaxation techniques, proper use of body mechanism/proper posture, and provision of mechanical assistive turning/lifting devices. Chi-square analysis showed that gender (χ2 =6.450, p=0.022) and nursing procedures were significantly associated with prevalence of LBP among clinical nurses in the facility. Conclusions: High prevalence of LBP among clinical nurses of the facility has negative consequences on the general well-being of the victims, the profession, the clients/patients, the facility and the entire society. There is urgent need to put policies and strategies in place to curb high prevalence of LBP and its consequences on the clinical nurses in the facility as identified in the study.
Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Online Learning during Covid-19 Pandemic in Higher Education: Lecturer Perspectives

This study aimed to investigate the lecturer' perspectives during COVID-19 pandemic in higher education. The participants have consisted of 8 from various universities in Indonesia. In this study, researchers chose narrative analysis as a research approach. A narrative analysis was used to explore lecturer perspectives or views on e-learning based on the practices, challenges, and prospects during COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the lecturers' perspective, the researchers concluded that online learning applications are beneficial for some lecturers to deliver lecture material without face to face, although there are some obstacles such as inadequate internet access. Some campuses provide self-developed applications to facilitate teaching lecturers and provide access to students to study lecture material. Some teachers also used online learning service provider applications or third parties such as Youtube, Zoom, Google Meet, Google Classroom and other online applications. Overall lecturers in universities can use existing learning applications. Efforts are needed to develop further, train, and improve infrastructure facilities to support online learning in the future. Online learning has high prospects and potential to be applied due to its extremely related to technological developments and ever-changing times wherever everything is quick and economical.
Effect of Weave Structure on Comfort Property of Fabric

ABSTRACT The air permeability, thermal resistance, water vapor permeability, water absorption, and Stiffness were measured to determine the comfort property of the fabric. For this study, the plain, twill, and satin structures were produced from warp ring-spun yarn and weft open-end spinning yarns. Using ANOVA statistical analysis, the weave structures on the comfort properties of these fabrics were investigated. The finding of this study revealed that from plain to twill and satin structure the result leads to an increasing of Water Vapor Permeability, Water absorption rate, and air permeability. On the contrary, from plain to twill and satin the thermal resistance and stiffness of fabrics were reduced. Plain weave structure was superior thermal resistance and stiffness, whereas Satin weaves have higher air permeability, water vapor permeability, and water absorption rate.
Vocational education of owners and SME employment growth: evidence from Israel

ABSTRACT OECD data show that in some countries the earnings of workers with tertiary vocational education are lower than those of workers with secondary education, in particular for the 25–34 years age group. Israel is one of those countries, and in this study we extend the analysis of this apparent anomaly using a quantitative methodology of multiple regression analysis and a survey of 699 SMEs through telephone interviews and a web-based questionnaire. We explored the employment growth rates of firms whose owners have secondary, academic and post-secondary vocational education. Findings show that compared to the base level of the owner’s secondary education, the growth of businesses whose owners have academic education is higher, while vocational education of the owner is associated with lower growth. These findings can be explained by the specific skills acquired through vocational training which may not adequately fit the changing job market and business ecosystem.
DnResNeXt Network for Desert Seismic Data Denoising

In recent years, the denoising of low-frequency desert noise has been the significant and difficult point in processing seismic data. Traditional random noise suppression methods could not get a good result in processing seismic data in desert areas. Moreover, convolutional neural network (CNN) has made notable achievements in many fields recently. In order to denoise seismic data in desert areas and improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), CNN is introduced to process seismic data. According to the characteristics of desert seismic data, we designed a new network suitable for desert seismic data training and denoising, which is named DnResNeXt. Then, to form a mapping from the noisy data to the pure desert noise, we build a mass of training sets to train the denoising network. Thus, the network can predict the noise, then by subtracting the predicted noise from the noisy data, the denoised data are obtained. Consequently, compared with the traditional methods in suppressing random noise, DnResNeXt network has obvious advantages in both simulation and actual experiments.
Slippery ontologies of tidal flats

Tidal flats are a type of coastal space that flood at high tides and are exposed at low tides—not quite land or sea. Distinct from open waters or seabeds, tidal flats’ in-betweenness gives them particular materialities that constantly frustrate our efforts to know them. Inspired by the provocation of recent scholarship on “wet ontologies” while simultaneously recognizing the nuances within water worlds, I argue for the slippery ontologies of tidal flats and explore the implications of this approach. Specifically, this paper shows how tidal flats’ dynamic and ambiguous materialities resist attempts to place them into modern knowledge systems. Drawing upon the particular case of South Korea’s tidal flats, called getbol, I first interrogate the in-betweenness of tidal flats, a major source of their material and conceptual slipperiness. I then discuss the similarities and differences between tidal flats and other types of land–water spaces. Next, through several interviews with those who produce modern scientific knowledge of getbol, I examine how tidal flats’ unique compositions interfere with modernity’s efforts to measure their boundaries, matter, and verticality. I highlight how both non-humans and humans contribute to tidal flats’ slipperiness. Finally, I show how the slippery nature of tidal flats has threatened their survival. In South Korea alone, more than half the tidal flats were removed due to reclamation efforts in the past century. In this context, I contend that fully embracing tidal flats’ slippery ontologies may prevent them from further endangerment.
Uncertainty Assessment of CFD Investigation of the Nonlinear Difference-Frequency Wave Loads on a Semisubmersible FOWT Platform

Current mid-fidelity modeling approaches for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) have been found to underpredict the nonlinear, low-frequency wave excitation and the response of semisubmersible FOWTs. To examine the cause of this underprediction, the OC6 project is using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools to investigate the wave loads on the OC5-DeepCwind semisubmersible, with a focus on the nonlinear difference-frequency excitation. This paper focuses on assessing the uncertainty of the CFD predictions from simulations of the semisubmersible in a fixed condition under bichromatic wave loading and on establishing confidence in the results for use in improving mid-fidelity models. The uncertainty for the nonlinear wave excitation is found to be acceptable but larger than that for the wave-frequency excitation, with the spatial discretization error being the dominant contributor. Further, unwanted free waves at the difference frequency have been identified in the CFD solution. A wave-splitting and wave load-correction procedure are presented to remove the contamination from the free waves in the results. A preliminary comparison to second-order potential-flow theory shows that the CFD model predicted significantly higher difference-frequency wave excitations, especially in surge, suggesting that the CFD results can be used to better calibrate the mid-fidelity tools.
Does Value Strategy Outperform the Growth Strategy in Colombo Stock Exchange? (Special Reference to War Effected Market 2000-2018)

The study focused on whether value stocks outperform the growth stocks taking evidence from listed companies in Colombo Stock Exchange and to identify whether there is a structural break with the end of the thirty-year war prevailed in Sri Lanka. The scholars considered value and growth agreement in developed capital markets, has concluded with contradictory results and the attention towards frontier markets such as Sri Lanka is poor. Current strategy incorporates Wilcoxon Rank Test and Chow Test for daily data for the period from 2000 to 2018 supported by previous scholars. The study found the growth portfolios were given higher returns in the war period. The results reveal the post-war period; the value portfolio returns outperform growth portfolio returns (2009-2018). Further, no structural break was detected during the period.
The Emergent Nature of Networked Sustainable Procurement

The complex and networked nature of sustainable procurement is evoked through confronting two conceptual models, the triple bottom line-inspired parallel-type “interlocking circles model” with the more systems-oriented series-type “concentric circles model”. This endeavor is integrated with a developed application of contingency theory rooted in network thinking. Two subcase narratives from Ghana, one in the upstream portion of the supply chain associated with exploration and platform-based production, and the other an oil refinery in the downstream part are provided. Interaction, interdependency, and integration, all associated with value, conceptually ground the analyses. A developed empirically grounded conceptual model depicts sustainability as systemically intertwined with value and networked in an immediate business, network, and wider noncontextual natural and social environment. Sustainable procurement is networked, a value creating managerial process rather than, as the triple bottom line posits, a norm “out there” directing managerial action. Sustainability is inherently complex. Rather than guiding action through deterministic ethical norms, it emerges as emergent practices primarily through purposeful interaction within the supply network that instead may be interpreted and developed in a long-term sense through using the two discussed conceptual models on sustainable production.
Brand Loyalty Mediation in Brand Attachment and Customer Digital Experience towards Smartphone Repurchase Intentions

Brand loyalty is one of the most essential component that incumbent company to retain their customers, particularly in order to win the market share. The main reason is that incumbent firms need to maintain their market share and then upscale their market when they have a thorough understanding of the segmentation. Brand loyalty in this study is utilized as a mediating variable to confirm the impact of brand attachment and customer digital experience for the repurchase intention creation of smartphone users. An online questionnaire was distributed to 100 respondents using a purposive sampling technique. The criteria of respondents in this study are those who are using Samsung smartphone for at least a year, and experience searching the brand using a digital platform. The statistical analysis showed that brand attachment and customer digital experience have a significant positive influence on brand loyalty. Furthermore, brand attachment shows direct and indirect effects to repurchase intentions indicating partial mediation existence of brand loyalty. Customer digital experience indirectly affects repurchase intentions through brand loyalty. These results highlight the role of brand attachment and customer digital experience has to secure repurchase intentions of customers by utilizing brand loyalty.