Interests of Livestock Activities within Agroforestry Systems in Guadeloupe: Stakeholders’ Opinions and Farmers’ Perceptions

The Valab project (Integrated Ecosystemic value-enhancement of the Guadeloupean Forest Agrobiodiversity) is a participatory action research that aims to explore the feasibility of diversification activities within the forest understorey. In the exploratory phase of the project, we studied stakeholders’ opinions on the positive and negative impacts of introducing livestock activities within a forest environment, as well as breeders’ constraints or motivations for setting up livestock units within agroforestry systems in the private forests of Guadeloupe. To establish a diagnosis of the current situation, 51 stakeholders (St) and 49 farmers (Fr) were interviewed on their perceptions, opinions, motivations and preferences. Forty-one percent of the St has had a generally positive appreciation of livestock activities, while on the opposite 31% have had a resolutely negative posture depending on their area of expertise. Their views on the possible positive effects or negative interactions between livestock and agroforestry activities were analysed in order to suggest possible approaches for the authorities or associations. Unanimously, the farmers replied that their motivations followed economic strategies: for self-consumption or sale. But their decision-making processes were also non-economic. Many of them (36% Fr) gave importance to their activity in the construction of their identity, whether it was through a desire to perpetuate traditions or to maintain family activities. The main constraints identified were natural constraints (61% Fr), including topography, climate and predators. While 28% of Fr notified their motivations for environmental protection. Another constraint was of a technical nature (44% Fr) since farmers asked for more technical references or support services. Further researches are required to study the interactions between animals and the undergrowth by describing their respective ecosystem services in order to enhance their positive interactions.

The DNP: Knowledge and perceptions of students in an accelerated master’s program in nursing

While the nursing community generally agrees that the Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree will strengthen nursing as an academic discipline, there is little known about students’ perceptions of the advanced degree. Nursing students enrolled in an accelerated master’s program in nursing (N = 45) were surveyed to assess their knowledge of the DNP degree while also identifying the perceived effect a DNP might have on their careers, on nursing as a discipline, and on public perceptions of nursing practice. In this study, 51% of participants supported the transition to the DNP as the standard degree for practice nursing while 29% were opposed. The majority of participants (71%) planned to pursue an advanced practice nursing degree/certification with 81% of this group signifying that they would do so even if a DNP is required. The majority of participants agreed that the DNP will improve public perception of advanced practice nursing, but 71% thought the title of “doctor” would confuse patients. While current nursing students are generally informed of the upcoming DNP transition, there is disagreement regarding its implications for their careers and for the extent of public understanding.

Ethics and Integrity in Building Employee＇s Perceptions

Malaysia has long been involved in the initiative of becoming a high income country by the year 2020. In this essence, fighting and eliminating any means of corruption in the public and private companies have been one of the key challenges in the long run. The globalization of businesses has somehow led to an increase in the number of unethical conduct and hazardous corruption. In the urge to enliven ethics and integrity in a company and among employees, the whole business processes and stakeholders should position code of ethics and integrity at its highest standard. However, can ethics and integrity really increase the company＇s reputation, strengthening its business operations and sustainability, and deliver trust amongst employees and employers？ The objective of this study is to analyze the perceptions of employees on issues pertaining ethics and integrity. The study has been conducted in one of the giant telecommunication companies in Malaysia where a sample of 7,056 employees were the participants involved in the survey. The study has used questionnaires to collect data. The data have then been analysed using the SPSS data analysis software. The findings explained that employees view the company as an ethical place to work where the finance department is deemed to have the highest level of integrity. While in matters of corruption risk areas, there are still practices of bribery. It is also founded that a majority of respondents about 93% agree that the company＇s initiatives are effective in building business integrity and that the level of business ethics and integrity has improved over the last two years. Running a business with ethics and integrity while selecting the fight business partners will create a corporation of ethics, integrity, and anti-corruption.

Climate change impact in the Western Himalaya:people's perception and adaptive strategies

The Himalaya represents a vast mountain system and globally valued for its significant role in regulation of global as well as regional climate that has direct impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services crucial for sustenance of millions of people in Himalaya and adjoining areas. However, mountain regions worldwide are impacted by climate change and at the same time represent distinctive area for the assessment of climate related impacts. Climate change impacts in Himalayan region have its implications on food production, natural ecosystems,retreat of glacier, water supply, human and animal health and overall human well being. The livelihood and food security of the people inhabited in region largely depend on climate sensitive sectors i.e.agriculture, livestock, forestry and their interlinkages with each other, and has the potential to break down food and nutritional security as well as livelihood support systems. People's perception and understanding of climate can be an important asset when it comes to adaptation to climate change impact;however it is not taken into consideration for the development of policy design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategies by governments and other civil society organizations.The knowledge of local people and farming communities for rural landscape management and sustainable use of bioresources is gaining credence as a key strategy to cope up with the climate change.Therefore, the present study analyzes the indigenous knowledge of local people and their perceptions on climate change, and also documented adaptation approaches at local level in mountain ecosystem of western Himalaya. The study could be useful to policy makers to design appropriate adaptation strategies to cope up with the impacts of climate change.

改进D-S算法的多感知机器人泄漏源识别研究

危化品泄漏场域环境复杂多变,泄漏源的识别受风速、光照强度、噪声等多重因素影响,当前多以智能机器人探测,利用嗅觉或视觉进行目标识别,但单类传感器识别结果可靠性差,提出一种改进Dempster-Shafer(D-S)证据理论的识别方法,模拟人类多感官识别机制,综合处理嗅觉、视觉和听觉识别信度;通过引入参考证据获取证据源全局信息,解决了经典D-S算法中存在的证据冲突问题,并在MATLAB中进行了算例验证。结果表明,相比嗅觉、视觉和听觉单类传感器识别信度分别提高了42.5%、51.2%和38.4%;对于冲突数据,克服了经典D-S算法、Yager算法融合失效的缺陷,相比Murphy算法识别信度提高了33%,可实现泄漏源的高信度识别,融合决策可靠性好。

Climate Change: Trends and People’s Perception in Nepal

In the context of climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as floods and droughts will increase which could put tremendous challenges in water resources management in the coming days. While scientific knowledge on climate threats and changing climate patterns are essential, it is also important to consider the impacts in relation to how the threats are perceived and handled by local people. This paper intends to assess the trend and people’s perception on temperature and precipitation. Three focus groups’ discussion and a total number of 240 households were interviewed during field visit. The collected information was scaled from the least preferred-1 to the most preferred-5 based on their preferences. The trend of mean of annual average, maximum and minimum temperature indicates that the temperature has increased significantly and precipitation intensity and magnitude are also in increasing trend in the monsoon and postmonsoon seasons which may raise the extreme flood events. These facts were verified with the people’s perception. This finding could be useful for formulation of effective flood management policy and plan in this river basin as well as very applicable for other similar areas.

Beyond Bloom’s: Students’ Perception of Bloom’s Taxonomy and its Convolution with Cognitive Load

Bloom’s taxonomy is widely used in educational research to categorize the cognitive skills required to answer exam questions.For this study,we analyzed how students categorize exam questions(high-level question or low-level question,)gathered data as to their rationale for categorization,and compared their categorizations to those of experts.We found that students consistently rank high-level questions incorrectly.We analyzed student reasons for their categorizations,and found that for many of the incorrectly categorized questions the students referred to reasons related to Cognitive Load Theory.This shows that cognitive load prevents students from accurately assessing the cognitive level of an exam question.Thus,extra cognitive load in exam questions may prevent those questions from accurately measuring the skills and knowledge of the student.This points to the need for instructors to eliminate cognitive load from their exams.

The Perception of Health Workers and Stakeholders Involved in the Process of Selecting Indigent in Burkina Faso

Background: Indigent selected for their health care is complex and poses enormous challenges. The actors involved have an influence on health actions and their perception is decisive for better care for the indigent. Little evidence exists on these perceptions and this paper has captured this. Methods: A case study involved 163 participants with a questionnaire and an interview guide. The quantitative responses were classified according to a measurement scale, proportions and overall indices of perception (Ip) and satisfaction (CSAT) were calculated. The relationship between variables was investigated using chi-square. Thematic analysis was used with qualitative data. The study met ethical requirements. Results: The participants had a positive perception of the selection: Ip = 0.77, but a minority (1/5) were dissatisfied with the selection. The perception of selection did not differ significantly depending on the experience of the actors. For the vast majority, the definition of indigent was satisfactory (CSAT = 91.4). The selection was done in a top down fashion and steps such as setting up committees, informing stakeholders, had shortcomings which negatively impacted the effectiveness of the selection. The needs of the participants included transparency in the indigent select process, matching the tools for selecting the indigent to the context, strengthening of local action, deconstruction of prejudices in terms of the indigent, power of actors to act, and importance for health services to reach out to the indigent. Conclusion: Considering the perception of the actors as well as their needs will improve the selection for effective care of the indigent.

A MULTILAYER FEEDFORWARD NEURAL NETWORK MODEL FOR VISUAL MOTION PERCEPTION

The local visual motion detection mechanism used in the visual systems of primatescan only sense the motion component oriented perpendicularly to the contrast gradient of thebrightness pattern.But the visual system of higher animals can adaptively determine the actualdirection of motion through a learning process.In this paper a multilayered feedforward neuralnetwork model for perception of visual motion is presented.This model employs W.Reichardt’selementary motion detectors array and T.Kohonen’s self-organizing feature map.We explored theself-organizing principles for perception of visual motion.The computer simulations show thatthis neural network is able to recognize the true direction of motion through an unsupervisedlearning process.In addition,the neurons with the same or similar motion direction selectivitytend to appear in“functional columns”which seem to be qualitatively similar to the corticalmotion columns observed by electrophysiological and cytohistochemical studies in certain higherareas such as MT.It proves that motion-detection by spatio-temporal coherences,mapping,co-operation,competition,and Hebb rule may be the basic principles for the self-organization ofvisual motion perception networks.

Empirical Research on Tourists' After-trip Perception of Landscape Preference in the Confucius Temple in Nanjing City

Thurstone’s Comparative Judgment Model was applied to measure characteristics of tourists’after-trip perception of landscape preference in the Confucius Temple,a famous historical block in Nanjing City.The results show that(a)as time goes by,the tourists’time perception differentiation has continuously sublimated from the general experience into the peak experience,and gradually evolved into the core experience element in the overall perception.In terms of content,perceptional contents of tourists decrease in sequence of the Confucian culture,the commercial culture and the culture of refined scholars.As a whole,tourists’after-trip perception differentiation has 3 sections:halo zone,sub-halo zone,and gray zone.(b)Because of tourism development,the Confucian culture is influenced by other cultures,and the commercial culture shows the trend of"over-generalization",and the culture of refined scholars has weakening carriers and modes of inheritance.Inheritance of its unique cultural connotations deserves increasing attention.

Changes in Rainfall and Temperature and Its Impact on Crop Production in Moyamba District, Southern Sierra Leone

Rainfall and temperature are the important variables that are often used to trace climate variability and change. A Perception study and analysis of climatic data were conducted to assess the changes in rainfall and temperature and their impact on crop production in Moyamba district, Sierra Leone. For the perception study, 400 farmers were randomly selected from Farmer-Based Organizations (FBOs) in 4 chiefdoms and 30 Agricultural Extension Workers (AWEs) in the Moyamba district were purposely selected as respondents. Descriptive statistics and Kendall’s test of concordance was used to analyze the data collected from the farmers and AEWs. Data for the analysis of variability and trends of rainfall and temperature from 1991 to 2020 were obtained from the Sierra Leone Meteorological Agency and Njala University and grouped into monthly, seasonal and annual time series. Regression analyses were used to determine the statistical values and trend lines for the seasonal and annual time series data. The Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s Slope Estimator were used to analyze the significance and magnitude of the trends respectively. The results of both studies show evidence of climate change in the Moyamba district. A substantial number of farmers and AEWs perceived a decrease in the annual rainfall amount, length of the rainy season, a late start and end of the rainy season, an increase in the temperature during the day and night, and a shortened harmattan period over the last 30 years. Analysis of the meteorological data shows evidence of variability in the seasonal and annual distribution of rainfall and temperature, a decreasing and non-significant trend in the rainy season and annual rainfall and an increasing and significant trend in seasonal and annual temperature from 1991 to 2020. However, the observed changes in rainfall and temperature by the farmers and AEWs partially agree with the results of the analyzed meteorological data. The majority of the farmers perceived that;adverse weather conditions have negatively affected crop production in the district. Droughts, high temperatures, and irregular rainfall are the three major adverse weather events that farmers perceived to have contributed to a substantial loss in the yields of the major crops cultivated in the district. In response to the negative effects of adverse weather events, a substantial number of farmers take no action due to their lack of knowledge, technical or financial capacity to implement climate-sensitive agricultural (CSA) practices. Even though few farmers are practicing some CSA practices on their farms, there is an urgent need to build the capacity of farmers and AEWs to adapt to and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. The most priority support needed by farmers is the provision of climate-resilient crop varieties whilst the AEWs need training on CSA practices.

基于改进YOLOX-s的机场跑道冰雪状态感知

针对机场冰雪跑道安全性和适航性状态感知能力不足及跑道表面状况报告交互的新需求,提出一种面向多尺度特征融合的机场跑道冰雪状态感知模型.以YOLOX-s模型为基础,在主干特征提取网络中引入全局上下文模块,获取更丰富的浅层与深层特征;将颈部结构中路径聚合网络替换为双向特征金字塔,以提升特征融合能力;在加强特征提取网络尾部添加自适应空间特征融合结构,进一步增强特征融合效果;使用α-EIoU优化损失函数,提高模型收敛速度与精度.实验结果表明,改进后的YOLOX-s模型在跑道冰雪实验系统所得的冰雪污染物数据集上平均精度达到了91.53%,比原始的YOLOX-s模型提高了4.68%,能够为机场跑道除冰雪作业提供决策支持.

基于自动驾驶“视见”的行动伦理方案

随着自动驾驶技术的发展,自动驾驶汽车不可避免地遭遇行动责任、行动决断、行动后果三方面的“路上道德”难题。基于人工智能“感知-决策-执行”一体化即时响应,自动驾驶遵循“‘视见’即行动”的行动逻辑。它内含三方面的伦理扩展:①视觉算法从“人工智能行动者”向“人工道德行动者”的扩展;②从“技术能动性”向“道德能动性”的扩展;③从“技术规范性”向“道德规范性”的扩展。三种伦理扩展分别对应于让自动驾驶行动“见责任”“见决断”“见后果”。基于“视见”的行动伦理方案,不是一般意义上的“路上道德”,而是走在探问“技术调节如何转换出‘道德调节’”的路上了。为此,还要形成一个“远见”:在“警惕人工智能”的同时,做好拥抱自动驾驶汽车广泛进入人类生活的准备。自动驾驶之“视见”,唯有在这一“存在”的道路上,才能让“责任”回归于自动驾驶行动自身。

血液透析患者及配偶疾病感知、应对方式与恐惧疾病进展的关系研究

目的基于主客体互依中介模型探究中老年维持性血液透析患者及配偶疾病感知、应对方式与恐惧疾病进展之间的关系。方法选取3所三级甲等医院的239例中老年维持性血液透析患者及其配偶,采用恐惧疾病进展简化量表、简易应对方式问卷、简易疾病感知问卷对其进行调查。结果中老年维持性血液透析患者恐惧疾病进展得分为(38.48±8.50)分;配偶得分为(38.05±8.21)分;患者恐惧疾病进展与其自身以及配偶的疾病感知、消极应对方式呈正相关,与积极应对方式呈负相关(均P<0.05);配偶恐惧疾病进展与其自身以及患者的疾病感知、消极应对方式呈正相关,而与积极应对方式呈负相关(均P<0.05)。主客体互依中介模型显示,患者与配偶双方的疾病感知均对自身的恐惧疾病进展有直接预测作用(均P<0.05);双方疾病感知均可以通过自身的积极应对方式对自身恐惧疾病进展产生影响(均P<0.05);患者疾病感知对配偶的恐惧疾病进展有正向预测作用(P<0.05);双方疾病感知均可以通过患者的积极应对方式对对方的恐惧疾病进展产生影响(均P<0.05)。结论中老年维持性血液透析患者及配偶的恐惧疾病进展存在二元交互影响,患者及配偶的疾病感知均可通过患者积极应对方式对对方的恐惧疾病进展产生影响。临床医护人员可从二元角度制定提高夫妻双方积极应对的干预措施,以缓解夫妻双方恐惧疾病进展心理。

肉苁蓉苯乙醇总苷对大鼠肝星状细胞TGF-β1/Smad信号通路表达的影响

目的：探讨肉苁蓉苯乙醇总苷（CPh Gs）对转化生长因子β1（TGF-β1）介导的大鼠肝星状细胞（HSC-T6）增殖活化作用及对TGF-β1/Smad信号通路表达的影响。方法：试验分为正常对照组、5 ng/mL TGF-β1刺激的HSC-T6模型组、5 ng/mL TGF-β1＋不同终浓度（25、50、75和100μg/m L）CPh Gs给药组,另设只加DMEM培养液的空白组。体外培养HSC-T6细胞,通过四甲基偶氮唑盐法（MTT）检测细胞的增殖;LDH比色法测定CPh Gs的细胞毒性;采用荧光定量PCR（q PCR）检测Smad2、Smad3和Smad7 mRNA的表达;采用Western blot法检测Smad2、Smad3、p-Smad2、p-Smad3和Smad7蛋白的表达。结果：与正常对照组比较,TGF-β1模型组显著促进了HSC-T6细胞的增殖,而50-100μg/m L的CPh Gs可以抑制TGF-β1诱导的HSC-T6细胞的增殖（P〈0.05）,且25-100μg/m L的CPh Gs对HSC-T6无明显细胞毒性作用;25-100μg/m L CPh Gs均可抑制Smad2和Smad3 m RNA和蛋白水平的表达,且明显抑制Smad2和Smad3蛋白的磷酸化水平,促进Smad7 mRNA和蛋白的表达,差异均具有统计学意义（P〈0.05或P〈0.01）。结论：CPh Gs的抗肝纤维化作用可能与其阻断TGF-β1/Smad通路进而阻断HSC-T6细胞的活化和增殖有关。

基于T-S模型的交通状态自适应神经模糊推理系统建模与仿真

针对交通状态的识别诊断问题,引入驾驶人对交通拥堵程度的感知评价作为模型的学习目标,并建立了基于T-S(Takag-i Sugeno)模型的自适应神经模糊推理系统(ANFIS)模型.通过仿真,证明所建立的模型具有较快的收敛速度与较高的识别精度,对交通状态的识别问题研究具有一定的泛化能力和较强的应用效果.

知觉状态对瞳孔大小的影响——来自双稳态刺激的研究

采用多种双稳态刺激(实验一)和线索启动范式(实验二)考察了知觉状态对瞳孔大小的影响.结果显示,参与者观看面孔-花瓶双稳态刺激时,花瓶知觉状态下的平均瞳孔直径明显大于面孔知觉状态下的平均瞳孔直径,表明瞳孔大小受到知觉状态这一认知过程的影响.

Gastrointestinal motility disorders in inflammatory bowel diseases

The relationship between motility and inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders is at the same time complex and intriguing since these conditions might share some genetic, environmental, immunological and microbial predisposing factors. In addition, significant symptom overlapping may occur, muddling the waters within the clinical context. Although on one hand this represents a challenge for the clinician for a potential under- or over-treatment and diagnostic delay, on the other hand it possibly represents an opportunity for the researcher to better disclose the intimate relationship between chronic (often low-grade) inflammation, motor disorders and deranged sensory function. The best example is probably represented by Crohn&#x02019;s disease and ulcerative colitis. In fact, a number of gastrointestinal motor disorders have been described in association with these diseases, disorders which span from the esophagus to the anorectum, and which will be extensively covered in this review. It is conceivable that at least part of this derangement is strictly related to inflammatory cytokine trafficking and neuromuscular changes; however, given the high prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders in the general population, this overlap might also be serendipitous. However, it is worth noting that literature data on this topic are relatively scarce, sometimes quite outdated, and mostly focused on the interplay between irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. Nevertheless, both researchers and clinicians must be aware that symptoms related to gastrointestinal motility disorders may be highly prevalent in both active and inactive inflammatory bowel disease, correlate with greater psychological comorbidity and poorer quality of life, and may negatively influence the therapeutic approaches.

Pearson＇s Correlation Coefficient： A More Realistic Threshold for Applications on Autonomous Robotics

Many applications for control of autonomous platform are being developed and one important aspect is the excess of information, frequently redundant, that imposes a great computational cost in data processing. Taking into account the temporal coherence between consecutive frames, the PCC （Pearson＇s Correlation Coefficient） was proposed and applied as： discarding criteria methodology, dynamic power management solution, environment observer method which selects automatically only the regions-of-interest; and taking place in the obstacle avoidance context, as a method for collision risk estimation for vehicles in dynamic and unknown environments. Even if the PCC is a great tool to help the autonomous or semi-autonomous navigation, distortions in the imaging system, pixel noise, slight variations in the object＇s position relative to the camera, and other factors produce a false PCC threshold. Whereas there are homogeneous regions in the image, in order to obtain a more realistic Pearson＇s correlation, we propose to use some prior known environment information.