Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling Irrigation Water Requirements at Physiological Growth Stages of Okra Life Cycle Using CROPWAT Model for Derived Savannah and Humid Forest Zones of Nigeria

Abstract Accurate quantification of irrigation water requirement at different physiological growth stages of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) life cycle is important to prevent over or under irrigation. Field experiments were therefore initiated to model okra irrigation water requirements at the four physiological growth stages of okra life cycle using CROPWAT model. Derived savannah 1 (DS1), derived savannah 2 (DS2) and humid forest (HF) occupying 493.36 ha, 69.83 ha and 305.25 ha respectively were used. Some selected soil physical properties coupled with weather parameters were used to develop irrigation water requirements for okra crop. In DS1, the estimated crop co-efficient (Kc) values were 0.30, 0.52, 0.84 and 0.70 for the germination, crop growth, flowering and fruiting stages, respectively. Corresponding Kc values in DS2 were 0.30, 0.54, 0.90 and 0.84 and in the HF were 0.30, 0.56, 0.87 and 0.86 respectively. Daily crop evapo-transpiration values ranged from 1.16 to 3.36, 1.17 to 3.64, and 1.2 to 3.38 mm day-1 for DS1, DS2 and HF respectively with significant (p = 0.05) peak at the flowering stage for the three locations. Sustainable okra cultivation would require maximum daily irrigation water at flowering stage (reproductive phase) to meet the crop physiological needs and evapo-transpiration demand of the atmosphere.
Integration of agile RF front end to FPGA development board

Developing wireless communication standards and applications grows need for a flexible wireless testbed. Software defined radio platforms have programmable hardware and software, so they are easy to use for the rapid development of wireless communication algorithms. The software defined radios could be considered as the state-of-the-art wireless transceivers that can be used to run nextgeneration wireless applications. The scope of this thesis is to study the use of the Xilinx ML605 development platform and the Nutaq Radio420S radio card integration as the software defined radio platform. This work tries to combine the processing power of the ML605 Virtex-6 FPGA to the agile and the broadband RF front end of Nutaq Radio420S. This combined platform formed by these two can be used as a modern software defined radio solution for developing and testing the wireless communication algorithms in practice. This thesis represents an idea of the software defined radio, starting from the early adaptations to the today’s modern software defined radio platforms. The use of Xilinx ML605 and Nutaq Radio420S integration was studied in both aspects, a real-time and an offline data processing. As the offline solution, WARPLab made by Rice University, was ported to the new platform. The WARPLab concept is to preand post-process the real-time wirelessly transmitted data using Matlab. The implemented real-time applications that were an automatic gain control (AGC) and a spectrum sensing method called localization algorithm based on double-thresholding (LAD) with an adjacent cluster combining (ACC). The AGC was implemented for the future physical layer application development and the LAD ACC spectrum sensing method was implemented by thinking of the future cognitive radio solution that takes advantage of the opportunistic spectrum usage. During the implementation phase, the Xilinx tool set was used to create and modify the digital logic of the physical layer. The control software was written in C and the end-user’s client was made by using scripting language of the Matlab. The final design was verified with the real-life measurements. Each part of the implemented system were tested individually, to be sure that the system worked as expected. The future development and the possible improvements of platform and the implemented system were discussed based on the real-life measurements.
A Blockchain Consensus Protocol With Horizontal Scalability

Blockchain technology has the potential to decentralise many traditionally centralised systems. However, scalability remains a key challenge. A horizontally scalable solution, where performance increases by adding more nodes, would move blockchain systems one step closer to ubiquitous use. We design a novel blockchain system called CHECO. Each node in our system maintains a personal hash chain, which only stores transactions that the node is involved in. A consensus is reached on special blocks called checkpoint blocks rather than on all transactions. Checkpoint blocks are effectively a hash pointer to the personal hash chains; thus a single checkpoint block may represent an arbitrarily large set of transactions. We introduce a validation protocol so that any node can check the validity of any transaction. Since transaction and validation protocols are point-to-point, we achieve horizontal scalability. We analytically evaluate our system and show a number of highly desirable correctness properties such as consensus on the validity of transactions. Further, we give a free and open-source implementation of CHECO and evaluate it experimentally. Our results show a strong indication of horizontal scalability.
Sustainability Science in the Light of Urban Planning

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that, as part of its mission, sustainability science can change the way planners engage with urban problems on three points: First, that effective standard planning is an illusion, and the crucial task for urban planners should be considering—on a place-based rationale—the long-term consequences of decisions, policies and, technology change. Second,how it is necessary to develop collaborative planning and co-production of knowledge. Third, to build effective actions on the basis of collaborative planning, it is crucial to take first into account how the population and the institutions respond to and resist change. Conversely, this paper shows that urban planning is also a breeding ground for consolidating the theoretical framework of sustainability science, considering that cities can be seen as paragons of both socio-ecological systems and complex adaptive systems—a position that is discussed throughout the article. Bringing sustainability science and urban planning in closer dialogue with each other, to exploit their potential synergies, has not been done sufficiently: It is an important gap in the academic literature that this article aims at filling.
Integrating the hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives to more comprehensively understand wellbeing and pathways to wellbeing

Recently, the disagreement that separates hedonic from eudaimonic philosophers has spread to the science of wellbeing. This has resulted in two opposing perspectives regarding both wellbeing concepts and proposed pathways to wellbeing. Whilst contention continues, most contemporary psychologists now agree that hedonic and eudaimonic approaches each denote important aspects of wellbeing. This has led to integrated wellbeing conceptualisations, in which the combined presence of hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing components is referred to as ‘flourishing’. In regard to the attainment of wellbeing, research simultaneously investigating hedonic and eudaimonic pathways suggests that a life rich in both types of pursuits is associated with the highest degree of wellbeing. Despite this assertion, previously underemphasised methodological limitations question the validity of such claims. To further progress this important area of investigation, future research directions to ameliorate said limitations are explored. It is recommended that the past tendency to contrast and compare hedonia and eudaimonia be abandoned, and instead that the inherent value of both be recognised. Time-use research methods are needed to cross-validate past findings obtained from cross-sectional research, which will make it possible to transition from purely descriptive conclusions to applied conclusions.
Investigation of external noise and its rejection in magnetoelectric sensor design

Laminated magnetoelectric (ME) composites consisting of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric layers are an important class of magnetic sensors. Here, we will present a means to design ME sensors with in-built capabilities to cancel environmental noise, based on designing the sensor signal and the noise in different fundamental modes. We then show that some composite designs offer unique capabilities to reject acoustic or thermal noise sources.
Capitalism and the media: moral economy, well-being and capabilities

This article aims to contribute to the renewal of consideration of media and culture under capitalism, by seeking solid normative foundations for critique via various compatible elements: moral economy, well-being understood as flourishing and Sen and Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. Insufficient attention has been paid to normative and conceptual issues concerning capitalism, media and culture. Moral economy approaches might help fill this gap by valuably providing a richly critical ethics-based approach, drawing on political economy, cultural studies and social theory. Two further concepts, compatible with moral economy, can reinvigorate and renew critique of capitalism, media and culture. The first is a particular (Aristotelian) conception of well-being, understood as flourishing. This is outlined, and its potential contribution to critique of media and culture under capitalism is explicated. The second concept is capabilities, which can provide a basis for dealing with different understandings of flourishing. The article outlines the capabilities approach, analyses rare applications of it to media and culture, and explains how these applications might be built upon, by developing Nussbaum’s work in a way that could ground critique in an understanding of the potential value of media and culture in contributing to people’s flourishing.
Microbial diversity in continuous flow constructed a wetland for the treatment of swine waste.

Contaminant removal may largely be a function of many microbial processes in constructed wetlands. However, the role of microbial diversity for the removal of swine waste in constructed wetlands is limited. Here, we used 454/ GS-FLX pyrosequencing to assess archaeal, bacterial, and fungal composition within a surface flow constructed wetland to determine their spatial dynamics and contaminant removal within the wetland. We analyzed our data using UniFrac and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) to compare community structure and specific functional groups of bacteria, archaea, and fungi in different sections of the wetland. PCoA analysis showed that, bacterial, archaeal, and fungal composition were significantly different (p=0.001) for the influent compared to the final effluent. Our results showed that, the wetland system contained relatively higher proportions of bacteria and fungi than archaea. Most of the bacteria and archaea that were associated with nitrogen removal were affiliated with Nitrosomonas which are ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB), Candidatus Solibacter, an anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (Anammox), as well as Nitrosopumilus, ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA). The detection of AOB, Anammox, and AOA in this wetland shows abundance and diversity of these microorganisms that are responsible for nitrification processes in constructed wetlands.
Long-lived staus from cosmic rays

The collision of a high energy cosmic ray with a nucleon in the upper atmosphere could produce long-lived heavy particles. Such particles would be very penetrating, since the energy loss in matter scales as the inverse mass, and could reach a neutrino telescope like IceCube from large zenith angles. Here we study this possibility and focus on the long-lived stau of supersymmetric models with a gravitino lightest supersymmetric particle. The signal would be a pair of muon-like parallel tracks separated by 50 m along the detector. We evaluate the background of muon pairs and show that any events from zenith angles above 80° could be explained by the production of these heavy particles by cosmic rays. For light squark and gluino masses the number of these events in cubic kilometer neutrino telescopes is of the order of one per year.
Youth Development Frameworks

Youth development theory is an emerging field of research, with a growing emphasis on positive youth development. The term “youth development” can be seen in three different ways: as the natural process through which youth grow into adults; as a set of principles underlying youth programs that encourage thriving among youth; or as a set of practices that foster the development of young people (Hamilton, Hamilton, & Pittman, 2004). Positive youth development (PYD) has been conceptualized in a variety of ways, but generally refers to a focus on the developmental characteristics which lead to positive outcomes and behaviors among young people. The components of a positive youth development framework are the internal and external factors which help young people to lead successful lives into young adulthood. The PYD concept is partly a reaction to work from the 1980’s which focused on problems and deficits among young people. Small and Memmo (2004) describe the PYD approach as being based on several key assumptions: 1. Youth who achieve their full potential are less likely to experience problems. 2. Supports and opportunities are important to success for young people. 3. Communities are critical shapers of youth development, and can improve their capacity to build successful young people. 4. Youth need to be viewed as resources and in a positive light. During the past two decades, several frameworks of youth development have been proposed and are only beginning to be tested. The purpose of this monograph is to review and consider the strengths, limitations, and utility of the most commonly used youth development frameworks. The five models described below were selected based on their popularity and extent of use. In the following sections we review the history and development of these frameworks, as well as the extent to which they have been incorporated in youth development research and evaluation. We then discuss their comparative strengths and weaknesses with specific attention to use of the models within the 4-H program.
Internet/E-Business Technologies Acceptance in Canada’s SMEs: Focus on Organizational and Environmental Factors

Large and small business organizations around the world, including Canadian enterprises, utilize internet and e-business technologies (IEBT) to support online or electronic commerce (e-commerce) and electronic business (e-business) activities. Grandon and Pearson (2004) and Turban et al. (2010) note that IEBT enhances productivity for the adopting organization in the following ways: a) it improves efficiencies through automation of transactions, b) it reduces intermediaries in the value chain to foster greater economic advantages, c) it consolidates demand and supply through organized exchanges, d) it facilitates product improvement as well as engenders innovative ways of selling existing products and services. Against the backdrop of the popularity of IEBT, it is not surprising that several researchers have investigated and continue to study the adoption or acceptance of such technologies in differing contexts and locations (Farhoomand et al., 2000; Wymer & Regan, 2005). Studies that have focused on Canadian businesses are beginning to emerge (Raymond, 2001; Ifinedo, 2011).
Experimental Demonstration of Quantum Fully Homomorphic Encryption with Application in a Two-Party Secure Protocol

A fully homomorphic encryption system hides data from unauthorized parties while still allowing them to perform computations on the encrypted data. Aside from the straightforward benefit of allowing users to delegate computations to a more powerful server without revealing their inputs, a fully homomorphic cryptosystem can be used as a building block in the construction of a number of cryptographic functionalities. Designing such a scheme remained an open problem until 2009, decades after the idea was first conceived, and the past few years have seen the generalization of this functionality to the world of quantum machines. Quantum schemes prior to the one implemented here were able to replicate some features in particular use cases often associated with homomorphic encryption but lacked other crucial properties, for example, relying on continual interaction to perform a computation or leaking information about the encrypted data. We present the first experimental realization of a quantum fully homomorphic encryption scheme. To demonstrate the versatility of a a quantum fully homomorphic encryption scheme, we further present a toy two-party secure computation task enabled by our scheme.
Linking Climatic Variability with Spatial Performance in Two Varieties of Quinoa Distributed in a Semi-Arid Zone

Different crop varieties can respond in different ways to the climatic variations at local scale. Thus, in order to maximize the yield for a determined crop, the response of different varieties submitted to local climatic conditions should be assessed. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the ecophysiological responses of two varieties of Quinoa (PRP and BO78) submitted to different conditions of thermal amplitude. We performed two experiments in both greenhouse and in 3 sites on experimental-field where were evaluated survival, photochemical efficiency, plant growth and dry biomass in both varieties and compared them with the mean of the thermal conditions recorded during the last 16 years in the Coquimbo Region, Chile. Overall, individuals of BO78 showed higher performance in the sites with lower thermal amplitude than those of PRP. By contrast, in sites with higher thermal amplitude individuals of PRP showed better survival, physiological performance and biomass and therefore higher performance. Our results suggest that while BO78 showed an ecotypic strategy, the PRP showed a plastic strategy to maintain higher performance in sites with moderate and high climatic variability. We consider that under an increase in desertification, semi-arid areas would be available for stress tolerant crops like Quinoa, but the success for the food security in these regions may depend upon the variety used.
Neurocranium shape variation of piranhas and pacus (Characiformes: Serrasalmidae) in association with ecology and phylogeny

The teleost neurocranium houses the brain and sense organs, articulates with the upper jaw and suspensorium, and provides the attachment site for muscles involved in feeding, ventilation and locomotion. Serrasalmid fishes (piranhas and pacus) exhibit variation in diet, body shape and habitat that all may influence the evolution of neurocranium shape. In addition, serrasalmids are otophysans with well-developed hearing provided by modified ears and anterior vertebrae that may also influence otic neurocranium morphology. We conducted a 3D geometric morphometrics analysis on high-resolution tomographic data (micro-computed tomography) from 54 museum specimens to measure neurocranium shape variation and disparity among 20 species from the three major serrasalmid clades. We found broad shape variation among species that was explained by phylogenetic history and ecology and related to features such as orbit size and skull depth. Pterotic spine length was longest in carnivorous piranhas and impacts the anatomy of the adductor musculature involved in biting. We found evidence that the otic neurocranium is a separate evolutionary module influenced by both phylogeny and ecology. Lagenar bulla size and position differed among ecological groups and thus sound may vary in importance among species. Small bullae were found in rheophilic herbivores that live among noisy rapids. Thus, serrasalmid neurocranium shape may vary with the relative size of sense organs and with functional aspects of feeding and prey handling.
Fault Diagnosis Method of Polymerization Kettle Equipment Based on Rough Sets and BP Neural Network

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymerizing production process is a typical complex controlled object, with complexity features, such as nonlinear, multivariable, strong coupling, and large time-delay. Aiming at the real-time fault diagnosis and optimized monitoring requirements of the large-scale key polymerization equipment of PVC production process, a real-time fault diagnosis strategy is proposed based on rough sets theory with the improved discernibility matrix and BP neural networks. The improved discernibility matrix is adopted to reduct the attributes of rough sets in order to decrease the input dimensionality of fault characteristics effectively. Levenberg-Marquardt BP neural network is trained to diagnose the polymerize faults according to the reducted decision table, which realizes the nonlinear mapping from fault symptom set to polymerize fault set. Simulation experiments are carried out combining with the industry history datum to show the effectiveness of the proposed rough set neural networks fault diagnosis method. The proposed strategy greatly increased the accuracy rate and efficiency of the polymerization fault diagnosis system.
Using social marketing to trigger water saving behaviour in hotels - a case study of a towel programme in Greece

Water scarcity is one of the environmental issues, which societies face nowadays. The demand for water in popular tourist destinations, in areas that are already subject to limited natural water resources, compounds the problem. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine whether social marketing can be an effective method to increase the reuse rates of towels in hotels. The chosen research design is a single case study. To validate the findings, one hotel’s towel reuse programme was examined. The case study was based on a triangulation approach and included research methods, such as qualitative interviews and a field experiment. The social marketing theory serves as conceptual framework, with a focus on communication measures, to design, implement, and evaluate the intervention. The study finds that towel reuse programmes are widely accepted by hotel guests. However, three main barriers are identified in regard to credibility and communication. The first barrier noted is that housekeeping staff do not always follow guest requests in respect to towel reuse. The second concerns the other water-wasting activities. These two factors undermine the credibility of the towel reuse programme. The third barrier is a communication one – i.e. the placement (or lack) of individual signs in the bathroom regarding the programme to communicate the message to guests. Research outcomes suggest that the use of social marketing methods, underpinned by positive feedback (such as recognising individual water consumption) can trigger participation amongst guests. In contrast, statements about social norms and donations or give-aways evoke negative reactions among participants. The study further reveals that the design of signs can be optimized by adding pictures of water and visualisations. The difficulty of conducting a social marketing approach within the tourism industry, where other activities consume high amounts of water, is discussed. On the basis of this study, it can be said that social marketing is only modestly effective in inducing behaviour change. Remaining knowledge gaps and uncertainties identified herein require further research and validation. In addition, the research has shown that social marketing as method can be too simplistic for such a multifaceted purpose as inducing behaviour change.