Exploring the effects of increasing underutilized crops on consumers’ diets: the case of millet in Uganda

Known in the literature as underutilized, neglected or orphan crops, these crops have been cited as having the potential to improve food and nutritional security. The literature also highlights however that consumers in developing countries are increasingly abandoning their traditional diets that these crops are part of, and are replacing them by western diets. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumption and nutritional implications of expanding the participation of underutilized crops in current diets. This was done using a modified version of the microeconomic consumer problem. This was augmented with a linear constraint using generalized rationing theory that can be found in the economics literature. The method was applied to the case study of the consumption of millet (finger millet, botanical name: Eleusine coracana) by rural, urban-poor and urban-affluent Ugandan socioeconomic groups. The results indicated that millet could contribute to improving the intake of macronutrients and of some micronutrients, though the overall picture is complex. However, under current preferences and given its demand inelasticity, to achieve a substantial increase in the quantity of millet in the diet will require a significant reduction of its price. Otherwise, the net impact on nutrition as measured by the mean adequacy ratio will be only slightly positive for rural and urban-poor households. Our findings indicate that supply-side initiatives aimed at increasing the productivity of underutilized crops (reducing crop price) are likely to produce disappointing results in restoring their importance unless accompanied by specific interventions to expand demand.

On Parametrizations of State Feedbacks and Static Output Feedbacks and Their Applications

In this chapter, we provide an explicit free parametrization of all the stabilizing static state feedbacks for continuous-time Linear-Time-Invariant (LTI) systems, which are given in their state-space representation. The parametrization of the set of all the stabilizing static output feedbacks is next derived by imposing a linear constraint on the stabilizing static state feedbacks of a related system. The parametrizations are utilized for optimal control problems and for pole-placement and exact pole-assignment problems.

Deep multi-task mining Calabi-Yau four-folds

We continue earlier efforts in computing the dimensions of tangent space cohomologies of Calabi-Yau manifolds using deep learning. In this paper, we consider the dataset of all Calabi-Yau four-folds constructed as complete intersections in products of projective spaces. Employing neural networks inspired by state-of-the-art computer vision architectures, we improve earlier benchmarks and demonstrate that all four non-trivial Hodge numbers can be learned at the same time using a multi-task architecture. With 30 % (80 %) training ratio, we reach an accuracy of 100 % for h(1,1) and 97 % for h(2,1) (100 % for both), 81 % (96 %) for h(3,1), and 49 % (83 %) for h(2,2). Assuming that the Euler number is known, as it is easy to compute, and taking into account the linear constraint arising from index computations, we get 100 % total accuracy.

ℳcTEQ (ℳ chiral perturbation theory-compatible deconfinement Temperature and Entanglement Entropy up to terms Quartic in curvature) and FM (Flavor Memory)

A (semiclassical) holographic computation of the deconfinement temperature at intermediate coupling from (a top-down) ℳ-theory dual of thermal QCD-like theories, has been missing in the literature. In the process of filling this gap, we demonstrate a novel UV-IR connection, (conjecture and provide evidence for) a non-renormalization beyond one loop of ℳ-chiral perturbation theory [1]-compatible deconfinement Temperature, and show equivalence with an Entanglement (as well as Wald) entropy [2] computation, up to terms Quartic in curvature (R). We demonstrate a Flavor-Memory (FM) effect in the ℳ-theory uplifts of the gravity duals, wherein the no-braner ℳ-theory uplift retains the “memory” of the flavor D7-branes of the parent type IIB dual in the sense that a specific combination of the aforementioned quartic corrections to the metric components precisely along the compact part (given by S3 as an S1-fibration over the vanishing two-cycle S2) of the non-compact four-cycle “wrapped” by the flavor D7-branes, is what determines, e.g., the Einstein-Hilbert action at O(R4). The aforementioned linear combination of 𝒪(R4) corrections to the ℳ-theory uplift [3, 4] metric, upon matching the holographic result from ℳχPT [1] with the phenomenological value of the coupling constant of one of the SU(3) NLO χPT Lagrangian of [5], is required to have a definite sign. Interestingly, in the decompactification (or “MKK → 0”) limit of the spatial circle in [1] to recover a QCD-like theory in four dimensions after integrating out the compact directions, we not only derive this, but in fact obtain the values of the relevant 𝒪(R4) metric corrections. Further, equivalence with Wald entropy for the black hole in the high-temperature ℳ-theory dual at 𝒪(R4) imposes a linear constraint on a similar linear combination of the abovementioned metric corrections. Remarkably, when evaluating the deconfinement temperature from an entanglement entropy computation in the thermal gravity dual, due to a delicate cancellation between the contributions arising from the metric corrections at 𝒪(R4) in the ℳ theory uplift along the S1-fiber and an S2 (which too involves a similar S1-fibration) resulting in a non-zero contribution only along the vanishing S2 surviving, one sees that there are consequently no corrections to Tc at quartic order in the curvature supporting the conjecture made on the basis of a semiclassical computation.

Calmness of Linear Constraint Systems under Structured Perturbations with an Application to the Path-Following Scheme

We are concerned with finite linear constraint systems in a parametric framework where the right-hand side is an affine function of the perturbation parameter. Such structured perturbations provide a unified framework for different parametric models in the literature, as block, directional and/or partial perturbations of both inequalities and equalities. We extend some recent results about calmness of the feasible set mapping and provide an application to the convergence of a certain path-following algorithmic scheme. We underline the fact that our formula for the calmness modulus depends only on the nominal data, which makes it computable in practice.

QoS routing in cluster OLSR by using the artificial intelligence model MSSP in the big data environnment

<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-75ba661c-7fff-7cfb-9afe-b7c901c3fe82"><span>The most complex problems, in data science and more specifically in artificial intelligence, can be modeled as cases of the maximum stable set problem (MSSP). this article describes a new approach to solve the MSSP problem by proposing the continuous hopfield network (CHN) to build optimized link state protocol routing (OLSR) protocol cluster. our approach consists in proposing in two stages: the first acts at the level of the choice of the OLSR master cluster in order to quickly make a local minimum using the CHN, by modeling the MSSP problem. As for the second step, the objective is the improvement of the precision making a solution of efficient at the first rank of neighborhood as a linear constraint, and at the end, to find the resolution of the model using the CHN. We will show that this model determines a good solution of the MSSP problem. To test the theoretical results, we propose a comparison with a classic OLSR.</span></span></p>

Capacitors placement in distribution systems with nonlinear load by using the variables’ inclusion and interchange algorithm

This work presents a substantial improvement of the variables’ inclusion and interchange algorithm (VIIA) for capacitors placement that considers circuits with harmonic distortion. Several load states are considered, and fixed and switched capacitors are employed in optimization. All the pertinent constraints of voltage magnitude, total harmonic distortion, individual harmonic distortion, and of overstress of capacitors are implemented. The here defined global harmonic-distortion index states the distance to the feasibility or the unfeasibility of a solution with respect the harmonic distortion constraints. The inclusion in the sequential quadratic programming sub-problem of an inequality linear constraint on this global harmonic-distortion index, allows the determining of solutions that comply with the harmonic distortion related constraints. A comparison of the solutions of various examples obtained by the presented method with the best solutions obtained by the Matlab’s genetic algorithm shows the effectiveness of this method.

Does CMIP6 better constrain projections of 21st century Antarctic sea ice loss?

&lt;p&gt;Results from CMIP5 have previously suggested that ensemble regression techniques or model selection may provide solutions to the challenge of making projections of future Antarctic sea ice area (SIA) in the presence of large historical biases. Here, we revisit and extend such analysis incorporating the CMIP6 ensemble, which shows modest improvements in some aspects of sea ice simulation and in particular a reduction of inter-model spread in historical SIA. We focus on the strongest forcing scenarios analysed, CMIP5 RCP85 and CMIP6 SSP5.85.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In summer (February) the historical climatology of SIA is a strong linear constraint on projections of SIA in both generations. This is because the strong forcing leads to the loss of the majority of summer SIA in each model, so that the models that start with greater SIA exhibit greater reductions. Differences between CMIP5 and CMIP6 are largely explained by the fact that, compared to CMIP6, CMIP5 contains many more models that have very large positive biases in historical SIA and do not lose the majority of ice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In winter (September), a much smaller proportion of SIA is lost, but inter-model spread in SIA climatology still explains just under half the variance in projections of SIA change, in both CMIP5 and CMIP6. The mean historical winter climatology is similar between generations, as is the regression slope of SIA change against SIA climatology.&amp;#160; However, there is a greater reduction of SIA in CMIP6 than CMIP5. We find this to be statistically related to greater global mean warming in CMIP6 than CMIP5, and therefore potentially to the larger climate sensitivity in the CMIP6 ensemble.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These findings imply that, depending on season, a different balance of local (SIA climatology) and global (GMST change) drivers can be used to explain the inter-model and inter-generation spread in projections of SIA loss. They also firmly tie our ability to project Antarctic SIA loss to our understanding of the fidelity of higher CMIP6 climate sensitivity. Questions remain about whether models are correct in their simulation of Antarctic SIA sensitivity to global surface temperature.&lt;/p&gt;