Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biomass productivity and carbon stocks of farm forestry and agroforestry systems of leucaena and eucalyptus in Andhra Pradesh, India

Increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the adverse effects associated with climate change have necessitated the need for identification of systems with high carbon sink as a mitigation strategy. Tree-based systems with short rotation species either as farm forestry or agroforestry systems have the potential to sequester carbon in a short period. Leucaena and eucalyptus-based systems, mostly planted at closer spacing, are widely distributed in several districts of Andhra Pradesh, India. The objective of this communication is to analyse the carbon storage of two land-use systems (farm forestry and agroforestry) with two short rotation tree species, viz. leucaena and eucalyptus, and to evaluate their carbon sequestration potential in degraded lands. Trees in farm forestry systems were close planted at 1 × 1 m and 3 × 2 m, whereas those in agroforestry systems were planted at wider spacing of 3 × 0.75 m and 7 × 1.5 m in paired rows, in leucaena and eucalyptus respectively. The carbon stock of leucaena farm forestry system was 62 Mg/ha, whereas in eucalyptus farm forestry system, it was 34 Mg/ha for a rotation of 4 years. Biomass and carbon accumulation were relatively higher in farm forestry systems and the rate of accumulation was highest during the third year. It is concluded that, leucaena and eucalyptus systems can play an important role as carbon sinks and contribute significantly to the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Calibrating damping rates with LEGACY* linewidths

Linear damping rates of radial oscillation modes in selected Kepler stars are estimated with the help of a nonadiabatic stability analysis. The convective fluxes are obtained from a nonlocal, time-dependent convection model. The mixing-length parameter is calibrated to the surface-convection-zone depth of a stellar model obtained from fitting adiabatic frequencies to the LEGACY* observations, and two of the three nonlocal convection parameters are calibrated to the corresponding LEGACY* linewidth measurements. The atmospheric structure in the 1D stability analysis adopts a temperature-optical-depth relation derived from 3D hydrodynamical simulations. Results from 3D simulations are also used to calibrate the turbulent pressure and to guide the functional form of the depth-dependence of the anisotropy of the turbulent velocity field in the 1D stability computations.
SensCity: a new project opening the way for sustainable services in the city based on a mutualised M2M infrastructure

As ICTs became more powerful and accessible it became evident that objects would start to communicate. M2M progressively completed the idea of smart objects and M2M networks came into being, opening new scopes for services. Moving away from application orientated networks; SensCity will build a mutualised M2M infrastructure for sustainable city services. The project is led by a consortium of industrials, SMEs and research laboratories. This paper introduces the scope of services targeted by SensCity and overviews related technical and scientific issues. One concern is how to appreciate environmental impacts and benefits for this particular kind of PSS.
Potentials of non-conventional protein sources in poultry nutrition

This paper reviewed research on the use of non-conventional protein sources of plant origin for poultry in Nigeria and other neighbor countries. As the cost of compounded feed continues being a burden for the Nigerian farmers due to the current high cost of conventional protein sources such as fishmeal, groundnut cake and soybean meal, it is very urgent to explore the potentials of non-conventional alternative sources of protein, especially the leaf meals of some plants, such as Moringa oleifera, Leucaena leucocephala, Manihot esculenta, Carica papaya and other leguminous fodders which can, to some extent, replace the inclusion of the conventional sources of proteins. These non-conventional alternative protein sources have excellent nutritive value and therapeutic properties. Their crude protein contents are excellent. It is apparent from the previous several studies that inclusion of these non-conventional protein sources in poultry diets improves performance of chickens in terms of growth rate and egg production. However, their recommended inclusion levels should strictly adherein order to avoid any form of deleterious effects they may likely confer on poultry. For instance, the up to 10% inclusion of Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) in the diets of laying hens has been regarded to be safe. Hence, their inclusion in poultry feeds without posing any deleterious effects to the birds’ performances as well as the consumers of the products, and ultimately, leading to better profitability on the part of the farmers, will be a novelty.
The Factor Structure and Reliability of a Six-Item Sense of Coherence Measure

The study investigated the factor structure and reliability of a six-item sense of coherence (SOC) measure. Participants were a South African white collar employee sample (n=7185) purposively selected from over 300 different companies across various business sectors. The sample constituted 34% male and 66% female and 34% Black, 18% Coloured, 11% Indian and 37% White employees. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used for the structural analysis. The reliability of the scores was also estimated. A unidimensional structure seemed to best represent the six-item SOC measure. The internal reliability of the scores from the measure was high.
Recognition of Cross Browser Inconsistency by crawling and comparing extracted attributes

The advancement over web innovation is distinguishment for web applications that amplifies inconsistencies between different web browsers. These incompatibilities supplement cross browser incompatibilities that contain modified look at evolving browsers for a specific web application. For a percentage cases, Cross-Browser Inconsistencies (XBIs) comprises for satisfactory difference, while these might actually prevent clients starting with gaining entrance to and only a web application’s purpose for different situations. Therefore, testing procedure of a web provision must a chance to be performed efficiently looking into different browsers with accomplish consistency. Available techniques and tools oblige a significant manual exertion on remember such issues; also furnish restricted help to settling those reason for the issues. In this paper, we recommend a technique to identifying cross-browser issues without human obstruction.
Effects, adherence and therapists’ perceptions of online- and mobile-supported group therapy for depression: Mixed methods study

Background: Blended group therapy (bGT) has been investigated a several times for anxiety and depression, but information on patient’s adherence to and therapist’s perception of the novel format is non-existent. Furthermore, many studies investigated mainly female and highly-educated populations, limiting validity of previous findings. Objective: The study aims at reducing those gaps and limitations, by evaluating an integrated Internetand mobile-supported bGT format. Methods: Twenty-seven patients, diagnosed with major depression (48% male, compulsory education= 29.6%), participated in a seven-week treatment at a university outpatient clinic. Eight novice therapists participated in semi-structured interviews, and a subsequent crossvalidation survey. Results: Primary symptom reduction was high (d= 1.31 1.51) and lasted for the follow-up period. Therapists identified advantages (e.g. patient engagement, treatment intensification, and improved therapeutic relation) and disadvantages (e.g. increased workload, data issues, and undesired effects) of bGT. Required therapist time was 10.3 minutes per patient and week, including guidance on exercises (67%) and intimate communication (33%). Concerning patients’ adherence to bGT, tracked completion of all onlineand mobile tasks was high (67 – 76%), and comparable to group attendance. Conclusion: Results suggest high feasibility of bGT in a gender-balanced, moderately educated sample. bGT provides group therapists with tools for individual care, resulting in an optimization of the therapy process, and high completion rates of the implemented bGT elements. The limited work experience of the involved therapists restricts the study findings, and potential drawbacks need to be regarded in the development of future bGT interventions.
Lidar and radar measurements of the melting layer: observations of dark and bright band phenomena

Multi-wavelength lidar measurements in the melting layer revealing the presence of dark and bright bands have been performed by the University of BASILicata Raman lidar system (BASIL) during a stratiform rain event. Simultaneously radar measurements have been also performed from the same site by the University of Hamburg cloud radar MIRA 36 (35.5 GHz), the University of Hamburg dual-polarization micro rain radar (24.15 GHz) and the University of Manchester UHF wind profiler (1.29 GHz). Measurements from BASIL and the radars are illustrated and discussed in this paper for a specific case study on 23 July 2007 during the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS). Simulations of the lidar dark and bright band based on the application of concentric/eccentric sphere Lorentz-Mie codes and a melting layer model are also provided. Lidar and radar measurements and model results are also compared with measurements from a disdrometer on ground and a two-dimensional cloud (2DC) probe on-board the ATR42 SAFIRE. Measurements and model results are found to confirm and support the conceptual microphysical/scattering model elaborated by Sassen et al. (2005).
Theory of mind: concept and application for classroom learning

The paper is about concept and utility of theory of mind for classroom learning. Although the concept was originated with study of autism, but author finds its utility even with normal children. Introductory part of the paper elaborates justification of existence of theory of mind its origin and concept. Further theoretical perspective of theory of mind is discussed in terms of ‘theory-theory’ and ‘simulation theory’ from perspective of ‘folk psychology’ and ‘empathy skills’. Author believes theory of mind is needed for both social and physical context named ‘social empathy’ and ‘physical empathy’ respectively. Physical empathy is necessary for learning subjects related to matter as in case of science. Finally author proposes some activities of social and academic nature for making learners effective mind readers. Activities are suggested around role playing, awareness of theory of mind and skills for building the same. These include both implicit and explicit activities for achieving the target for academic and social context.
Exploring Agent-Based Methods for Activity Network Prediction in Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Based on Clearing House

†Summary This paper presents an exploratory agent-based model for activity network prediction in RTGS based on clearing house. The settlement process, which is developed, is managed by clearing house. The sufficiency values are fulfilled by other banks that are participant banks at clearing house. At this paper, the participant banks are depicted by node. Decision to fulfill settlement process from other banks is done by forming activity network. At this paper, the activity network is depicted by edge. The forming of activity network is depending on information from agents. This paper adopts decentralization paradigm for modeling activity network. The result of this research indicates that amount of nodes are same, more of activity networks between banks hence are more network identified. While degree between 0 to 2, the smaller difference of the health bank level, that will forming network, the greater network are identified. For degree which more than 2, no network are detected, this condition is caused of fixed point behavior. Testing with λ = 0.7, x starts with degradation drastically towards stable value come near 0. λ = 1.8, x starts with degradation drastically value towards stable value, but stability value still not yet come near 0. λ = 2.9, x oscillates about fixed point and converges. While λ = 3.9, x starts to oscillate.
Accumulative Computation on MapReduce

MapReduce programming model attracts a lot of enthusiasm among both industry and academia, largely because it simplifies the implementations of many data parallel applications. In spite of the simplicity of the program- ming model, there are many applications that are hard to be implemented by MapReduce, due to their innate characters of computational dependency. In this paper we propose a new approach of using the programming pattern accumulate over MapReduce, to handle a large class of problems that cannot be simply divided into independent sub-computations. Using this accumulate pattern, many problems that have computational dependency can be easily expressed, and then the programs will be transformed to MapReduce programs executed on large clusters. Users without much knowledge of MapReduce can also easily write programs in a sequential manner but finally obtain efficient and scalable MapRe- duce programs. We describe the programming interface of our accumulate framework and explain how to transform a user-specified accumulate computation to an efficient MapReduce program. Our experiments and evaluations illustrate the usefulness and efficiency of the framework.
Cellulase Activities of Some Aerobic Micro-organisms Isolated from Soil

Cellulose extracted from wheat straw, Avicel and CF11 cellulose powder contained 90% (w/w) glucose, whereas filter paper and carboxymethylcellulose contained 18% and 28% (w/w) hemicelluloses, respectively. The straw cellulose was used as the sole carbon source to enrich for a mixed culture of micro-organisms in a stirred liquid medium and on a perfusion column containing glass beads. Amongst the micro-organisms isolated only fungi had cellulase activity and this activity was greatest in cultures of Cladosporium cladosporoides. The remainder of the community consisted of non-cellulolytic secondary organisms. The interactions of cellulolytic fungi with other micro-organisms found in the enrichment mixed culture are discussed.
Changes in streamflow and sediment discharge and the response to human activities in the middle reaches of the Yellow River

Abstract. The changes in streamflow and sediment discharge in the middle reaches of the Yellow River are a focus. In this paper, based on the precipitation, streamflow and sediment discharge series data (1950–2008), the streamflow and sediment discharge variation and its impact on precipitation/response to human activities have been analysis. The results show that significant decreasing trends in annual streamflow and sediment discharge have existed since the late 1950s in the middle reaches of the Yellow River (P = 0.01). Change-point analyses further revealed that transition years existed and that abrupt decline in streamflow and sediment discharge began in 1985 and 1981, respectively, in the middle reaches of the Yellow River (P = 0.05). Adoption of conservation measures in the 1980s and 1990s corroborates the identified transition years. Double-mass curves of precipitation vs. streamflow (sediment) for the periods before and after the transition year show remarkable decreases in proportionality of streamflow (sediment) generation. Compared with the period before the transition year, cumulative streamflow and cumulative sediment discharge reduced respectively by 17.8% and 28% during 1985–2008, which was caused by human intervention, in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. It is, therefore, concluded that human activities occupied a dominant position and played a major role in the streamflow and sediment discharge reduction in the middle reaches of the Yellow River.
A New MATLAB based Microstrip Filter Design Tool

This paper presents a new MATLAB-based microstrip filter design tool. Stepped-impedance resonator lowpass filter, parallel-coupled bandpass filter, and end-coupled bandpass filter are included. Circuit-theory based closed-form mathematical expressions are used, instead of rigorous electromagnetic analyses. This results in significant reduction in analytical effort, without substantially affecting the accuracy. The results are verified against results obtained using commercially available Ansoft simulation tool. The agreement between the two sets of results is good enough for all practical purposes.
A Novel Low-D Feature based Generic Steganalyzer to Detect Low Volume Payloads

Data hiding techniques whenever used to hide mammoth payloads disturb statistical properties of the cover medium thus leaving a characteristic artifact. These artifacts can provide useful information to the watchful eyes of the steganalyst to identify potential carriers. But the probability of detection sharply declines when the amount of data getting embedded is reduced. Intelligent steganographers as a measure of evading significant artifacts hide only minimal amount of data. This work is an effort to differentiate stego images from innocuous cover images especially when they carry very minimal payloads. A novel low dimensional feature set has been used along with an ensemble classifier.
BLACK HOLE ATTACK- HAZARD TO AODV ROUTING PROTOCOL IN MANET

Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) consists of a collection of wireless mobile hosts without the required intervention of any existing infrastructure or centralized access point such as base station. The dynamic topology of MANET allows nodes to join and leave the network at any point of time. Wireless MANET is particularly vulnerable due to its fundamental characteristics such as open medium, dynamic topology, distributed cooperation and constrained capability. In this paper we simulate the blackhole attack which is one of the possible attacks on AODV routing protocol in mobile ad hoc networks by the help of network simulator (NS-2). The simulation results show the packet loss, throughput, and end-to-end delay with blackhole and without blackhole on AODV in MANET. We analyzed that the packet loss increases in the network with a blackhole node. We also observed that the throughput and end-to-end delay decreases in the network with a blackhole node. We propose a solution that makes a modification in existing AODV routing protocol.
Destination Choice Models for Rock Climbing in the Northeast Alps: A Latent-Class Approach Based on Intensity of Participation

Practitioners of outdoor sports, such as rock-climbers, are likely to exhibit preference heterogeneity that depends on the ‘keenness’ with which such sports are practiced. Such an intuition is born out in at least one study using latent class discrete choice modelling (Provencher et al. 2002). Preference heterogeneity has a reflection on the population’s structure of recreational values assigned to rock-climbing destinations, to their attributes and ultimately to land management policies addressing such attributes. In this study such hypothesis is tested on a panel of destination choices by a sample of rock-climbers members of the Veneto Chapter of the Italian Alpine Club. Preliminary estimates of latent-class (finite-mixing) specifications provided evidence that intensity of participation explained heterogeneity in taste. This motivated our splitting of the sample in a ‘high’ and a ‘low’ intensity of participation sub-samples, each of which is in turn analysed for the presence of endogenous preference classes using latent-class random utility based approaches. We find evidence in support of the hypothesis that there are at least four statistically well-defined classes in each sub-sample, thereby revealing a considerable richness in the structure of preference, which would otherwise be unobservable in more conventional approaches. From the model estimates, we first focus on the derivation of posterior individual specific welfare measures for some key destination attributes, and then for a welfare neutral land management policy. One emerging feature is the strong evidence of multi-modal distribution of values, a feature that is more difficult to capture when preference heterogeneity is modelled by other means. The results also show how the proposed policy is progressive in terms of benefit distribution in the sample, and that the distribution of individual welfare changes shows markedly different patterns between high and low demand sub-samples.
Market Reaction to Socially Responsible Businesses in Nigeria: Evidence from Listed Manufacturing Firms

Over the decades, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has continued to grow in Importance and significance. The idea is to make business enterprises have some responsibilities to society beyond that of making profits for the shareholders. it connotes conducting businesses on a reliable, sustainable, and desirable basis that respect ethical values, people, communities, and the environment. Although, corporate social responsibility practices apply to all firms, the social and environmental challenges however are to a large extent associated with manufacturing firms because of the significant impact of their activities on the environment. This paper examined how markets respond to the corporate social responsibility activities of listed manufacturing firms in Nigeria. It employed correlation research design using panel data from a sample of 19 firms for a period of 6 years (2008-2013). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression technique was employed in the data analysis. The study found that corporate social responsibility of manufacturing firms in Nigeria is relevant and informative to investors. Especially, the study found that corporate social responsibility on society; environmental sustainability and owners’ wealth maximization have significantly impacted on the market values of listed manufacturing firms at 99% confidence level during the period covered by the study. The study however did not find evidence that corporate social responsibility on employees and regulatory compliances have any significant relationship with market values during the period under review. The paper recommends that manufacturing companies in Nigeria should double their efforts towards corporate social responsibility aimed at addressing the peculiarity of the social economic development challenges of the country (poverty alleviation, health care provision, infrastructural development, structure and education). This could send positive message to the market and enhance their value in return; it will also help create conducive atmosphere for conducting businesses.
Applied Design Thinking LAB Vienna: INTERACCT. Interdisciplinary Technology Education in the 21st Century.

INTERACCT is a project where two universities in Vienna (University of Applied Arts Vienna: Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education, Department of Design, Architecture and Environment for Education; University of Vienna: Faculty of Informatics, Computer Science Didactics and Learning Research, and Research Group Entertainment Computing), CCRI (Childrens ́ Cancer Research Institute), children of an Austrian high school (Schulschiff Bertha von Suttner) and Tsystems (a division of Deutsche Telekom, systems integration, computing and network services and e-business) have been involved within the Applied Design Thinking LAB Vienna from 2009 until today. Aim of the project is to enhance interdisciplinary and participatory approaches in design and technology education. Case study is design of an interactive web based communication platform for improving quality of life for the patients of the stemcell-lab department (SCT-INTERACT) and to improve medical communication and education in outpatient care after pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT). Spin-off is design of a serious game where healthy and malignant children are participatory involved as well as the students of different teaching subjects (informatics, art and design education), the caring medical staff and the industry partner.