Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ASSESSMENT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES ADOPTION AMONG ACADEMIC STAFF OF AGRICULTURE IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the information and communication technologies adoption among academic staff of agriculture in tertiary institutions in Katsina State, Nigeria. The population of the study consisting of 122 academic staff teaching Agriculture in tertiary institutions in Katsina State and entire population was used for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The result reveals that 37.2% of the respondents were within age bracket of 41-50 years with a mean of 51 years. Majority (94.2%) of the lecturers were married and 44.5% of respondents had 1-5 in their household with a mean of 8 persons. More than half (53.2%) of respondents had a Bachelor Degree. The result further revealed that 43.4% of the lecturers had a teaching experience of 16-20 years with a mean of 15 years and 21.3% are assistant lecturers. The results further revealed that, GSM had high adoption level in the study with a mean of = 3.00, search engines = 2.94, E-mail = 2.84, computer = 2.91 and printer = 2.65. The regression analysis result reveals that age of the lecturers and teaching experience were positive and significant (P≤0.01), Household size and educational level were also positive and significant (P≤0.05). The major constraints that hinder adoption of ICTs in the study area were computer Illiteracy = 3.75, unstable power supply = 3.76, poor economic conditions of the academic staff = 3.56, changes in Government policies = 3.66, limited technical support from institution = 3.54, Internet and electronic insecurity = 3.64. The study concluded that, socio-economic characteristics of academic staff play a significant role on the adoption of ICT facilities for lecturing, research and records management in Tertiary Institutions in Katsina State. It is recommended that, there should be a policy of continuous training of academic staff on the use of modern ICTs for improved job performance and delivery, relevant government agencies should make effort at ensuring steady power supply to increase the effective use of ICT facilities by the academic staff in the study area.
Bifurcation analysis and control for surge model via the projection method

A bifurcation approach is adopted to analyze and control the surge model for axial flow compressors. An explicit expression is obtained for the first nonzero coefficient of the characteristic exponents of the periodic solutions born from the Hopf bifurcation associated with surge. The sign of this coefficient determines stability of the surge model at the criticality. Local nonlinear feedback control laws are then developed to stabilize the Hopf bifurcation associated with surge. Both quadratic and cubic state feedback control laws are investigated. Feedback stabilization using output measurement such as pressure rise is also studied where stabilizing gains are characterized that can be used for synthesis of surge control laws.
Comparative Coexpression Analysis of Indole Synthase and Tryptophan Synthase A Reveals the Independent Production of Auxin via the Cytosolic Free Indole

Indole synthase (INS), a homologous cytosolic enzyme of the plastidal tryptophan synthase A (TSA), has been reported as the first enzyme in the tryptophan-independent pathway of auxin synthesis. This suggestion was challenged as INS or its free indole product may interact with tryptophan synthase B (TSB) and, therefore, with the tryptophan-dependent pathway. Thus, the main aim of this research was to find out whether INS is involved in the tryptophan-dependent or independent pathway. The gene coexpression approach is widely recognized as an efficient tool to uncover functionally related genes. Coexpression data presented here were supported by both RNAseq and microarray platforms and, hence, considered reliable. Coexpression meta-analyses of Arabidopsis genome was implemented to compare between the coexpression of TSA and INS with all genes involved in the production of tryptophan via the chorismate pathway. Tryptophan synthase A was found to be coexpressed strongly with TSB1/2, anthranilate synthase A1/B1, phosphoribosyl anthranilate transferase1, as well as indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase1. However, INS was not found to be coexpressed with any target genes suggesting that it may exclusively and independently be involved in the tryptophan-independent pathway. Additionally, annotation of examined genes as ubiquitous or differentially expressed were described and subunits-encoded genes available for the assembly of tryptophan and anthranilate synthase complex were suggested. The most probable TSB subunits expected to interact with TSA is TSB1 then TSB2. Whereas TSB3 is only used under limited hormone conditions to assemble tryptophan synthase complex, putative TSB4 is not expected to be involved in the plastidial synthesis of tryptophan in Arabidopsis.
Rotation elastogram: a novel method to visualize local rigid body rotation under quasi-static compression

During manual palpation of breast masses, the perception of its stiffness and slipperiness are the two commonly used information by the physician. In order to reliably and quantitatively obtain this information several non-invasive elastography techniques have been developed that seek to provide an image of the underlying mechanical properties, mostly stiffness-related. Very few approaches have visualized the "slip" at the lesion-background boundary that only occurs for a loosely-bonded benign lesion. It has been shown that axial-shear strain distribution provides information about underlying slip. One such feature, referred to as "fill-in" was interpreted as a surrogate of the rotation undergone by an asymmetrically-oriented-loosely bonded-benign-lesion under quasi-static compression. However, imaging and direct visualization of the rotation itself has not been addressed yet. In order to accomplish this, the quality of lateral displacement estimation needs to be improved. In this simulation study, we utilize spatial compounding approach and assess the feasibility to obtain good quality rotation elastogram. The angular axial and lateral displacement estimates were obtained at different insonification angles from a phantom containing an elliptical inclusion oriented at 45°, subjected to 1% compression from the top. A multilevel 2D-block matching algorithm was used for displacement tracking and 2D-least square compounding of angular axial and lateral displacement estimates was employed. By varying the maximum steering angle and incremental angle, the improvement in the lateral motion tracking accuracy and its effects on the quality of rotational elastogram were evaluated. Results demonstrate significantly-improved rotation elastogram using this technique.
Comparative Study of Three Biological Control Agents and Two Conventional Fungicides against Coriander Damping-off and Root Rot Caused by Rhizoctonia solani

The in vitro and in vivo efficacy of three biocontrol agents, Trichoderma viride, Pseudomonas fluorescence, and Bacillus subtilis, were tested against Rhizoctonia solani (AG-4) infection compared to two conventional fungicides (Rizolex-T 50%wettable powder and Amistar 25%). Antifungal enzyme activity was assayed in the culture filtrate of the biocontrol agents. The impact of the tested biocontrol agents on the induction of the coriander immune system was investigated against R. solani by assessing the resistance-related enzymes and compounds in biocontrol agent-treated plants compared with the control. The obtained results revealed that all tested biocontrol agents significantly reduced the linear growth of R. solani, and T. viride recorded the highest inhibition percentage. This could be linked to the ability of T. viride to produce higher activities of antimicrobial enzymes, i.e., cellulase, chitinase, and protease, compared to P. fluorescence and B. subtilis. Applying the tested biocontrol agents significantly alleviated pre- and post-emergence damping-off and root rot/wilt diseases of infected coriander compared with untreated plants. The tested biocontrol agents exhibited significantly higher germination percentage and vigor index of the coriander than the tested fungicides. The tested biocontrol agents significantly minimized the reduction of photosynthetic pigments induced by R. solani. In addition, the results showed a significant increase in enzymes/molecules (i.e., phenylalanine, catalase, peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, phenolics, ascorbic acids, and salicylic acid) involved directly and indirectly in coriander resistance to R. solani. The principal component analysis of the recorded data recommended the role of the high accumulation of oxidative parameters (hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation) and the inhibition of phenolic compounds in the downregulation of coriander resistance against R. solani. The heatmap analysis results revealed that biocontrol agents, especially Trichoderma, enhanced the resistance against R. solani via the stimulation of salicylic acid, phenolics, and antioxidant enzymes. Overall, the data recommended the efficacy of biocontrol agents, especially T. viride, against R. solani infecting coriander plants, which could be an efficient and a safer alternative to conventional fungicides.
Role of Digital Advertising on Consumer Purchase Intention: An Empirical Study of Retail Outlets in India

Digital advertising has become an integral part of modern marketing strategies, as more and more consumers are relying on digital channels to make purchase decisions. This study aims to explore the impact of digital advertising on consumer purchase intention, with a focus on the key factors that influence consumer behaviour. Through a review of existing literature, this study identifies several key factors that can affect consumer purchase intention, including message quality, source credibility, personalization, and social influence. The findings suggest that digital advertising can have a significant impact on consumer purchase intention, particularly when it is tailored to the needs and preferences of the target audience. The study concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for digital marketing practitioners and offering suggestions for future research. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the role of digital advertising in shaping consumer behaviour and highlights the importance of developing effective digital marketing strategies.
Magnetic switching dynamics due to ultrafast exchange scattering: A model study

We study the heat-induced magnetization dynamics in a toy model of a ferrimagnetic alloy, which includes localized spins antiferromagnetically coupled to an itinerant carrier system with a Stoner gap. We determine the one-particle spin-density matrix including exchange scattering between localized and itinerant bands as well as scattering with phonons. While a transient ferromagneticlike state can always be achieved by a sufficiently strong excitation, this transient ferromagneticlike state only leads to magnetization switching for model parameters that also yield a compensation point in the equilibrium $M(T)$ curve.
Monitoring Postharvest Color Changes and Damage Progression of Cucumbers Using Machine Vision

To monitor cucumbers' external quality, such as color changes or the presence of any damage during storage, a machine vision system was used. Red, Green, Blue (RGB) images were acquired in a "soft box," which provided a highly diffused lighting scene for observing visual changes such as color and appearance in the skin of cucumber. The RGB images were transformed into L*, a*,b*, and HSV spaces. Histograms for each channel in each color space were evaluated for image segmentation, and the blue (B) channel in the RGB color space was found superior in terms of measuring damage progression. Damage progression plots (DPP) were made from accumulated grayscale images in each of the color channels and to observe variation over time, absolute differential damage progression (ADDP) plots were generated. Overall, the order of channel utility was [B], [R, G, V], and [H, S, L*, a*, b*]. To assess which channel, in which colorspace, was most sensitive, i.e., could capture most of the information regarding day-to-day color changes, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed. The PCA showed that all individual components in the RGB color space were suitable for obtaining information about the external changes of cucumber. Based on the results, the machine vision approach is recommended as a non-destructive technique for monitoring the external quality of stored fresh produce.
Représentation et gestion de grammaires d'arbres adjoints lexicalisées : Évolutions en analyse syntaxique

Dans cet article nous decrivons un format de representation du lexique pour les grammaires d'arbres adjoints qui favorise la modularite de la grammaire. Nous decrivons des outils de maintenance de ce type de grammaires (compilateur de metagrammaire, analyseur syntaxique, outils de visualisation).
Internet of Underground Things in Agriculture 4.0: Challenges, Applications and Perspectives

Internet of underground things (IoUTs) and wireless underground sensor networks (WUSNs) are new technologies particularly relevant in agriculture to measure and transmit environmental data, enabling us to optimize both crop growth and water resource management. The sensor nodes can be buried anywhere, including in the passage of vehicles, without interfering with aboveground farming activities. However, to obtain fully operational systems, several scientific and technological challenges remain to be addressed. The objective of this paper is to identify these challenges and provide an overview of the latest advances in IoUTs and WUSNs. The challenges related to the development of buried sensor nodes are first presented. The recent approaches proposed in the literature to autonomously and optimally collect the data of several buried sensor nodes, ranging from the use of ground relays, mobile robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, are next described. Finally, potential agricultural applications and future research directions are identified and discussed.
Learning Diverse Policies with Soft Self-Generated Guidance

Reinforcement learning (RL) with sparse and deceptive rewards is a significant challenge because nonzero rewards are rarely obtained, and hence, the gradient calculated by the agent can be stochastic and without valid information. Recent work demonstrates that using memory buffers of previous experiences can lead to a more efficient learning process. However, existing methods usually require these experiences to be successful and may overly exploit them, which can cause the agent to adopt suboptimal behaviors. This study develops an approach that exploits diverse past trajectories for faster and more efficient online RL, even if these trajectories are suboptimal or not highly rewarded. The proposed algorithm merges a policy improvement step with an additional policy exploration step by using offline demonstration data. The main contribution of this study is that by regarding diverse past trajectories as guidance, instead of imitating them, our method directs its policy to follow and expand past trajectories, while still being able to learn without rewards and gradually approach optimality. Furthermore, a novel diversity measurement is introduced to maintain the diversity of the team and regulate exploration. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on a series of discrete and continuous control tasks with sparse and deceptive rewards. In comparison with the existing RL methods, the experimental results indicate that our proposed algorithm is significantly better than the baseline methods in terms of diverse exploration and avoiding local optima.
Evolution of Micro-Nano Energy Harvesting Technology—Scavenging Energy from Diverse Sources towards Self-Sustained Micro/Nano Systems

Facing the energy consumption of a huge number of distributed wireless Internet of Things (IoT) sensor nodes, scavenging energy from the ambient environment to power these devices is considered to be a promising method. Moreover, abundant energy sources of various types are widely distributed in the surrounding environment, which can be converted into electrical energy by micro-nano energy harvesters based on different mechanisms. In this review paper, we briefly introduce the development of different energy harvesters according to the classification of target energy sources, including microscale and nanoscale energy harvesters for vibrational energy sources, microscale energy harvesters for non-vibrational energy sources, and micro-nano energy harvesters for hybrid energy sources. Furthermore, the current advances and future prospects of the applications of micro-nano energy harvesters in event-based IoT systems and self-sustained systems are discussed.
Robust adaptive state-feedback tracking for nonlinear systems

For a class of singie-input/single-output uncertain nonlinear systems, affected both by uncertain time-varying parameters (with known bounds) and unknown time-varying bounded disturbances, a new robust adaptive state-feedback control algorithm is presented. It guarantees: boundedness of all signals and arbitrary disturbance attenuation when both disturbances and time-varying parameters are present, and asymptotic tracking with arbitrary transient performance when no disturbance is acting on the system and parameters are constant. The adaptation may be switched off, still guaranteeing bounded signals and disturbance attenuation.
Visible light communications using predistortion signal to enhance the response of passive optical receiver

Traditional visible light communication (VLC) uses positive-intrinsic-negative photodiode (PD) or avalanche PD as the optical receivers (Rx). We demonstrate using a solar cell as the VLC Rx. The solar cell is flexible and low cost and converts the optical signal into an electrical signal directly without the need of external power supply. In addition to acting as the VLC passive Rx, the converted electrical signal from the solar cell can charge up the battery of the Rx nodes. Hence, the proposed scheme can be a promising candidate for the future Internet of Things network. However, a solar cell acting as a VLC Rx is very challenging, since the response of the solar cell is limited. Here, we propose and demonstrate using predistortion to significantly enhance the solar cell Rx response for the first time up to the authors’ knowledge. Experimental results show that the response of the solar cell Rx is significantly enhanced; and the original 2-kHz detection bandwidth of the solar cell can be enhanced by 250 times for receiving 500-kbit/s VLC signal at a transmission distance of 1 m. The operation principle, the generated voltage by the solar cell, and the maximum data rates achieved at different transmission distances are also studied.
Effect of heat generation in PVDF based electro-active polymer actuators

Many of the electroactive polymers are dielectric and often demand high operating voltages for actuation (<<10 MV/m). These EAP-based actuators require metallic electrode layers on the surface to apply the voltage. Due to high operating voltage, heat is produced at the surface of electrodes due to resistive heating and dielectric losses in polymer material. In the case of actuators based on active and passive layer configurations with metallic electrodes, this heat could affect the performance, as the generated heat is transferred between the layers. In the present work, a PVDF terpolymer and Kapton tape-based bilayer actuator is developed, and simulation and experimental study are carried out to check the effect of DC high voltages on heat production within layers. The contribution of this heat to the bending of the actuator is also analyzed. It is found that significant heat is generated that can affect deflection process of the EAP actuator. The total electromechanical bending deflection produced at the E-field of 20 MV/m is ~80 degrees whereas deflection due heat generated at this voltage is ~15 degrees. Hence, the total deflection produced can be claimed as a combination of thermal and electro-mechanical effects.
Differential Controls of Greenhouse Gas (CO2, CH4, and N2O) Concentrations in Natural and Constructed Agricultural Waterbodies on the Northern Great Plains

Inland waters are hotspots of greenhouse gas (GHG) cycling, with small water bodies particularly active in the production and consumption of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). However, wetland ponds are being replaced rapidly by small constructed reservoirs in agricultural regions, yet it is unclear whether these two water body types exhibit similar physical, chemical, and environmental controls of GHG content and fluxes. Here, we compared the content and regulatory mechanisms of all three major GHGs in 20 pairs of natural wetland ponds and constructed reservoirs in Canada's largest agricultural region. Carbon dioxide content was associated primarily with metabolic indicators in both water body types; however, primary production was paramount in reservoirs, and heterotrophic metabolism a stronger correlate in wetland ponds. Methane concentrations were correlated positively with eutrophication of the reservoirs alone, while competitive inhibition by sulfur‐reducing bacteria may have limited CH4 in both waterbody types. Contrary to expectations, N2O was undersaturated in both water body types, with wetlands being a significantly stronger and more widespread N2O sink. Varying regulatory processes are attributed to differences in age, depth, morphology, and water‐column circulation between water body types. These results suggest that natural and constructed water bodies should be modeled separately in regional GHG budgets.
An innovative technique for nasotracheal fiberoptic intubation using SNPA and its comparison with conventional technique: RCT

ABSTRACT Background: Awake nasotracheal fiberoptic intubation by conventional technique is time consuming and requires expertise. Complications encountered in the conventional technique sometime leads to procedure failure. Objective: The primary aim of this study was to compare the innovative technique using split nasopharyngeal airway (SNPA) with the conventional technique for nasotracheal fiberoptic intubation in terms of time taken for intubation. Method: This was a prospective, randomized, and single blind study conducted with 80 patients who were scheduled for maxillofacial surgery. Patients were randomized into two groups, group CFBI (conventional fiberoptic intubation) and group SNPA (split nasopharyngeal airway). In both the groups patients were prepared for awake fiberoptic naso-tracheal intubation. In Group CFBI (N = 41) awake naso-tracheal intubation was achieved by conventional technique of bronchoscope first approach. In Group SNPA (N = 39) spirally split nasopharyngeal airway was used first as a conduit for the passage of fiberoptic bronchoscope. The primary objective was to assess the time taken for intubation. The secondary objectives were to assess the rate of complications in the form of bleeding, cough, desaturation during the procedure, laryngospasm, and nasal bleeding. Result: The time taken for intubation was 6.15 ± 3.0 minutes in CFBI group and 3.10 ± 1.35 minutes in SNPA group and this this difference was statically significant with P value <0.001. Desaturation during the procedure was more in CFBI (99.46 ± 0.75) compared to SNPA (99 ± 0) group with significant difference P value <0.001. Conclusion: Split nasopharyngeal airway was used as conduit for the passage for the flexible fibreoptic bronchoscope and it considerably reduced the time required for fiberoptic nasotracheal intubation compared to the conventional technique of endotracheal tube first approach. Split nasopharyngeal airway provided better intubating conditions with lesser complications and superior patient comfort.