942 research outputs found
Awareness and Adoption of Good Agricultural Practices among Smallholder Farmers in relation to the Adopted Villages programme: The Case Study of Northern Nigeria
This study assesses smallholder level of awareness and uptake of good agricultural practices (GAPs) that were initiated by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) in Nigeria; a programme to enhance the agricultural productivity and income of participants. This study engaged with 120 smallholder farmers and their extension officer and data were collected via structured face-to-face and livelihood questionnaires and then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings show that 82% of participants were aware of the specific GAPs covered by the NAERLS programme. Despite this, the majority of respondents were not practicing these. Participants identified numerous challenges to GAPs implementation, including; unreliable and inadequate rainfall; lack of farm inputs; high cost of farm inputs; lack of technical know-how; lack of irrigation facilities and high illiteracy. The study also shows that the level of awareness of GAPs among farmers in the study areas has a statistically significant impact on the productivity and livelihoods of smallholders.  These initial results strongly suggest that the Nigerian government should provide funds to support NAERLS in order to intensify its intervention efforts. In the same vein, NGOs, rural developers, policy makers and government at all levels should be encouraged to provide farm inputs and credit facilities to farming communities to offset the high costs of inputs. Keywords: Good Agricultural Practices, Awareness. DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-6-06 Publication date:March 31st 202
Combinatorial expression for universal Vassiliev link invariant
The most general R-matrix type state sum model for link invariants is
constructed. It contains in itself all R-matrix invariants and is a generating
function for "universal" Vassiliev link invariants. This expression is more
simple than Kontsevich's expression for the same quantity, because it is
defined combinatorially and does not contain any integrals, except for an
expression for "the universal Drinfeld's associator".Comment: 20 page
Dyson-Schwinger Equations - aspects of the pion
The contemporary use of Dyson-Schwinger equations in hadronic physics is
exemplified via applications to the calculation of pseudoscalar meson masses,
and inclusive deep inelastic scattering with a determination of the pion's
valence-quark distribution function.Comment: 4 pages. Contribution to the Proceedings of ``DPF 2000,'' the Meeting
of the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society,
August 9-12, 2000, Department of Physics, the Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohi
Utility of TERT Promoter Mutations for Cutaneous Primary Melanoma Diagnosis
Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutations are commonly found in malignant melanomas but rare in melanocytic nevi. To assess its potential diagnostic utility for the distinction of melanoma from nevus, we determined the TERT promoter mutation status of 86 primary melanomas, 72 melanocytic nevi, and 40 diagnostically problematic melanocytic proliferations. Of the 86 melanomas, 67 (77.9%) were TERT-positive, defined as harboring a hotspot TERT promoter mutation at positions -124C>T, -124_125CC>TT, -138_139CC>TT, or -146C>T. Of the 72 nevi, only 1 (1.4%) was TERT-positive. Of the 40 diagnostically uncertain melanocytic proliferations, 2 (5.0%) were TERT-positive. TERT positivity as a test for melanoma versus nevus had an accuracy of 87.3% [95% confidence interval (CI), 81.1-92.1], a sensitivity of 77.9% (95% CI, 68.9-85.4), a specificity of 98.6% (95% CI, 95.8-100), a positive predictive value of 98.5% (95% CI, 95.6-100), and a negative predictive value of 78.9% (95% CI, 72.6-85.4). Our results indicate that hotspot TERT promoter mutation status may be a useful ancillary parameter for the diagnosis of melanoma. In particular, the high specificity of these mutations for melanoma indicates the presence of a TERT promoter mutation in a melanocytic neoplasm associated with diagnostic controversy, or uncertainty should increase concern for a melanoma
Functional determinants for general self-adjoint extensions of Laplace-type operators resulting from the generalized cone
In this article we consider the zeta regularized determinant of Laplace-type
operators on the generalized cone. For {\it arbitrary} self-adjoint extensions
of a matrix of singular ordinary differential operators modelled on the
generalized cone, a closed expression for the determinant is given. The result
involves a determinant of an endomorphism of a finite-dimensional vector space,
the endomorphism encoding the self-adjoint extension chosen. For particular
examples, like the Friedrich's extension, the answer is easily extracted from
the general result. In combination with \cite{BKD}, a closed expression for the
determinant of an arbitrary self-adjoint extension of the full Laplace-type
operator on the generalized cone can be obtained.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures; to appear in Manuscripta Mathematic
The Conway-Kochen argument and relativistic GRW models
In a recent paper, Conway and Kochen proposed what is now known as the "Free
Will theorem" which, among other things, should prove the impossibility of
combining GRW models with special relativity, i.e., of formulating
relativistically invariant models of spontaneous wavefunction collapse. Since
their argument basically amounts to a non-locality proof for any theory aiming
at reproducing quantum correlations, and since it was clear since very a long
time that any relativistic collapse model must be non-local in some way, we
discuss why the theorem of Conway and Kochen does not affect the program of
formulating relativistic GRW models.Comment: 16 pages, RevTe
Extraction of the pion distribution amplitude from polarized muon pair production
We consider the production of muon pairs from the scattering of pions on
longitudinally polarized protons. We calculate the cross section and the single
spin asymmetry for this process, taking into account pion bound state effects.
We work in the kinematic region where the photon has a large longitudinal
momentum fraction, which allows us to treat the bound state problem
perturbatively. Our predictions are directly proportional to the pion
distribution amplitude. A measurement of the polarized Drell-Yan cross section
thus allows the determination of the shape of the pion distribution amplitude.Comment: 13 pages, using revtex, two figures added separately as one uuencoded
Z-compressed fil
Meson Structure Functions in Valon Model
Parton distributions in a {\it{valon}} in the next-to-leading order is used
to determine the patron distributions in pion and kaon. The validity of the
valon model is tested and shown that the partonic content of the valon is
universal and independent of the valon type. We have evaluated the valon
distribution in pion and kaon, and in particular it is shown that the results
are in good agreement with the experimental data on pion structure in a wide
range of Comment: 13 pages with 7 figures included, The manuscript is revised, figures
are added and some errors are corrected. Accepted for publication in Physical
Review
Higher twists in the pion structure function
We calculate the QCD moments of the pion structure function using Drell-Yan
data on the quark distributions in the pion and a phenomenological model for
the resonance region. The extracted higher twist corrections are found to be
larger than those for the nucleon, contributing around 50% of the lowest moment
at Q^2=1 GeV^2.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
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