Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Farmers’ Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change and Their Implications in the Zou Department of South Benin

Climate change is a global phenomenon. Its impact on agricultural activities in developing countries has increased dramatically. Understanding how farmers perceive climate change and how they adapt to it is very important to the implementation of adequate policies for agricultural and food security. This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of farmers’ adaptation choices, determinants of the adaptation choices and the long-term implications of the adaptation choices. Data were collected from 120 respondents in the Zou Department of Benin. A binary logit model was used to analyze the factors influencing household decisions to adapt to climate change. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was estimated to analyze the factors influencing households’ choice of adaptation strategies to climate change. The results show that farmers have a developed perception of climate change. These changes are translated by rainfall disturbances (rainfall delays, early cessation, bad rainfall distribution etc.), shortening of the small dry season, increasing of temperature and sometimes, violent winds. The survey reveals that Benin farmers adopt many strategies in response to climate change. These strategies include “Crop–livestock diversification and other good practices (mulching, organic fertilizer),” “Use of improved varieties, chemical fertilizers and pesticides,” “Agroforestry and perennial plantation” and “Diversification of income-generating activities. ” The findings also reveal that most of the respondents use these strategies in combination. From the binary logit model, we know that “farming experience” and “educational level of household head” positively influence adaptation decisions. The result of the multinomial logit analysis shows that farming experience, educational level, farm size and gender have a significant impact on climate change adaptation strategies. Based on in-depth analysis of each strategy, we identify crop diversification and agroforestry as being the most promising strategies with benefits for farmers, the environment and future generations.
Approaches to Community Development in Nigeria, Issues and Challenges: A Study of Ebonyi State Community and Social Development Agency (EB-CSDA)

The study examined the activities of the Ebonyi State Community Based Social Development Agency (EB-CSDA), particularly on poverty reduction in the rural communities of Ebonyi State. Survey and content Analytical Approach were adopted. Data were extensively drawn from documentary papers, publications, oral interviews, direct observation and the use of structured questionnaire distributed to 400 sampled respondents from rural communities in the 13 LGAs of the State. Findings reveal that despite efforts of successive governments aimed at reducing poverty, the scourge has remained pervasive. EB-CSDA however, is rated high in the provision of micro-projects to the rural communities but its approach is group- targeted rather than on the individual poor. Consequently, the paper recommends among others that adequate background studies should be undertaken to understand the demographic characteristics of the rural communities to enable development agencies target their efforts on the real poor based on sufficient needs assessments of recipients.
Suitability of Spray Dried Powder containing Lipids for Inhalation Formulation based on Fine Particle Fraction and Particle Size Distribution

The aim of this master thesis is to provide an indication of the suitability, or otherwise usage, of spray-drying for production of powder aimed for inhalation formulation and comparing the characteristics of the product, with and without lipids. Lipids have a proven effect of delaying release of active drug substances in the cardiovascular system and pulmonary systemic delivery has a number of advantages, chiefly among them being bypassing the first pass metabolism. Incorporating lipids in an inhalation formulation would therefore be advantageous. Spray-drying is one of the proposed methods for production of such powder. There are numerous measurements needed to ascertain whether the product is suitable for a given formulation or not. This project will focus on the fine particle fraction and the particle size distribution, as well as miscellaneous measurements (for example, water activity and general particle shape). Two ingredients were essential in the formulation: The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the lipid excipient. Lysozyme from egg white substituted for an API. Two lipids were tested, labeled “mixed lipid” and “pure lipid” respectively. The project was divided into three production trials and two analysis phases to gain information of how variations of different factors affect the properties. Obtained results show that the production system is robust and addition of lipids does not affect the properties adversely. Spray-drying produces spherical particles with low water content, if a high drying temperature and low feed rate is chosen. The fine particle fraction of the produced batches does not exceed 30 % and the size distribution shows the produced powder has no uniform particle size. The majority of the particle population have a large diameter with declining amount in lower diameters. Analysis of the results indicate an inhomogeneity in the final product, due to several irregularities and a large spread with the measured data. While no definite data was measured, possibilities of the discrepancies could be due to the preparation of the encapsulated substance rather than due to production via spray-drying.
Empirical model predictions and field measurements manifested divergent changes of SOC and SIC in calcareous soils in China

Background. Considerable amounts of calcareous soils exist in China and various management practices are used for improving their productivity; however, no holistic view is currently available of their effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) pools. Our study aims to define co-current changes of SOC and SIC by using empirical model predictions and reviewing analysis of actual fielddata.
Genetic divergence studies for yeild and its components in rice (oryza sativa l.) accession

The hundred genotypes of rice accession were used to study the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence Mahalonobis D statistics. The genotypes were grouped in to 10 cluster showing fair degree of relationship between agro-morphological variation and genetic divergence. The higher inter cluster distance was in between cluster II and cluster V followed by cluster VII and cluster I, cluster IX and cluster II and cluster III and cluster II. The lowest inter cluster distance was found between cluster III and cluster I. Thus, in the present study the better genotype were identified in respect to most of the characters on the basis of mean performance in the cluster. The inter cluster distances in the present study were higher than the intra cluster distances in all cases reflecting wider diversity among the genotypes of the distant group. The best genotypes in the present study for seed yield per plant are Veerhuli, Jaldubi and Lohandi and for harvest index the superior genotype are Kaveri, Kansari and I.T.
An Analytical Model for the Threshold Voltage of Short-Channel Double-Material-Gate (DMG) MOSFETs with a Strained-Silicon (s-Si) Channel on Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) Substrates

In this paper, an analytical threshold voltage model is developed for a short-channel double-material-gate (DMG) strained-silicon (s-Si) on silicon-germanium (Si 1-x Ge x ) MOSFET structure. The proposed threshold voltage model is based on the so called virtual-cathode potential formulation. The virtual-cathode potential is taken as minimum channel potential along the transverse direction of the channel and is derived from tow-dimensional (2D) potential distribution of channel region. The (2D) potential distribution of channel region. The 2D channel potential is formulated by solving the 2D Poisson"s equation with suitable boundary conditions in both the strained-Si layer and relaxed Si 1-x Ge x layer. The effects of a number of device parameters like the Ge mole fraction, Si film thickness and gate-length ratio have been considered on threshold voltage. Further, the drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) has also been analyzed for gate-length ratio and amount of strain variations. The validity of the present 2D analytical model is verified with ATLAS TM , a 2D device simulator from Silvaco Inc.
Estimating Mis-Reporting in Dyadic Data: Are Transfers Mutually Beneficial?

Many studies have used self-reported dyadic data without exploiting the pattern of discordant answers. In this paper we propose a maximum likelihood estimator that deals with mis-reporting in a systematic way. We illustrate the methodology using dyadic data on inter-household transfers (gifts and loans) from the village of Nyakatoke in Tanzania, investigating whether observed transfers are mutually beneficial, i.e. in the self-interest of both parties involved. Our results suggest that mutual self-interest is not a necessary condition for transfers between households who are sufficiently close socially and geographically to take place, and we show that not taking reporting bias into account leads to serious underestimation of the total amount of transfers between villagers.
Phylogenetic Inference and Allopolyploid Speciation

The major theme of this thesis is allopolyploidization, with focus on Silene section Physolychnis. The evolutionary history of an allopolyploid species can be established by inferring the sister relationships of the homoeologous sequences from low copy nuclear markers. Sequence specific primers are here used to recover co-amplified genetic variants, which is an efficient alternative to the commonly used bacterial cloning. A phylogenetic overview of Physolychnis is presented, and two major clades within the section are defined: the Asian/American clade and the Arctic/Siberian S. ajanensis group. Previously unknown ploidy levels of several taxa are inferred from sequence data, based on the number of monophyletic sequence-clusters recovered per species. Several allopolyploid taxa stemming from crosses between the two major clades are identified. Of these, S. sachalinensis and S. involucrata have indistinguishable origins, although they are geographically and morphologically distinct. Certain taxa within Physolychnis exhibit an extra copy of the nuclear gene RPA2, originating from a distantly related lineage within section Auriculatae. This is in strong conflict with the species relationships (inferred in several previous studies), and is best explained by introgression between lineages belonging to the two Silene subgenera. This finding of gene flow between such long diverged lineages may represent one of the most extreme cases presented yet. In order to investigate whether S. sachalinensis and the three subspecies of S. involucrata originate from one or several hybridization events, transcriptome data from three distantly related Silene species is used to design a set of primers for 27 loci not previously sequenced in this genus. Together with five other loci, these are amplified from 43 specimens from within the parent / allopolyploid species complex, and sequenced using 454 amplicon sequencing. This method is particularly well suited for a systematic project involving allopolyploid taxa, since sequence variants are separated on the sequencing plate, and due to the possibility of multiplexing a large number of loci and individuals. Here, a twostep PCR approach is taken to attach 10 bp barcodes to the individual amplicons. This approach is time and cost efficient, but may lead to large amounts of recombinant sequences during the second PCR amplification. Species tree inference is complicated by the presence of homoeologous gene copies within a single species. A phylogenetic tree in which identical taxon labels occur in more than one monophyletic position is here defined as a multiply labeled tree. Although several gene-treesto-species-tree methods exist, the first consensus method that combines several multiply labeled gene trees into a multiply labeled genome tree is presented here. The genome tree can subsequently be folded into a species network, which describes the evolution of allopolyploid taxa.
Spatio-Temporal Measurements of Water-Wave Height and Slope using Laser-Induced Fluorescence and Splines

Within the framework of this thesis an algorithm was designed, which extracts the height of water waves from a time series of along-wind surface proﬁle images. The surface position is detected with help of thresholding and subsequently ﬁtted on the basis of two-dimensional smooth spline ﬁtting. As result a function of the height in space and time direction and its slope as well as its time derivative are obtained. For wind speeds of up to 10 m/s it was possible to identify the height with an accuracy of approximately 18 µm. Furthermore, a script for data evaluation was written, which computes general properties of the wave ﬁeld, like the signiﬁcant wave height and the mean square slope in along-wind direction, as well as the frequency spectra and the dispersion relation. Both tools were used to evaluate measurements with wind speeds from 2.5 m/s to 14 m/s performed at the Large Marseille-Luminy Wind-Wave Facility within the ASIST-campaign in June 2016. The wave ﬁeld diﬀers from pure wind waves to additional mechanically generated waves with frequencies of 0.9 Hz and 1.3 Hz.
Automatic Region-wise Spatially Varying Coefficient Regression Model: an Application to National Cardiovascular Disease Mortality and Air Pollution Association Study

Motivated by analyzing a national data base of annual air pollution and cardiovascular disease mortality rate for 3100 counties in the U.S. (areal data), we develop a novel statistical framework to automatically detect spatially varying region-wise associations between air pollution exposures and health outcomes. The automatic region-wise spatially varying coefficient model consists three parts: we first compute the similarity matrix between the exposure-health outcome associations of all spatial units, then segment the whole map into a set of disjoint regions based on the adjacency matrix with constraints that all spatial units within a region are contiguous and have similar association, and lastly estimate the region specific associations between exposure and health outcome. We implement the framework by using regression and spectral graph techniques. We develop goodness of fit criteria for model assessment and model selection. The simulation study confirms the satisfactory performance of our model. We further employ our method to investigate the association between airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM 2.5) and cardiovascular disease mortality. The results successfully identify regions with distinct associations between the mortality rate and PM 2.5 that may provide insightful guidance for environmental health research.
Comprehension of Synthetic and Natural Speech: Differences among Sighted and Visually Impaired Young Adults

The present study examines the comprehension of texts presented via synthetic and natural speech in individuals with and without visual impairments. Twenty adults with visual impairments and 65 sighted adults participated in the study. Both individuals with and without visual impairments performed at a similar level in the comprehension of texts that were presented via synthetic and natural speech. The findings indicate that prospective difficulties in intelligibility do not affect comprehension. It seems that context cues provided by the text assisted the participants in identifying and comprehending the text more effectively. Moreover, the results reveal no significant differences between sighted participants and participants with visual impairments regarding the comprehension of natural and synthetic speech.
In Situ Measurement of Seeking Speed and Seeking Induced Head-Disk Interface Instability in Hard Disk Drives

This paper investigated the instability of head-disk interface caused by the voice coil motor (VCM) end crashing the crash stop during the seeking of magnetic head. To make the whole process of that clear, an in situ measurement method based on maximum likelihood estimation and extended Kalman filter for seeking speed at component level was developed first and was then calibrated by a high speed camera. Given a crash between VCM end and crash stop that may be a consequence of the continuous increasing seeking speed, the seeking speed was carefully controlled by using our developed method to find a critical value that may induce vigorous head-disk interface instability. Acoustic emission sensor and laser Doppler vibrometer were used to capture the transient dynamic behaviors of magnetic head when the crash is happening. Damage analysis and mode identification were carried out to reveal the relationship between the damage patterns on disk surface and head dynamics. The results of this study are helpful to optimize the track seeking profile during the HDD operation, as well as the design of components such as head and head arm.
Measuring the Vertical Specialization in Chinese Trade

In recent years, two important related developments have transformed the nature of world trade: the explosive growth of Chinese trade, and the growth of vertically specialized trade due to international production fragmentation. The literature in each of these two separate topics is large and growing. However, very few papers quantitatively assess these two trends together. In this paper, we measure the degree to which Chinese trade has become vertically specialized, using a new measure adapted from Hummels, Ishii and Yi (2001). By making use of the latest Chinese input-output tables, and a new detailed Chinese trade data set which distinguishes processing trade from other forms of trade, we develop a new method of identifying intermediate goods imported into China. With this new method, we measure Chinese vertical specialization over time, and by sector, export destination, and input source. We find about 35 percent of the value of China’s exports to the world is attributable to imported inputs. This vertical specialization exceeds 50% in some sectors, and is growing over time.
Fuzzy multiwavelet denoising on ECG signal

Since different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters have different impulse and frequency responses characteristics, different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters should be selected, integrated and applied at different noise levels if a signal is corrupted by an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). In this letter, some fuzzy rules on selecting and integrating different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters together are proposed. These fuzzy rules are setup based on the training results of the denoising performances of applying different multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters at different noise levels. When a new electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is applied, the appropriate multiwavelets, pre- and post-filters are selected and integrated based on fuzzy rules and the noise level of the signal. A hard thresholding is applied on the multiwavelet coefficients. According to an extensive simulation, we found that our proposed fuzzy rule-based multiwavelet denoising algorithm achieves 30% improvement compared to the traditional multiwavelet denoising algorithms.
Effect of type of grass silage and level of concentrate on the flow of soluble non-ammonia nitrogen entering the omasum of dairy cows

Four ruminally cannulated Finnish-Ayrshire dairy cows were used to study effects of type of grass silage (primary vs secondary) and level of concentrate supplementation on concentration and the flow of soluble non-ammonia N (SNAN) in the liquid phase of digesta entering the omasum. The treatments in a 4 x 4 Latin square design consisted of either primary growth of grass silage (PG) or secondary growth of grass silage (SG) each with either 8.1 or 12.1 kg/d of concentrate (air dry basis). Digesta entering the omasum was collected, and SNAN fractions (free amino acids, peptides and soluble protein) in the digesta were assessed using ninhydrin. The microbial contribution to SNAN was estimated using 15N as a microbial marker. Concentrations of free amino acids, peptides and soluble protein N averaged 22.3, 59.8 and 23.1 mg N/l, respectively. PG diets tended (P=0.09) to increase peptide N concentration in omasal digesta compared with SG diets, whereas level of barley concentrate did not affect concentrations of SNAN fractions. Peptide N constituted the largest proportion of SNAN in omasal digesta, supporting the previous observation that hydrolysis of peptides to AA is the most limiting step in rumen proteolysis. The microbial contribution to SNAN averaged 0.71, indicating that a substantial proportion of the SNAN was of microbial origin. Soluble dietary NAN flow averaged 9.1 g N/d, accounting for approximately 0.05 to 0.08 of total dietary NAN flow.
Investigation on the Effect of Addition of Fe 3+ Ion into the Colloidal AgNPs in PVA Solution and Understanding Its Reaction Mechanism

Analysis of Fe 3+ ion present in aqueous solutions is always of interests. Recently, this ion has been analyzed by colorimetric methods using colloid of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in capping agents of polymers. The reaction mechanism between AgNPs and Fe 3+ is still subject to the further investigation. In this work, 1,10-phenanthroline was used to probe the reaction mechanism between AgNPs and Fe 3+ ion in the solution. The colloids of AgNPs were prepared in the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution and reacted with Fe 3+ . The colloid surface plasmon absorbance decreases linearly along with the increase in Fe 3+ concentration. The addition of 1,10-phenanthroline to mixture changes the solution to red, indicating that the reaction produces Fe 2+ . This suggests that the reduction of the AgNPs absorbance is the result of oxidation of the Ag nanoparticles along with the reduction of Fe 3+ .
Birecursive interpolation algorithm: a formalism for solving systems of linear equations

This paper presents a simple unifying algorithm for iterative methods that use two Krylov subspaces. This new approach leads us to a general algorithm called the bi-recursive interpolation algorithm (BiRIA), which is a generalization of the recursif interpolation algorithm (RIA), the Bi-RIA includes the iterative methods of Lanczos type using two auxilary vectors. We will show how to choose two free sets of parameters and one matrix in the Bi-RIA for recovering known iterative methods of Lanczos type. Other choices of these parameters yield some new methods. Mathematics Subject Classification: 65F10
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TAIWANESE INTERNATIONAL TOURIST HOTELS: EVIDENCE FROM A MODIFIED NDEA MODEL WITH ICA TECHNIQUE

The motivation for this study is to assess the managerial performance in Taiwanese international tourist hotels based on the two-stage NDEA performance mechanism with ICA technique for enhancing the discriminatory power of performance evaluation model. The two-stage managerial performance structure is applied, incorporating the service production and service operation stages, as a reduced form to introduce the relatively complex business environment of modern enterprise. However, we have need to be considerable of dimensionality curse problem in NDEA performance model. A modified NDEA-based evaluation model, therefore, is proposed to integrate the network slacks-based measure (NSBM) with a dimensional reduction technique, the independent component analysis (ICA). The results indicate that the performance of the profit dimension significantly hampers operational performance, and that both regulators and managers must adjust their market orientation business strategy. Moreover, compared with the NSBM model, this modified ICA-NSBM performance model has a high discriminatory ability to measure the relative performance of the selected hotels.