Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rural Livelihoods and Environmental Resource Dependence in Cambodia

Understanding rural livelihood strategies and environmental resource dependence can help to reduce and prevent livelihood stresses induced by environmental resource degradation. This study identifies livelihood strategies of farm households in rural Cambodia and explores their determinants with a focus on environmental resource dependence. The data are derived from a survey of 580 households in 30 villages of Stung Treng province in Cambodia undertaken in 2013. An activity-based two-step cluster analysis is conducted to identify different livelihood clusters and regression models are performed to determine the major factors affecting the choice of livelihood strategies and the extraction of environmental resources. The results demonstrate how different levels of environmental and household capital influence livelihood strategies. Environmental resources contribute a significant portion of household income (27%) and act as a means to reduce income inequality (7%) among households. The absolute environmental income is positively correlated with the total income but the relative environmental income decreases with an increase in total income. Thus, it appears that low income households are not to be blamed for environmental degradation, because they are unable to undertake activities with high return. The findings of this study suggest that promoting off-farm employment, education and social networking reduces the extraction of environmental resources.
ENSURING AVAILABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION FOR ALL Performance of Iron removal plants on groundwater: field assessment in Central Uganda

Groundwater is often considered of better quality as a source of drinking water but in many locations, it contains iron and other impurities that make communities abandon some water sources. The abandonment of such water sources in effect reduces access to safe water coverage in rural areas as communities return to using unprotected sources. Uganda is one of the countries with high iron concentrations in groundwater but it remains the most important source of potable water. A study to assess the performance of Iron Removal Plants (IRP), involving field analysis of water samples for selected physicochemical parameters and interviews revealed that the performance of IRP is a function of efficacy of the treatment process and the water source management system. Further research will optimize the efficacy and increase the performance of the IRP improved U2 boreholes for rural areas in Uganda.
Agile Software Development Methodologies: Survey of Surveys

Agile software design and development methodologies have been gaining rigorous attention in the software engineering research community since their early introduction in the mid-nineties in addition to being highly adopted by the software development industry. In the last 15 years, an excessive number of research studies have been conducted on agile methods, a great number of notable methods have been proposed and various surveys have been presented by many researchers. In this study, the authors intend to conduct a literature survey study of the surveys of the different agile methodologies ranging from January 2000 to December 2015 using an intuitive research methodology called “Compare and Review” (CR). Furthermore, these survey papers were classified into four major categories according to their area of study. Additionally, the newly proposed agile methodologies that have not been addressed yet in any other literature review were reviewed and compared in terms of where the changes that they proposed lay on the SDLC.
NATIONAL AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMME 2004-2006 FOR POLAND: EVALUATION BY AGRICULTURAL EXPERTS, AGRIENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORS AND FARMERS

the European Union (EU) is presented. Due to the short membership in the EU there are few empirical studies on agrienvironmental measures in Poland. The aim of the paper is, thus, to reveal the importance of the National Agri-environmental Programme 2004-2006 in Poland by means of a primary research and evaluate consequently agri-environmental measures after the accession to the European Union. The evaluation is based on an explorative case study conducted in the voivodship Subcarpathia including interviews with three stakeholder groups: agricultural experts, agri-environmental advisors and farmers. Based on their estimations, different economic and ecological aspects of the implementation of agri-environmental measures as well as of the participation in the National Agri-environmental Programme 2004-2006 are revealed and discussed. The results confirm a positive notion of the National Agri-environmental Programme on the one hand and cautious acting of farmers resulting from the missing experience concerning agri-environmental measures in Poland. On the other hand the findings of the study can be helpful in solving existing problems and more effective designing of agri-environmental measures in Poland according to regional preferences with regard to environmental protection in rural areas.
EVALUATION OF WATERING REGIMES AND DIFFERENT POT SIZES IN THE GROWTH OF PARKIA BIGLOBOSA (JACQ) BENTH SEEDLINGS UNDER NURSERY CONDITION

The study was carried out to investigate the effect of watering regimes and pot size on the growth of potted seedlings of Parkia biglobosa (JACQ) Benth. The experiment was set up using 3 x 4 Factorial experiment in Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Four different watering regimes were used: watering once daily, watering once in three days, watering once in five days and the control that was not watered. Three different pot sizes were used: the small size, medium and the large size. The parameters measured were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The means were separated by Least Significant Difference (LSD; P≤0.05). The results showed that the best performance of Parkia biglobosa in terms of pot size was Medium Pot size (P2) which had 246.20 cm at the 10th week after transplanting, the poorest growth was recorded in the small pot size with the height of 16.55 cm in the 10th weeks after transplanting. Also the result showed that watering once in five days (W3) had the highest height of 19.96 cm followed by watering once daily (W1) with the height of 18.72 cm while the control (W0) had the least height of 16.21 cm.
Antihyperlipidemic Activity of Lens culinaris Medikus Seeds in Triton WR-1339 Induced Hyperlipidemic Rats

Background:Hyperlipidemia involves abnormally elevated lipid levels. Its management using statins, fibrates, bile acid sequestrants and niacin lead to various adverse effects. Lens culinaris (Fabaceae) is a dhal with high nutritional and therapeutic value.Objective: To evaluate antihyperlipidemic activity of Lens culinaris seeds in triton WR-1339 induced hyperlipidemic rats.Materials and methods: Successive extracts, i.e., acetone (LCAE), methanol (LCME) and aqueous (LCWE) were prepared from Lens culinaris Medikus (Fabaceae) seeds. The extracts were evaluated for acute toxicity studies using OECD- 423 guidelines. Their antihyperlipidemic activity was assessed using Triton WR- 1339 induced hyperlipidemia model on Sprague dawley female rats. Animals were divided into 12 groups, i.e., normal, hyperlipidemic (triton), triton+atorvastatin, triton+LCAE, triton+LCME and triton+LCWE groups at a dose of 100, 200, 400 mg/Kg body weight, respectively. Total Cholesterol (TC), Tri Glyceride (TG), High (HDL), Low (LDL) and Very Low Density Lipoprotein (VLDL) levels were assessed after 1, 4, 8 and 24 h of treatment. Total Phenol (TPC), Flavonoid (TFC) and Saponin content were also determined.Results: None of the extracts showed toxicity or mortality to animals. Intragastric administration of extracts at various dose levels to the rats caused a significant decrease in plasma lipid levels. However, LCME (400 mg/Kg) was found to possess more antihyperlipidemic activity as compared to other extracts. It exhibited a decrease (%) of 57.51, 66.93, 66.95, 111.78 in TC, TG, VLDL, LDL levels, and an increase of 59.46% in HDL levels respectively. TPC (608 mg gallic acid equivalent/g of sample) and TFC (128 mg quercetin equivalent/g of sample) were also found highest in LCAE.Conclusion: Results suggest that the extracts of Lens culinaris contain active phytoconstituents which might be responsible for antihyperlipidemic activity of the seeds.
Comparison of retinal thickness measurements of normal eyes between topcon algorithm and a graph based algorithm

To assess the agreement between Topcon built-in algorithm and our developed graph based algorithm, the retinal thickness of 9-sectors on an Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study(ETDRS) chart measurements for normal subjects was compared. A total of fifty eyes were enrolled in this study. The overall and sectoral thickness on ETDRS chart were calculated using Topcon built-in algorithm and our developed three-dimensional graph based algorithm. Correlation analysis and agreement analysis were performed between the commercial algorithm and our algorithm. A high degree of correlation was found between the results obtained from the two methods was from 0.856 to 0.960. It’s showed that our developed graph based algorithm can provide excellent performance similar to Topcon algorithm.
A Framework Defining Customer Experience Construct and Measurement

The time has gone when the organizations talk about achieving customer satisfaction through quality of goods and services. The impact of globalization, change in consumer lifestyle has made customer highly demanding and enforces him to think before making a purchase of product is it going to portray what I am? Will it fulfil my fantasies? Therefore the marketer needs to explore the experiential perspective of consumer behaviour that is directed towards emotions, fun and fantasies. As today’s customer seek experiences whether from the product, service or the brand. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide product, service, and consumption and brand as experiential components of upcoming economy on the basis of review of literature. Moreover, we develop a conceptual model that highlights these dimensions in the measurement of customer experience.In addition to this, study identifies customer experience as a two way interaction between consumer construct and experiential construct.
The false developmental promise of corporate social responsibility: evidence from multinational oil companies

Using the example of multinational oil companies, this article suggests that there are fundamental problems surrounding the capacity of private firms to deliver development and the aspiration of achieving development through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may be fundamentally flawed. The article is based on an extensive twelve-month research project on the Gulf of Guinea region funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This research identified a number of constraints to a developmental role for CSR: the subservience of CSR schemes to corporate objectives; country- and context-specific issues; the failure to involve the beneficiaries of CSR; the lack of human resources; technical/managerial approaches of company staff and the lack of CSR's integration into larger development plans. But even if private companies were able to overcome practical problems, it argues that the current CSR agenda fails to address the crucial issues of governance and the negative macro-level effects that multinational companies cause in host countries. The article concludes by suggesting that a focus on CSR may divert attention from broader political, economic and social solutions for developmental problems.
Location Privacy, Its Significance and Methods to Achieve It

The advancement in location based services has also lead to the increase in concerns of location privacy. Revealing personal location information can be risky but also advantageous. The consequences of leaked personal location data can be quite adverse. The effects of location privacy invasion and ways to achieve location privacy are a less explored field. This paper presents a concise report of some the ways to overcome privacy issues and threats, and also sheds light upon what drives Location Based Service users to share their personal location information. The paper reviews studies about behavior and attitude of Location Based Service users towards sharing location information which depends upon the nature of the requester, the reason for requirement of location information and also the apt level of detail of location information required. The paper will discuss about methods or schemes for protecting privacy such as anonymity, mix zones and obfuscations. The main focus will be on computational location privacy concerns.
Optimal extraction of Tropospheric Ozone Column by simultaneous use of OMI and TES data and the surface temperature

This article aims to increase the accuracy of Ozone data from tropospheric column (TOC) of the OMI and TES satellite instruments. To validate the estimated amount of satellite data, Ozonesonde data is used. The vertical resolution in both instruments in the tropospheric atmosphere decreases so that the degree of freedom signals (DOFS) on the average for TES is reduced to 2 and for OMI is reduced to1. But this decline in accuracy in estimation of tropospheric ozone is more obvious in urban areas so that estimated ozone in both instruments alone in non-urban areas show a high correlation with Ozonesonde. But in urban areas this correlation is significantly reduced, due to the ozone pre-structures and consequently an increase on surface-level ozone in urban areas. In order to improve the accuracy of satellite data, the average tropospheric ozone data from the two instruments were used. The aim is to increase the vertical resolution of ozone profile and the results clearly indicate an increase in correlations, but nevertheless the satellite data have a positive bias towards the earth data. To reduce the bias, with the solar flux and nitrogen dioxide values and surface temperatures are calculated as factors of ozone production on the earth’s surface and formation of mathematical equations based on coefficients for each of the mentioned values and multiplication of these coefficients by satellite data and repeated comparison with the values of Ozonesonde, the results showed that bias in urban areas is greatly reduced.
Colon Irrigation: Effective, Safe, and Well-Tolerated Alternative to Traditional Therapy in the Management of Refractory Chronic Constipation

Background: Chronic constipation is a global problem associated with considerable morbidity and significant financial burden. It unfortunately remains a poorly understood and an under-investigated issue. Current therapies are costly and produce sub-optimal results. The aim of our study was to investigate an alternative to traditional treatment that is effective and well tolerated. Methods: 175 patients with varying etiologies of chronic constipation underwent a high-volume colon irrigation procedure from August 2016 to January 2018. Results: 100% of the patients had successful passage of stool while undergoing the high-volume colon irrigation procedure. Conclusion: High-volume colon irrigation appears to be an effective, well-tolerated, and safe alternative to medical therapy for patients suffering with chronic constipation.
Detection of ammonia in M 51

Aims. To study the abundance and temperature of ammonia in the center of a nearby galaxy M 51 and to compare them with those in other nearby galaxies, we observed its (J,K) = (1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), and (4, 4) inversion transitions at the wavelength of 1.3 cm. Methods. The observations were carried out with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope. Results. The (1, 1), (2, 2), and (3, 3) transitions are clearly detected, but the (4, 4) transition is barely detected. The rotational temperature obtained from the (1, 1) and (2, 2) transitions of para-ammonia is 25 ± 2 K, which is similar to those of M 82 and the Large Magellanic Cloud (N 159 W), but significantly lower than those of IC 342 and NGC 1068 among the nearby galaxies. The column density of ammonia is (8.1 ± 2.4) × 10 13 cm −2 , and the abundance relative to H2 is ∼4.5 × 10 −9 . The abundance in M 51 is about a factor of 5 lower than those of NGC 253 and IC 342, but about one order of magnitude higher than those of M 82 and the Large Magellanic Cloud. The addition of the data of M 51 further supports the exceptionally low abundances of ammonia reported previously in these two galaxies. For understanding the abundance of ammonia in M 51 and other nearby galaxies, their temperatures were compared. As a result, we found that the galaxies with low temperature tend to have low abundance of ammonia. In addition, the photodissociation rate of ammonia was compared to those of related molecules detected in the nearby galaxies to discuss the effect of photodissociation. We found that the low abundance of ammonia in some galaxies cannot be explained only by the effect of photodissociation.
Strain Experienced by Caregivers of Stroke Survivors in the Western Cape

Recovery after stroke is often incomplete and many stroke survivors depend on family caregivers. The demands of caring can negatively impact quality of life of these carers. This study explores levels of strain experienced by caregivers and the variables that impact on their strain. A concurrent, mixed method, descriptive design was utilized. Fifty-seven caregivers of stroke survivors who received rehabilitation at the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre participated in the study. The Barthel Index and Caregiver Strain Index were utilised to collect quantitative data, which was statistically analysed (p <0.05). Qualitative data was collected through semi- structured interviews and thematically analysed. Fifty eight percent of caregivers were experiencing high levels of strain. The following variables significantly impacted on strain namely, caregiver loss of employment (0.04), emotional pressure (0.01), patient residual cognitive and perceptual impairments (0.01), personality changes (0.01) and physical dependency (0.0012). According to the qualitative data the burden was aggravated by financial problems, patient perceptual problems and patient personality changes. The findings indicate the need for support after discharge, ongoing community support and respite care to enable time off for caregivers.
Obstacle Avoidance Procedure and Lee Algorithm Based Path Replanner for Autonomous Mobile Platforms

The paper proposes solution for two important issues connected to navigation of independent mobile platforms in an unknown environment. First issue relates to obstacle map, estimated based on stereovision images. It provides a basis for further platform path-planning. The main problem that has to be solved in obstacle map derivation is elimination of artifacts resulting from depth estimation. Thus a two-step artifact filtering procedure is proposed, which exploits both within-frame spatial correlations as well as temporal, between-frame correlations to do this task. Second procedure, based on well-known Lees algorithm is designed for obtaining vehicle collisionless path. Such routes need to be updated on-the-fly to take into account moving obstacles or newly detected objects. The main idea of the proposed approach is to identify regions where environment has changed and to execute a procedure of selective path updates. As a result, an optimal path can be derived at a computational expense comparable to the heuristic Lifelong A* search. Experiment results demonstrate efficiency of the two discussed approaches for platform operation control in real environments, where both static and moving obstacles are present.
REAL HYPERSURFACES IN COMPLEX TWO-PLANE GRASSMANNIANS WHOSE SHAPE OPERATOR IS OF CODAZZI TYPE IN GENERALIZED TANAKA-WEBSTER CONNECTION

Abstract. In this paper, we give a non-existence theorem of Hopf hyper-surfaces in complex two-plane Grassmannians G 2 (C m+2 ), m≥ 3, whoseshape operator is of Codazzi type in generalized Tanaka-Webster connec-tion ∇ˆ (k) . IntroductionLetus denotebyG 2 (C m+2 ) the setofallcomplextwo-dimensionallinearsub-spaces in C m+2 , which is said to be a complex two-plane Grassmannian. ThisRiemannian symmetric space G 2 (C m+2 ) has a remarkable geometric structure.It is the unique compact irreducible Riemannian manifold being equipped withboth a Kahler structure J and a quaternionic Kahler structure Jnot containingJ, for details we refer to [2], [3] and [4]. In particular, when m = 1, G 2 (C 3 )is isometric to the two-dimensional complex projective space CP 2 with con-stant holomorphic sectional curvature eight. When m = 2, we note that theisomorphism Spin(6) ≃ SU(4) yields an isometry between G 2 (C 4 ) and the realGrassmann manifold G +2 (R 6 ) of oriented two-dimensional linear subspaces inR
Threshold based Image Fusion in Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Domain

Image fusion is a popular application of image processing which performs merging of two or more images into one. The merged image is of improved visual quality and carries more information content. The present work introduces a new image fusion method in complex wavelet domain. The proposed fusion rule is based on a level dependent threshold, where absolute difference of a wavelet coefficient from the threshold value is taken as fusion criteria. This absolute difference represents variation in the image intensity that resembles the salient features of image. Hence, for fusion, the coefficients that are far from threshold value are being selected. The motivation behind using dual tree complex wavelet transform is due to failure of real valued wavelet transform in many aspects. Good directional selectivity, availability of phase information and approximate shift invariant nature of dual tree complex wavelet transform make it suitable for image fusion and help to produce a high quality fused image. To prove the strength of the proposed method, it has been compared with several spatial, pyramidal, wavelet and new generation wavelet based fusion methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms all the other state-of- the-art methods visually as well quantitatively as in terms of standard deviation, mutual information, edge strength, fusion factor, sharpness and average gradient.
The relationship of burnout, work environment satisfaction and perceived health

This study aims to investigate the correlation between burnout, workplace satisfaction, and perceived health among nurses. The study was conducted with 322 nurses working in a university hospital. All nurses, except those on annual or sick leave, were included in the study sample. Data were evaluated with a personal information form, the MBI, the Work Environment Satisfaction Scale, and the Perceived Health Scale. The study data were analyzed with mean analysis, correlation and regression analysis, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. It was reported that the average emotional exhaustion score of nurses was 18.68, depersonalization score was 5.89 and self-actualization score was 20.54. It was also noted that 27.0% of the nurses in the study were satisfied with their work environment and 52.8% of the participants perceived their health in good condition. It was reported that work environment satisfaction was negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion (β=-.534, t=-11.229) and depersonalization (β=-.269, t=-4.988) while it was positively correlated with personal success (β=.191, t=3.478). Moreover, perceived health was also found negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion (β =-.386, t=-7.487) and depersonalization (β=-.146, t=-2.642) while it had positive effects on personal success (β =.130, t=2.336). The study results indicated that burnout syndrome was influenced by work environment satisfaction and perceived health. It is suggested that nursing managers and nursing leaders can ensure early diagnosis of burnout by evaluating perceived health and work environment satisfaction of nurses. It is absolutely recommended to prioritize to enhance work environment satisfaction.