Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Développement des photodétecteurs à puits quantiques accordables dans la gamme du THz

The quaternary compound semiconductor Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) of the I2-II-IV-VI4 family is a new type and an excellent candidate to replace the absorbers current used in thin film solar cells. CZTS offers favorable (suitable) optoelectronic properties that are advantageous for thin film applications and contains abundant elements. CZTS thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation from Cu2SnS3 and ZnS initially mixed by mechanical alloying process. Structural and optical properties of CZTS films have been studied. X ray diffraction results showed that the semiconductor has the Kesterite structure, the optical absorption coefficient and band gap energy of the thin films were about 10 4 cm− 1 and 1 . 45 eV respectively. The structural and optical properties of Kesterite CZTS, studied by using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method (FP−LAPW) within the density functional theory (DFT). The optimized lattice constants by LDA-mBJ for the CZTS compounds are listed as follows: a = 5,367 Å, c = 10.744 Å and showed good agreement with our experimental results. Bi-stabilité et hystérésis dans les écoulements granulaire Philippe Boltenhagen, Alexandre Valance, Renaud Delannay & Joris Heyman Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 Bat 11A, Pièce 131, Campus Beaulieu Université de Rennes 1 35 042 Rennes Cedex, France De nombreux écoulements granulaires, que ce soit dans la nature ou en situation industrielle, relèvent du type ‘écoulements gravitaires sur plan inclinés’. Ces écoulements sont généralement confinés par des bords latéraux. La plupart des études expérimentales réalisées portent sur des inclinaisons assez faibles pour lesquelles sont obtenus des écoulements stationnaires (invariants en temps) et établis (invariants le long de l’écoulement) de propriétés homogènes (fraction volumique uniforme, écoulement cisaillé sur toute l’épaisseur). Nous montrons ici, que pour une inclinaison et un débit massique imposés, il est possible d’observer non seulement le régime habituel stationnaire établi, mais également un autre régime
Correlates of experiential learning in English subject among teacher trainees in Arusha City, Tanzania

Author’s Email: ngussathe5th@gmail.com This study investigated correlates of experiential learning in English subject among teacher trainees in Arusha city using descriptive correlation design. A sample of 87 teacher trainees from two randomly selected universities participated by filling the questionnaire. Data analysis involved descriptive Statistics, ANOVA and Pearson product Moment Correlation. The study established that experiential leaning takes place in the teaching and learning of English subject while collaborative learning and instructional technology enhanced the experiential learning. There is no significant difference in experiential learning by respondents categorized according to Grade Point Average and Class Size. Finally, there is a positive correlation between experiential learning and group collaboration, between experiential learning and the use of instructional technology and between the use of instructional technology and group collaboration. It is therefore recommended that educators should maintain experiential learning in order to enhance maximized learning outcome in the teaching and learning process.
OBJECT RECOGNITION AND MEASUREMENT FROM MOBILE MAPPING IMAGE SEQUENCES USING HOPFIELD NEURAL NETWORKS: PART II

Spatially referenced mobile mapping image sequences contain rich information for applications such as transportation and utility management. Automatic object recognition and measurement of objects from the images to reduce human operations and to enhance efficiency is a challenge in mobile mapping data processing. Part I of the paper, published in proceedings of ASPRS 1998 annual convention, introduces the principle ofHopfield neural networks and recognition of objects in stereo pa_irs. This paper deals with object recognition and measurement from stereo image sequences.
Aphidiid Parasitoids Twenty Years Post-Release in the Mariana Islands

Despite the release of approximately 6,500 Aphidius colemani Vierick and Diaeretiella rapae (McIntosh) parasitoids as biological control agents for a variety of aphids on Guam and Saipan in 1998, no long-term establishment on either island was observed. However, the aphidiid parasitoids Lipolexis oregmae Gahan and Lysiphlebus testaceipes Cresson were found parasitizing Aphis gossypii Glover on a variety of crops in follow-up surveys in the years immediately following the initial aphidiid releases. The presence of L. oregmae is apparently the result of a fortuitous introduction, while the presence of L. testaceipes likely resulted from a previous introduction as an aphid biological control agent. Aphidiid surveys conducted on Guam and Saipan from 2016 through 2018 again found L. oregmae parasitizing A. gossypii, Aphis craccivora Koch and Cerataphis sp, and L. testaceipes infesting A. gossypii, Aphis (Toxoptera) citricidus (Kirkaldy), and Hysteroneura setariae (Thomas) on a variety of host plants. No A. colemani or D. rapae were found in any collections made from any island. The genotype of aphidiid parasitoids has largely been ignored in past biological control studies on aphids and should be considered when matching the natural enemy to the targeted aphid species.
PERFORMANCES OF SUBSURFACE DRIP IRRIGATION FOR MAIZE UNDER MEDITERRANEAN AND TEMPERATE OCEANIC CLIMATE CONDITIONS PERFORMANCE DU GOUTTE-A-GOUTTE ENTERRE POUR L’IRRIGATION DU MAÏS SOUS CLIMATS MEDITERRANEEN ET OCEANIQUE TEMPERE

This paper aims at evaluating the grain yield (GY) and Irrigation Water Productivity (IWP) performances of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) for maize under a Mediterranean (Lavalette station) and temperate Oceanic climatic (La Mirandette station) conditions. Irrigations were conducted to fulfil 80-85% of the maximum crop requirements using SDI compared to fullyirrigated sprinkler treatments (SI). Dripline spacing used for SDI were “narrow” of 100 cm (SDI-100) and 120 cm (SDi-120) and “large” spacing of 150 cm (SDI-150) and 160 cm (SDI-160) at La Mirandette and Lavalette stations, respectively. The results indicate that reducing irrigation quantities by 15-20% with SDI significantly affected GY at Lavalette station but had less effect at that of La Mirandette. SDI slightly increased IWP compared to sprinkler-irrigated treatments at Lavalette (8% increase) whereas it had less and erratic effect in the case of La Mirandette, depending on rainfall. We conclude that under both climatic conditions, deficit irrigation with SDI would not allow to significantly increasing water productivity for maize compared to the more conventional technique of sprinkler without impacting yield. RÉSUMÉ L’objectif de cette étude est d’évaluer la production de grain (GY) et la productivité de l’eau de l’irrigation (IWP) du goutteà-goutte enterré (GGE) pour la production de maïs sous climats méditerranéen (site Lavalette) et océanique tempéré (site La Mirandette). Le GGE a été utilisé pour mener des irrigations déficitaires correspondant à 80-85% de l’évapotranspiration maximale de la culture, en comparaison avec des traitements pleinement irrigués par aspersion. Deux espacements de lignes de goutteurs ont été utilisés, de 100 et 120 cm (étroit) et de 150 et 160 cm (large), installés respectivement à La Mirandette et à Lavalette. Les résultats indiquent que l’irrigation déficitaire par GGE affecte significativement le GY de maïs à Lavalette mais son impact est bien plus limité à La Mirandette. Le GGE a légèrement augmenté la IWP en comparaison avec l’irrigation en aspersion sur le site de Lavalette (8% d’augmentation) tandis que son effet sur l’IWP à La Mirandette n’a pas connu une tendance systématique et dépendait des cumuls de précipitation. Cette étude indique que le choix de l’irrigation déficitaire en GGE ne permettrait pas d’augmenter d’une manière significative et systématique la productivité de l’eau de l’irrigation sans avoir des impacts négatif sur le rendement.
Beam Parameters Measurements by Ionization Cross Section Monitor on Proton LINAC of INR RAS

The ionization beam cross section monitor (BCSM) is developed and used on proton linac of INR RAS to provide non-intercepting measurements of beam parameters. Operation of the monitor is based on utilization of residual gas ionization. The BCSM configuration design and image processing system are described and estimations of influence of the linac radiation background are discussed. The monitor enables to observe beam cross section and extract from it beam profiles and position as well as their evolution in time within a wide range of beam intensities and energies. The available experimental results of beam spot, profiles and emittances measurements at the linac output are presented.
Characteristics, Attributes, Metrics and Usability Recommendations: A Systematic Mapping

— The research scenario concerned about software usability addresses a wide range of characteristics, attributes and evaluation models. As result, we can observe the evaluators difficult in order to select the characteristics that best apply to the product that is being evaluated. By this way, this paper presents a systematic mapping in order to identify the main characteristics of usability evaluation related to web, desktop and mobile devices environments. As results, we selected 31 papers in order to perform data extraction and way possible to produce a list of 28 evaluation characteristics.
On the Efficiency of Test Suite based Program Repair A Systematic Assessment of 16 Automated Repair Systems for Java Programs

Test-based automated program repair has been a prolific field of research in software engineering in the last decade. Many approaches have indeed been proposed, which leverage test suites as a weak, but affordable, approximation to program specifications. Although the literature regularly sets new records on the number of benchmark bugs that can be fixed, several studies increasingly raise concerns about the limitations and biases of state-of-the-art approaches. For example, the correctness of generated patches has been questioned in a number of studies, while other researchers pointed out that evaluation schemes may be misleading with respect to the processing of fault localization results. Nevertheless, there is little work addressing the efficiency of patch generation, with regard to the practicality of program repair. In this paper, we fill this gap in the literature, by providing an extensive review on the efficiency of test suite based program repair. Our objective is to assess the number of generated patch candidates, since this information is correlated to (1) the strategy to traverse the search space efficiently in order to select sensical repair attempts, (2) the strategy to minimize the test effort for identifying a plausible patch, (3) as well as the strategy to prioritize the generation of a correct patch. To that end, we performa large-scale empirical study on the efficiency, in terms of quantity of generated patch candidates of the 16 open-source repair tools for Java programs. The experiments are carefully conducted under the same fault localization configurations to limit biases. Eventually, among other findings, we note that: (1) many irrelevant patch candidates are generated by changing wrong code locations; (2) however, if the search space is carefully triaged, fault localization noise has little impact on patch generation efficiency; (3) yet, current template-based repair systems, which are known to be most effective in fixing a large number of bugs, are actually least efficient as they tend to generate majoritarily irrelevant patch candidates.
Best Score in the Match: Marginal Taxation and Labor Mobility in the European Football Market

We study the effect of top marginal tax rates on turnover and migration patterns of football players in 19 countries between 2006 and 2016. This phenomenon is analyzed both at the international and inter-regional level by exploiting national and regional variation of the effective marginal tax rate. We estimate two-sided matching model using a maximum score matching approach. This allows us to account for the competition on each side of the market, and get rid of factors affecting both the demand and supply side for which information is hardly available (namely, wages of top-level workers). The structural parameters of the underlying decision process are exploited to quantify the sensitivity of tax payers to taxation, the existence of sorting effects and the heterogeneity of these effects based on the ability of the player. Our results suggest that, once controlling for the matching structure and the observed dimension of the market, the estimates of taxpayers’ sensitivity to taxation is lower than the ones presented in the previous literature. The elasticity of migration relative to the net-of-tax rate is 0.04 for natives and 0.80 for foreigners in the top 10% of the quality distribution while is around 0 if we consider all the population. However, the results suggest that lower taxes rates can increase the average quality of the country attracting more high-ability players who displace medium and low-quality players. ∗Mail address: cristian.usala@unica.it †Mail address: brau@unica.it
DEMONSTRATION OF AUTOMATIC WHEELCHAIR CONTROL BY TRACKING EYE MOVEMENT AND USING IR SENSORS

People suffering from quadriplegia are unable to use both their hands and their legs. In such a scenario, they are dependent on others to move them around which results in a loss in their self-confidence. The only movements they are able to achieve are their heads and therefore their eyes. This paper leverages this movement of the eye and implements a method to track the movement of the eye to automatically control a wheelchair. A vision based system is utilized here, wherein the web-camera of the laptop is utilized to acquire images of the patient. By implementing the Viola Jones algorithm, the eyes of the patient are detected. Using MATLAB, these images undergo various morphological processes and on further analysis eye movements are tracked to determine in which direction the wheelchair is to be moved. These signals are then sent to the Arduino which forwards it on to the DC motors via the L293D IC.
Examinations of structure and properties of polymer composite with glass fiber

The article discusses the results of research on the structure and mechanical properties of polypropylene composites with glass fiber. The samples for the examinations were made using a Krauss-Maffei (KM65 – 160C1) screw injection molding machine. The investigations encompassed composites with a polypropylene matrix which contained 30 and 50% glass fiber (GF). Part of the material was processed by heat treatment in the form of annealing. The crystal structure of the samples was analyzed on a wide-angle X-ray diffractometer Seifert 3003 T-T. In most of the obtained diffraction patterns a few strong diffraction reflexes can be seen. They were identified as reflections derived from polypropylene polymorphs: α (monoclinic), β (hexagonal) and from the smectic phase of polypropylene. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) tests were performed on a DMA 242 Netzsch instrument under the mode of a 3-point bending clamp with an oscillatory frequency of 3.0 Hz. The transition to the glassy state is the most evident for polypropylene. In the case of polypropylene composites, the transition to the glassy state is less evident. The largest tendency of the storage modulus value as a function of temperature to decrease was noted for polypropylene and the smallest for the polypropylene composite with a 50% glass fiber content. Higher values of storage modulus E′ were noted after annealing. For all the samples, glass transition temperature Tg decreases after annealing. Investigations of the mechanical properties of the studied composites were also performed: tensile strength testing, Young's modulus, hardness and impact test. In each case the addition of glass fiber caused an increase in mechanical properties. Moreover, it can be noted that the values of the mechanical properties of PP/GF composites after annealing are higher than those of PP/GF composites before annealing. Both the Vicat softening temperature as well as heat deflection temperature are higher for the samples after annealing. SEM micrographs show the mechanism of breakage of the glass fibers and damage of the matrix material. During observation of the fractures, no significant fiber pullout from the polymer matrix was noted. This demonstrates the good adhesion of the glass fiber to the matrix.
THE ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC COMMINUTION FOR THE SEPARATION OF OLD CONCRETE

The high amount of concrete waste requires the development of processing and reuse. This paper describes an alternative method for crushing concrete. This method uses shock waves, which are generated by an electrical discharge under water, as the tool for crushing. The stress caused acts directly at the interfacial transition zone of the concrete. The stress can be dosed more precisely, because the energy input is at the whole surface. The experiments show that a high percentage of cement paste, free of aggregates, can be produced. From the material science point of view, it is remarkable that the stress-strain behaviour of different types of concrete is reflected in the grading curves and the content of cement paste of the fractions of crushed concrete.
CRaft: An Erasure-coding-supported Version of Raft for Reducing Storage Cost and Network Cost

Consensus protocols can provide highly reliable and available distributed services. In these protocols, log entries are completely replicated to all servers. This complete-entry replication causes high storage and network costs, which harms performance. Erasure coding is a common technique to reduce storage and network costs while keeping the same fault tolerance ability. If the complete-entry replication in consensus protocols can be replaced with an erasure coding replication, storage and network costs can be greatly reduced. RS-Paxos is the ﬁrst consensus protocol to support erasure-coded data, but it has much poorer availability compared to commonly used consensus protocols, like Paxos and Raft. We point out RS-Paxos’s liveness problem and try to solve it. Based on Raft, we present a new protocol, CRaft. Providing two different replication methods, CRaft can use erasure coding to save storage and network costs like RS-Paxos, while it also keeps the same liveness as Raft. To demonstrate the beneﬁts of our protocols, we built a key-value store based on CRaft, and evaluated it. In our experiments, CRaft could save 66% of storage, reach a 250% improvement on write throughput and reduce 60 . 8% of write latency compared to original Raft.
Redistributive Policy and Redistribution Preferences: The Effects of Moscow Redevelopment Program

We study a unique dataset of 1400 Moscow residents in order to estimate the effect of participating in a government-sponsored redevelopment program on preferences for redistributive social policy. We find that there is a positive effect: Individuals in buildings slated for redevelopment are more likely to agree that government should reduce income differences between rich and poor, provide for unemployed, and provide housing to everyone who needs it. We believe that the primary channel is through increased trust in the govenrment. Our results suggest yet another pathway the copersistence of redistribution preferences and redistributive state policies.
Factors influencing adoption of improved fallow among agroforestry farmers in Gbonyin Local Government, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Author’s Email: olujobioj@yahoo.com In response to land degradation problem, different agroforestry practices has been adopted as an efficient strategy to solve problem of soil nutrient depletion. This study examined factors influencing adoption of improved fallow in Gbonyin local government, Ekiti state, Nigeria. A total of one hundred and sixty pre-tested structured questionnaires were administered to respondents to collect data in selected villages. The study revealed that 88.8 % of the respondents are men with majority of them (71.88 %) above 50 years old. 65.01 % of the respondents have at least secondary education, while 51.25 % operates subsistence farming with cassava, yam, maize and cocoyam as major crops. The study revealed that 97.50 % of the respondents retained trees such as Milicia excelsa, Terminalia superba and Mansonia altissima on their farmland, while Gliricida sepium, Leucaena leucocephala and Vernonia amygdalina were major trees planted for yam stakes, firewood and soil fertility improvement among others. The respondents’ choice of trees for improved fallow is dictated by planting materials availability, soil nutrient improvement and ease of propagation among others. To further enhanced adoption of improved fallow in the study area, government should establish farm settlements in strategic areas were agroforestry famers can acquire land with tenancy right for specific period of time.
From a text to practice and back again. Making know ledge(s) work as standards for public participation mechanisms

The purpose of this paper is to deliver a better understanding of practices of producing and managing knowledge that is intended to become implemented in the work of public administration and thus act towards the reinforcement of public participation and civil society. From the onset, the knowledge processes described are neither flat, nor transparent accounts. They consist of, firstly, establishing an elemental knowledge package in the so-called base document, and secondly, of transforming this package together with the setting in which it is intended to operate. Thus, they are of twofold character: the knowledge package is made effective not only by means of adopting it to some external conditions, but also the conditions themselves are accommodated to knowledge. At the end, the initial knowledge package is supposed to function as a certain standard, that is, a fairly coherent, non-imposing whole in a properly prepared setting.
Stick-Breaking Policy Learning in Decentralized POMDPs

Finite-state controllers (FSCs) have been a dominant policy representation for inﬁnite-horizon DEC-POMDPs. Recent work indicates that expectation maximization (EM) is an efﬁcient al-gorithm for learning with FSCs in large de-centralized domains. However, the problem of deﬁning an appropriate size for a controller remains an unsolved challenge. In this paper we address this problem by using a variable-sized FSC to represent the local policy of each agent. The variable-sized FSC is constructed using the stick-breaking prior, leading to a new framework termed a decentralized stick-breaking policy presentation (DEC-SBPR) . We focus on the reinforcement learning (RL) setting, assuming the DEC-POMPD model is not directly available, and develop a variational Bayesian algo-rithm to infer the variable-sized FSC. We demonstrate the performance of DEC-SBPR on benchmark problems and compare it to other state-of-the-art methods.
NACHHALTIGE URBANE TRANSFORMATION INSECT CONSERVATION AND AGRICULTURE BÄUERLICHE VS

Sufficiency aims at a total reduction of resource consumption, which is urgently needed to achieve our climate and sustainable development goals. This paper explores individual attitude towards a sufficiency-oriented lifestyle as a driver of a low carbon footprint. Survey data of 310 participants was analyzed to test whether individual sufficiency attitude manifests in people’s carbon footprint. The results provide evidence for this relationship but its strength varies between behavioral domains – that is, heating, electricity, food consumption, everyday mobility, air travel. Potential structural and individual barriers to reducing CO2 emissions are discussed as possible factors that could explain differences between the behavioral domains. We argue that intrapersonal factors matter for sustainable lifestyles but that policy-making and structural change should complement and facilitate voluntary endeavors to achieve low-carbon lifestyles.