Search results for: geo spatial database

Authors: Zhuanfang Fred Zhang, Tim C. Johnson, Yilin Fang, Chris E. Strickland

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A variety of geophysical techniques are available to image the opaque subsurface with little or no contact with the soil. It is common to conduct time-lapse surveys of different types for a given site for improved results of subsurface imaging. Regardless of the chosen survey methods, it is often a challenge to process the massive amount of survey data. The currently available software applications are generally based on the one-dimensional assumption for a desktop personal computer. Hence, they are usually incapable of imaging the three-dimensional (3D) processes/variables in the subsurface of reasonable spatial scales; the maximum amount of data that can be inverted simultaneously is often very small due to the capability limitation of personal computers. Presently, high-performance or integrating software that enables real-time integration of multi-process geophysical methods is needed. E4D-MP enables the integration and inversion of time-lapsed large-scale data surveys from geophysical methods. Using the supercomputing capability and parallel computation algorithm, E4D-MP is capable of processing data across vast spatiotemporal scales and in near real time. The main code and the modules of E4D-MP for inverting individual or combined data sets of time-lapse 3D electrical resistivity, spectral induced polarization, and gravity surveys have been developed and demonstrated for sub-surface imaging. E4D-MP provides capability of imaging the processes (e.g., liquid or gas flow, solute transport, cavity development) and subsurface properties (e.g., rock/soil density, conductivity) critical for successful control of environmental engineering related efforts such as environmental remediation, carbon sequestration, geothermal exploration, and mine land reclamation, among others.

Keywords: gravity survey, high-performance computing, sub-surface monitoring, electrical resistivity tomography

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Authors: Nasir Ashraf, Sajid Rahid Ahmad, Adeel Ahmad

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Pakistan is a major tea consumer country and ranked as the third largest importer of tea worldwide. Out of all beverage consumed in Pakistan, tea is the one with most demand for which tea import is inevitable. Being an agrarian country, Pakistan should cultivate its own tea and save the millions of dollars cost from tea import. So the need is to identify the most suitable areas with favorable weather condition and suitable soils where tea can be planted. This research is conducted over District Mansehra and District Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwah Province of Pakistan where the most favorable conditions for tea cultivation already exist and National Tea Research Institute has done successful experiments to cultivate high quality tea. High tech approach is adopted to meet the objectives of this research by using the remotely sensed data i.e. Aster DEM, Landsat8 Imagery. The Remote Sensing data was processed in Erdas Imagine, Envi and further analyzed in ESRI ArcGIS spatial analyst for final results and representation of result data in map layouts. Integration of remote sensing data with GIS provided the perfect suitability analysis. The results showed that out of all study area, 13.4% area is highly suitable while 33.44% area is suitable for tea plantation. The result of this research is an impressive GIS based outcome and structured format of data for the agriculture planners and Tea growers. Identification of suitable tea growing areas by using remotely sensed data and GIS techniques is a pressing need for the country. Analysis of this research lets the planners to address variety of action plans in an economical and scientific manner which can lead tea production in Pakistan to meet demand. This geomatics based model and approach may be used to identify more areas for tea cultivation to meet our demand which we can reduce by planting our own tea, and our country can be independent in tea production.

Keywords: agrarian country, GIS, geoinformatics, suitability analysis, remote sensing

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Authors: Arun Joshi

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The present study deals with the report of Gangamopteriscyclopteroides from the Barakar Formation of Simlong Open Cast Mine, Rajmahal Area, Rajmahal Basin, Jharkhand, India. The genus Gangamopteriscomprises leaves which are simple, entire, symmetrical or asymmetrical, linear, lanceolate, elliptical, obovate in shape, apex broadly rounded, obtuse, acute, acuminate or mucronate, base petiolate or contracted, midrib absent. Median region occupied by subparallel veins with anastomoses of elongate or hexagonal outline. Secondary veins arise from median veins by repeated dichotomy, arched, bifurcating and anasotomosing network. The present work is significant as it represents the presence of Glossopteris flora (250- 290 ma) which is mainly responsible for the formation of coal. Coal is one of the major fuels for power production through thermal power plants. The Glossopteris flora is one of the major floras that occupied the southern continent during Carboniferous- Permian time. This southern continent is also known as Gondwana comprising Australia, South Africa, Antarctica, Madagascar and India. There is a vast geological reserve of coal with favorable stripping ratio available at the Simlong Block but the area comes under the most naxalite prone area and thus the mine has been running in an unplanned manner. It has got the potential of becoming a big project with higher capacity and is well suited for enhancing production which can be helpful in the economic growth of the country. Though, the present record is scanty, it shows the presence of Glossopteris flora responsible for the formation of coal in the Coalmine. However, there are fears of fossils disappearing from this area as the state government of Jharkhand has given out a mining lease in the area to private companies. Therefore, it is very necessary to study such coal forming vegetation and their systematic study from the area to generate a new palaeobotanical database, palaeoenvironmental interpretation, basinal correlation and for the understanding of evolutionary perspectives.

Keywords: Barakar formation, coal, Glossopteris flora, Gondwana, India, Naxalite, Rajmahal Basin

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Authors: Ballari Bagchi

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The dynamism ingrained in the process of urban-rural integration is manifested in the emergence of rurban settlements, referring to areas that combine the characteristics of agricultural activities found in rural zones with those of suburban living areas and industrialised zones. The concept of rurbanisation refers to the idea of introducing urban conveniences and opportunities, to rural areas in an attempt to stem rural urban migration. In the backdrop of the worldwide problem of disharmonised urban-rural dependence and the associated problems in urban and rural areas, the present study seeks to explore the potentialities of few settlements having a blend of rural and urban characteristics in the urban field of Koch Bihar. The prime concern of the present paper is three-fold: (i) to identify the rurban centres, (ii) to analyse the spatial integration of these identified centres with the rural areas situated in the urban periphery, and (iii) to suggest the necessities to be introduced in these settlements. The methodology applied here includes rurban index, gravity model, and functional classification of rurban centres, correlation and regression analysis and cartographic representation of data collected through primary and secondary sources. The investigation has identified a number of settlements potentially viable to be termed as rurban centres which may render services to the other less equipped rural areas in all aspects of life and thereby would lessen the burden on Koch Bihar urban centre. The levels of infrastructure of these settlements should be such that it might even attract the urban population in a reverse direction. The villages belonging to the lower rung of these service settlements would require metalled road connection with these intermediate settlements in addition to their connection with the core town. That is to say, a proper policy needs to be adopted in this regard to furnish these settlements with required infrastructures for serving their own population as well as the population of other villages. As a consequence of that, the idea of a well-coordinated settlement hierarchy may emerge in future.

Keywords: Hinterland, rurban, settlement hierarchy, urban-rural integration

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Authors: Mohammad Zaeimzade

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The development of communication technologies is clearly and rapidly moving towards reducing the distance between the virtual and real worlds. Of course, living in a two-spatial or two-globalized world or any other interpretation that means mixing real and virtual life is still relevant and debatable. In the present age of communication, where social networks have transformed the message equation and turned the audience out of passivity and turned into a user. Platforms have penetrated widely in various aspects of human life, from culture and education and economy. Among the messengers, Instagram, which is one of the most extensive image-based interactive networks, plays a significant role in the new economic life. It doesn't need much explanation that the era of thinking of every messenger as a non-insulating conductor that is just a neutral load has passed. Every messenger has its own economic, political and of course security background, Instagram is no exception to this rule and of course it leaves its effects in bio-economics as well. Iran, as the 19th largest economy in the world, has not been unaffected by new platforms, including Instagram, and their consequences in the economy. Generally, in the policy-making space, there are two simple and inflexible pessimistic or optimistic views on this issue, and each of the holders of these views usually have their own one-dimensional policy recommendations regarding how to deal with Instagram. Prescriptions that are usually very different and sometimes contradictory. In this article, we show that this confusion of policymakers is the result of not accurately describing the reality of its effect, and the reason for this inaccurate description is the existence of a conflict of interests in the eyes of describers and researchers. In this article, we first take a look at the main indicators of the Iranian economy, estimate the role of the digital economy in Iran's economic growth, then study the conflicting descriptions of the Instagram-based digital economy, the statistics that show the tolerance of economic users of Instagram in Iran. 300 thousand to 9 million have been estimated. Finally, we take a look at the government's actions in this matter, especially in the context of street riots in October and November 2022. And we suggest an intermediate idea.

Keywords: digital economy, instagram, conflict of interest, social networks

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Authors: Amit G. Dhorde

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It is now well established that the global surface air temperatures have increased significantly during the period that followed the industrial revolution. One of the main predictions of climate change is that the occurrences of extreme weather events will increase in future. In many regions of the world, high-temperature extremes have already started occurring with rising frequency. The main objective of the present study is to understand spatial and temporal changes in days with heat and cold wave conditions over southern India. The study area includes the region of India that lies to the south of Tropic of Cancer. To fulfill the objective, daily maximum and minimum temperature data for 80 stations were collected for the period 1969-2006 from National Data Center of India Meteorological Department. After assessing the homogeneity of data, 62 stations were finally selected for the study. Heat and cold waves were classified as slight, moderate and severe based on the criteria given by Indias' meteorological department. For every year, numbers of days experiencing heat and cold wave conditions were computed. This data was analyzed with linear regression to find any existing trend. Further, the time period was divided into four decades to investigate the decadal frequency of the occurrence of heat and cold waves. The results revealed that the average annual temperature over southern India shows an increasing trend, which signifies warming over this area. Further, slight cold waves during winter season have been decreasing at the majority of the stations. The moderate cold waves also show a similar pattern at the majority of the stations. This is an indication of warming winters over the region. Besides this analysis, other extreme indices were also analyzed such as extremely hot days, hot days, very cold nights, cold nights, etc. This analysis revealed that nights are becoming warmer and days are getting warmer over some regions too.

Keywords: heat wave, cold wave, southern India, decadal frequency

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Authors: Keunhong Chae, Seokho Yoon

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Recently, the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) such as Galileo and GPS is employing more satellites to provide a higher degree of accuracy for the location service, thus calling for a more efficient signaling scheme among the satellites used in the overall GNSS network. In that the network throughput is improved, the spatial diversity can be one of the efficient signaling schemes; however, it requires multiple antenna that could cause a significant increase in the complexity of the GNSS. Thus, a diversity scheme called the cooperative signaling was proposed, where the virtual multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signaling is realized with using only a single antenna in the transmit satellite of interest and with modeling the neighboring satellites as relay nodes. The main drawback of the cooperative signaling is that the relay nodes receive the transmitted signal at different time instants, i.e., they operate in an asynchronous way, and thus, the overall performance of the GNSS network could degrade severely. To tackle the problem, several modified cooperative signaling schemes were proposed; however, all of them are difficult to implement due to a signal decoding at the relay nodes. Although the implementation at the relay nodes could be simpler to some degree by employing the time-reversal and conjugation operations instead of the signal decoding, it would be more efficient if we could implement the operations of the relay nodes at the source node having more resources than the relay nodes. So, in this paper, we propose a novel cooperative signaling scheme, where the data signals are combined in a unique way at the source node, thus obviating the need of the complex operations such as signal decoding, time-reversal and conjugation at the relay nodes. The numerical results confirm that the proposed scheme provides the same performance in the cooperative diversity and the bit error rate (BER) as the conventional scheme, while reducing the complexity at the relay nodes significantly. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the National GNSS Research Center program of Defense Acquisition Program Administration and Agency for Defense Development.

Keywords: global navigation satellite network, cooperative signaling, data combining, nodes

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Authors: L. A. Ostrovsky, Yu. A. Stepanyants

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Effect of Earth rotation on nonlinear waves is a practically important and theoretically challenging problem of fluid mechanics and geophysics. Whereas the large-scale, geostrophic processes such as Rossby waves are a classical object of oceanic and atmospheric physics, rotation effects on mesoscale waves are not well studied. In particular, the Coriolis force can radically modify the behavior of nonlinear internal gravity waves in the ocean having spatial scales of 1-10 kilometers and time durations of few hours. In the last decade, such a non-trivial behavior was observed more than once. Similar effects are possible for magnetic sound in the ionosphere. Here we outline the main physical peculiarities in the behavior of nonlinear internal waves due to the rotation effect and present some results of our recent studies. The consideration is based on the fourth-order equation derived by one of the authors as a rotation-modified Korteweg–de Vries (rKdV) equation which includes two types of dispersion: one is responsible for the finiteness of depth as in the classical KdV equation; another is due to the Coriolis effect. This equation is, in general, non-integrable; moreover, under the conditions typical of oceanic waves (positive dispersion parameter), it does not allow solitary solutions at all. In the opposite case (negative dispersion) which is possible for, e.g., magnetic sound, solitary solutions do exist and can form complex bound states (multisoliton). Another non-trivial properties of nonlinear internal waves with rotation include, to name a few, the ‘terminal’ damping of the initial KdV soliton disappearing in a finite time due to radiation losses caused by Earth’s rotation, and eventual transformation of a KdV soliton into a wave packet (an envelope soliton). The new results to be discussed refer to the interaction of a soliton with a long background wave. It is shown, in particular, that in this case internal solitons can exist since the radiation losses are compensated by energy pumping from the background wave. Finally, the relevant oceanic observations of rotation effect on internal waves are briefly described.

Keywords: Earth rotation, internal waves, nonlinear waves, solitons

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Authors: German Hernandez-Alonso, Antonio Lazcano, Arturo Becerra

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Until today, viruses remain controversial and poorly understood; about their origin, this problem represents an enigma and one of the great challenges for the contemporary biology. Three main theories have tried to explain the origin of viruses: regressive evolution, escaped host gene, and pre-cellular origin. Under the perspective of the escaped host gene theory, it can be assumed a cellular origin of viral components, like protein RNA-binding domains. These universal distributed RNA-binding domains are related to the RNA metabolism processes, including transcription, processing, and modification of transcripts, translation, RNA degradation and its regulation. In the case of viruses, these domains are present in important viral proteins like helicases, nucleases, polymerases, capsid proteins or regulation factors. Therefore, they are implicated in the replicative cycle and parasitic processes of viruses. That is why it is possible to think that those domains present low levels of divergence due to selective pressures. For these reasons, the main goal for this project is to create a catalogue of the RNA-binding domains found in all the available viral proteomes, using bioinformatics tools in order to analyze its evolutionary process, and thus shed light on the general virus evolution. ProDom database was used to obtain larger than six thousand RNA-binding domain families that belong to the three cellular domains of life and some viral groups. From the sequences of these families, protein profiles were created using HMMER 3.1 tools in order to find distant homologous within greater than four thousand viral proteomes available in GenBank. Once accomplished the analysis, almost three thousand hits were obtained in the viral proteomes. The homologous sequences were found in proteomes of the principal Baltimore viral groups, showing interesting distribution patterns that can contribute to understand the evolution of viruses and their host-virus interactions. Presence of cellular RNA-binding domains within virus proteomes seem to be explained by closed interactions between viruses and their hosts. Recruitment of these domains is advantageous for the viral fitness, allowing viruses to be adapted to the host cellular environment.

Keywords: bioinformatics tools, distant homology, RNA-binding domains, viral evolution

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Authors: Oluwasina Folajinmi, Kate Ssamulla, Penninah Lutung, Daniel Reijer

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Background: Despite of well-verified benefits of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in prolonging life expectancy being lost to follow-up (LTFU) presents a challenge to the success of ART programs in resource limited countries like Nigeria. In several studies of ART programs in developing countries, researchers have reported that there has been a high rate of LTFU among patients receiving care and treatment at ART treatment centers. This study seeks to determine the cause of LTFU among HIV clients. Method: A descriptive cross sectional study focused on a population of 9,280 persons living with HIV/AIDS who were enrolled in nine treatment centers in Nigeria (both pre-ART and ART patients were included). Out of the total population, 1752 (18.9%) were found to be LTFU. Of this group we randomly selected 1200 clients (68.5%) their d patients’ information was generated through a database. Data on demographics and CD4 counts, causes of LTFU were analyzed and summarized. Results: Out of 1200 LTFU clients selected, 462 (38.5%) were on ART; 341 clients (73.8%) had CD4 level < 500cell/µL and 738 (61.5%) on pre-ART had CD4 level >500/µL. In our records we found telephone number for 675 (56.1%) of these clients. 675 (56.1%) were owners of a phone. The majority of the client’s 731 (60.9%) were living at not more than 25km away from the ART center. A majority were females (926 or 77.2%) while 274 (22.8%) were male. 675 (56.1%) clients were reported traced via telephone and home address. 326 (27.2%) of clients phone numbers were not reachable; 173 (14.4%) of telephone numbers were incomplete. 71 (5.9%) had relocated due to communal crises and expert client trackers reported that some patient could not afford transportation to ART centers. Conclusion: This study shows that, low health education levels, poverty, relocations and lack of reliable phone contact were major predictors of LTFU. Periodic updates of home addresses, telephone contacts including at least two next of kin, phone text messages and home visits may improve follow up. Early and consistent tracking of missed appointments is crucial. Creation of more ART decentralized centres are needed to avoid long distances.

Keywords: anti-retroviral therapy, HIV/AIDS, predictors, lost to follow up

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Authors: Reema K. AlEssa, Sahar Alshomer, Abdullah Alfaleh, Sultan ALkhenaizan, Mohammed Albalwi

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Ichthyosis is a disorder of abnormal keratinization, characterized by excessive scaling, and consists of more than twenty subtypes varied in severity, mode of inheritance, and the genes involved. There is insufficient data in the literature about the epidemiology and characteristics of ichthyosis locally. Our aim is to identify the histopathological features and genetic profile of ichthyosis. Method: It is an observational retrospective case series study conducted in March 2020, included all patients who were diagnosed with Ichthyosis and confirmed by histological and molecular findings over the last 20 years in King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Molecular analysis was performed by testing genomic DNA and checking genetic variations using the AmpliSeq panel. All disease-causing variants were checked against HGMD, ClinVar, Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), and Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC) databases. Result: A total of 60 cases of Ichthyosis were identified with a mean age of 13 ± 9.2. There is an almost equal distribution between female patients 29 (48%) and males 31 (52%). The majority of them were Saudis, 94%. More than half of patients presented with general scaling 33 (55%), followed by dryness and coarse skin 19 (31.6%) and hyperlinearity 5 (8.33%). Family history and history of consanguinity were seen in 26 (43.3% ), 13 (22%), respectively. History of colloidal babies was found in 6 (10%) cases of ichthyosis. The most frequent genes were ALOX12B, ALOXE3, CERS3, CYP4F22, DOLK, FLG2, GJB2, PNPLA1, SLC27A4, SPINK5, STS, SUMF1, TGM1, TGM5, VPS33B. Most frequent variations were detected in CYP4F22 in 16 cases (26.6%) followed by ALOXE3 6 (10%) and STS 6 (10%) then TGM1 5 (8.3) and ALOX12B 5 (8.3). The analysis of molecular genetic identified 23 different genetic variations in the genes of ichthyosis, of which 13 were novel mutations. Homozygous mutations were detected in the majority of ichthyosis cases, 54 (90%), and only 1 case was heterozygous. Few cases, 4 (6.6%) had an unknown type of ichthyosis with a negative genetic result. Conclusion: 13 novel mutations were discovered. Also, about half of ichthyosis patients had a positive history of consanguinity.

Keywords: ichthyosis, genetic profile, molecular characterization, congenital ichthyosis

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Authors: Tugce Caliskan

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The gentrification literature in Turkey provided important insights regarding the analysis of the socio-spatial change in İstanbul mostly through the existing gentrification theories which were produced in Anglo-American literature. Yet early researches focused on the classical gentrification while failing to notice other place-specific forms of the phenomena. It was only after the mid-2000s that scholarly attention shifted to the recent discussions in the mainstream such as the neoliberal urban policies, government involvement, and resistance. Although these studies have considerable potential to contribute to the geography of gentrification, it seems that copying the linear timeline of Anglo-American conceptualization limited the space to introduce contextually nuanced way of process in Turkey. More specifically, the gentrification literature in Turkey acknowledged the linear timeline of the process drawing on the mainstream studies, and, made the spontaneous classical gentrification as the starting point in İstanbul at the expense of contextually specific forms of the phenomenon that took place in the same years. This paper is an attempt to understand place-specific forms of gentrification through the abandonment of the linear understanding of time. In this vein, this paper approaches the process as moving both linear and cyclical rather than the waves succeeded each other. Maintaining a dialectical relationship between the cyclical and the linear time, this paper investigates how the components of gentrification have been taken place in the cyclical timeline while becoming bolder in the linear timeline. This paper argues that taking the (re)investment in the secondary circuit of capital and class transformation as the core characteristics of gentrification, and accordingly, searching for these components beyond the linear timeline provide strategic value to decenter the perspectives, not merely for Turkish studies. In this vein, this strategy revealed that Western experience of gentrification did not travel, adopted or copied in Turkey but gentrification -as an abstract and general concept- has emerged as a product of different contextual, historical and temporal forces which must be considered within the framework of state-led urbanization as early as 1980 differing from the Global North trajectories.

Keywords: comparative urbanism, geography of gentrification, linear and cyclical timeline, state-led gentrification

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Authors: Nadia Nisar

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Background: In the temperate regions Influenza activities occur sporadically all year round with peaks coinciding during cold months. Meteorological and environmental conditions play significant role in the transmission of influenza globally. In this study, we assessed the relationship between meteorological parameters and influenza activity in two geographical areas of Pakistan. Methods: Influenza data were collected from Islamabad (north) and Multan (south) regions of national influenza surveillance system during 2010-2015. Meteorological database was obtained from National Climatic Data Center (Pakistan). Logistic regression model with a stepwise approach was used to explore the relationship between meteorological parameters with influenza peaks. In statistical model, we used the weekly proportion of laboratory-confirmed influenza positive samples to represent Influenza activity with metrological parameters as the covariates (temperature, humidity and precipitation). We also evaluate the link between environmental conditions associated with seasonal influenza epidemics: 'cold-dry' and 'humid-rainy'. Results: We found that temperature and humidity was positively associated with influenza in north and south both locations (OR = 0.927 (0.88-0.97)) & (OR = 0.1.078 (1.027-1.132)) and (OR = 1.023 (1.008-1.037)) & (OR = 0.978 (0.964-0.992)) respectively, whilst precipitation was negatively associated with influenza (OR = 1.054 (1.039-1.070)) & (OR = 0.949 (0.935-0.963)). In both regions, temperature and humidity had the highest contribution to the model as compared to the precipitation. We revealed that the p-value for all of climate parameters is <0.05 by Independent-sample t-test. These results demonstrate that there were significant relationships between climate factors and influenza infection with correlation coefficients: 0.52-0.90. The total contribution of these three climatic variables accounted for 89.04%. The reported number of influenza cases increased sharply during the cold-dry season (i.e., winter) when humidity and temperature are at minimal levels. Conclusion: Our findings showed that measures of temperature, humidity and cold-dry season (winter) can be used as indicators to forecast influenza infections. Therefore integrating meteorological parameters for influenza forecasting in the surveillance system may benefit the public health efforts in reducing the burden of seasonal influenza. More studies are necessary to understand the role of these parameters in the viral transmission and host susceptibility process.

Keywords: influenza, climate, metrological, environmental

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Authors: Waqas Ahmed Khan Afridi, Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay, Bandita Mainali

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The research paper presents a unique approach to evapotranspiration (ET) prediction using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) learning algorithm. The study leverages real-time sensor node data to develop an accurate and adaptable prediction model, addressing the inherent challenges of traditional ET estimation methods. The integration of the SVM algorithm with real-time sensor node data offers great potential to improve spatial and temporal resolution in ET predictions. In the model development, key input features are measured and computed using mathematical equations such as Penman-Monteith (FAO56) and soil water balance (SWB), which include soil-environmental parameters such as; solar radiation (Rs), air temperature (T), atmospheric pressure (P), relative humidity (RH), wind speed (u2), rain (R), deep percolation (DP), soil temperature (ST), and change in soil moisture (∆SM). The one-year field data are split into combinations of three proportions i.e. train, test, and validation sets. While kernel functions with tuning hyperparameters have been used to train and improve the accuracy of the prediction model with multiple iterations. This paper also outlines the existing methods and the machine learning techniques to determine Evapotranspiration, data collection and preprocessing, model construction, and evaluation metrics, highlighting the significance of SVM in advancing the field of ET prediction. The results demonstrate the robustness and high predictability of the developed model on the basis of performance evaluation metrics (R2, RMSE, MAE). The effectiveness of the proposed model in capturing complex relationships within soil and environmental parameters provide insights into its potential applications for water resource management and hydrological ecosystem.

Keywords: evapotranspiration, FAO56, KNIME, machine learning, RStudio, SVM, sensors

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Authors: M. Y. Abubakar, Ipinjolu J. K., Yuzine B. Esa, Magawata I., Hassan W. A., Turaki A. A.

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Catfish (Heterobranchus spp.) is a major freshwater fish that are widely distributed in Nigeria waters and are gaining rapid aquaculture expansion. However, indiscriminate artificial crossbreeding of the species with others poses a threat to their biodiversity. There is a paucity of information about the genetic variability, hence this insight on the genetic variability is badly needed, not only for the species conservation but for aquaculture expansion. In this study, we tested the level of Genetic diversity, population differentiation and phylogenetic relationship analysis on 35 individuals of two populations of Heterobranchus bidorsalis and 29 individuals of three populations of Heterobranchus longifilis using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtDNA COI) gene sequence. Nucleotide sequences of 650 bp fragment of the COI gene of the two species were compared. In the whole 4 and 5 haplotypes were distinguished in the populations of H. bidorsalis & H. longifilis with accession numbers (MG334168 - MG334171 & MG334172 to MG334176) respectively. Haplotypes diversity indices revealed a range of 0.59 ± 0.08 to 0.57 ± 0.09 in H. bidorsalis and 0.000 to 0.001051 ± 0.000945 in H. longifilis population, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed no significant variation among H. bidorsalis population of the Niger & Benue Rivers, detected significant genetic variation was between the Rivers of Niger, Kaduna and Benue population of H. longifilis. Two main clades were recovered, showing a clear separation between H. bidorsalis and H. longifilis in the phylogenetic tree. The mtDNA COI genes studied revealed high gene flow between populations with no distinct genetic differentiation between the populations as measured by the fixation index (FST) statistic. However, a proportion of population-specific haplotypes was observed in the two species studied, suggesting a substantial degree of genetic distinctiveness for each of the population investigated. These findings present the description of the species character and accessions of the fish’s genetic resources, through gene sequence submitted in Genetic database. The data will help to protect their valuable wild resource and contribute to their recovery and selective breeding in Nigeria.

Keywords: AMOVA, genetic diversity, Heterobranchus spp., mtDNA COI, phylogenetic tree

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Authors: Jordan Gallant

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In the compound word processing literature, much attention has been paid to the relationship between a compound’s denotational meaning and that of its morphological whole-word constituents, which is referred to as ‘semantic transparency’. However, the parallel relationship between a compound’s connotation and that of its constituents has not been addressed at all. For instance, while a compound like ‘painkiller’ might be semantically transparent, it is not ‘affectively transparent’. That is, both constituents have primarily negative connotations, while the whole compound has a positive one. This paper investigates the role of affective transparency on compound processing using two methodologies commonly employed in this field: a lexical decision task and a typing task. The critical stimuli used were 112 English bi-constituent compounds that differed in terms of the effective transparency of their constituents. Of these, 36 stimuli contained constituents with similar connotations to the compound (e.g., ‘dreamland’), 36 contained constituents with more positive connotations (e.g. ‘bedpan’), and 36 contained constituents with more negative connotations (e.g. ‘painkiller’). Connotation of whole-word constituents and compounds were operationalized via valence ratings taken from an off-line ratings database. In Experiment 1, compound stimuli and matched non-word controls were presented visually to participants, who were then asked to indicate whether it was a real word in English. Response times and accuracy were recorded. In Experiment 2, participants typed compound stimuli presented to them visually. Individual keystroke response times and typing accuracy were recorded. The results of both experiments provided positive evidence that compound processing is influenced by effective transparency. In Experiment 1, compounds in which both constituents had more negative connotations than the compound itself were responded to significantly more slowly than compounds in which the constituents had similar or more positive connotations. Typed responses from Experiment 2 showed that inter-keystroke intervals at the morphological constituent boundary were significantly longer when the connotation of the head constituent was either more positive or more negative than that of the compound. The interpretation of this finding is discussed in the context of previous compound typing research. Taken together, these findings suggest that affective transparency plays a role in the recognition, storage, and production of English compound words. This study provides a promising first step in a new direction for research on compound words.

Keywords: compound processing, semantic transparency, typed production, valence

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Authors: Ranjit Kumar Sahu, Ramakar Jha

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Urban Water Management is the practice of managing freshwater, waste water, and storm water as components of a basin-wide management plan. It builds on existing water supply and sanitation considerations within an urban settlement by incorporating urban water management within the scope of the entire river basin. The pervasive problems generated by urban development have prompted, in the present work, to study the spatial extent of urbanization in Golden Triangle of Odisha connecting the cities Bhubaneswar (20.2700° N, 85.8400° E), Puri (19.8106° N, 85.8314° E) and Konark (19.9000° N, 86.1200° E)., and patterns of periodic changes in urban development (systematic/random) in order to develop future plans for (i) urbanization promotion areas, and (ii) urbanization control areas. Remote Sensing, using USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) Landsat8 maps, supervised classification of the Urban Sprawl has been done for during 1980 - 2014, specifically after 2000. This Work presents the following: (i) Time series analysis of Hydrological data (ground water and rainfall), (ii) Application of SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) and other soft computing techniques for Urban Water Management, and (iii) Uncertainty analysis of model parameters (Urban Sprawl and correlation analysis). The outcome of the study shows drastic growth results in urbanization and depletion of ground water levels in the area that has been discussed briefly. Other relative outcomes like declining trend of rainfall and rise of sand mining in local vicinity has been also discussed. Research on this kind of work will (i) improve water supply and consumption efficiency (ii) Upgrade drinking water quality and waste water treatment (iii) Increase economic efficiency of services to sustain operations and investments for water, waste water, and storm water management, and (iv) engage communities to reflect their needs and knowledge for water management.

Keywords: Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), uncertainty analysis, urban sprawl, land use change

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Authors: Celeste De Kock, Bruce Anderson, Corneile Minnaar

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Geographic variation in the floral morphology of a flower species has often been assumed to result from co-variation in the availability of regionally-specific functional pollinator types, giving rise to plant ecotypes that are adapted to the morphology of the main pollinator types in that area. Wachendorfia paniculata is a geographically variable enantiostylous (handed) flower with preliminary observations suggesting that differences in pollinator community composition might be driving differences in the degree of herkogamy (spatial separation of the stigma and anthers on the same flower) across its geographic range. This study aimed to determine if pollinator-related variables such as visitation rate and pollinator type could explain differences in floral morphology seen in different populations. To assess pollinator community compositions, pollinator visitation rates, and the degree of herkogamy and flower size, flowers from 13 populations were observed and measured across the Western Cape, South Africa. Multiple regression analyses indicated that pollinator-related variables had no significant effect on the degree of herkogamy between sites. However, the degree of herkogamy was strongly negatively associated with the time of measurement. It remains possible that pollinators have had an effect on the development of herkogamy throughout the evolutionary timeline of different W. paniculata populations, but not necessarily to the fine-scale degree, as was predicted for this study. Annual fluctuations in pollinator community composition, paired with recent disturbances such as urbanization and the overabundance of artificially introduced honeybee hives, might also result in the signal of pollinator adaptation getting lost. Surprisingly, differences in herkogamy between populations could largely be explained by the time of day at which flowers were measured, suggesting a significant narrowing of the distance between reproductive parts throughout the day. We propose that this floral movement could possibly be an adaptation to ensure pollination if pollinator visitation to a flower was not sufficient earlier in the day, and will be explored in subsequent studies.

Keywords: enantiostyly, floral movement, geographic variation, ecotypes

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Authors: Feyzan Tuzkaya, Nihan S. Soylu, Caglar Solak, Mehmet Peker, Hilal Peker, Kemal Ozeralp, Ceren Mete, Ezgi Mehmetoglu, Mehmet Karasu, Cihan Elci, Ece Akca, Melek Goregenli

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Perception, evaluation and representation of the environment have been the subject of many disciplines including psychology, geography and architecture. In environmental and social psychology literature there are several evidences which suggest that cognitive representations about a place consisted of not only geographic items but also social and cultural. Mental representations of residence area or a country is influenced and determined by social-demographics, the physical and social context. Thus, all mental representations of a given place are also social representations. Cognitive maps are the main and common instruments that are used to identify spatial images and the difference between physical and subjective environments. The aim of the current study is investigating the mental and social representations of Turkey in university students’ minds. Data was collected from 249 university students from different departments (i.e. psychology, geography, history, tourism departments) of Ege University. Participants were requested to reflect Turkey in their mind onto the paper drawing sketch maps. According to the results, cognitive maps showed geographic aspects of Turkey as well as the context of symbolic, cultural and political reality of Turkey. That is to say, these maps had many symbolic and verbal items related to critics on social and cultural problems, ongoing ethnic and political conflicts, and actual political agenda of Turkey. Additionally, one of main differentiations in these representations appeared in terms of the East and West side of the Turkey, and the representations of the East and West was varied correspondingly participants’ cultural background, their ethnic values, and where they have born. The results of the study were discussed in environmental and social psychological perspective considering cultural and social values of Turkey and current political circumstances of the country.

Keywords: cognitive maps, East, West, politics, social representations, Turkey

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Authors: Eli Buchbinder

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Introduction. Language is the basis to our experience as human being. We use language in describing our experiences and construct meaning and narratives from experiences. Metaphors are a valuable linguistic tool commonly use. Metaphors link two domains that are ordinarily not related. Metaphors achieve simultaneously multi-level integration: abstract and concrete, rational and imaginative, familiar and the unfamiliar, conscious and preconscious/unconscious. As such, metaphors epistemological and ontological tool that are important in social work in every field and domain. Goals and Methods The presentation’s aim is to validate the value of metaphors through the first psychiatric breakdown is a traumatic for families. The presentation is based on two pooled qualitative studies. The first study focused on 12 spouses: 7 women and 5 men, between the ages of 22 and 57, regarding their experiences and meanings of the first psychiatric hospitalization of their partners diagnosed with affective disorders. The second study focused on 10 parents, between the ages of 47 and 62, regarding their experiences and meanings following their child's first psychotic breakdown during young adulthood. Results Two types of major metaphors evolved from the interviews in farming the trauma of the first mental breakdown. The first mode - orientation (spatial) metaphors, reflect symbolic expression of the loss of a secure base, represented in the physical environment, e.g., describing hospitalization as "falling into an abyss." The second mode- ontological metaphors, reflect how parents and spouses present their traumatic experiences of hospitalization in terms of discrete, powerful and coherent entities, e.g., describing the first hospitalization as "swimming against the tide." The two metaphors modes reflect the embodiment of the unpredictability, being mired in distress, shock, intense pain and the experience the collapse of continuity on the life course and cuts off the experience of control. Conclusions Metaphors are important and powerful guide in assessing individuals and families’ phenomenological reality. As such, metaphors are useful for understanding and orientated therapeutic intervening, in the studies above, with the first psychiatric hospitalization experienced, as well as in others social workers’ interventions.

Keywords: first mental breakdown, metaphors, family perspective, qualitative research

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Authors: Adel Francis

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Most of scheduling methods and software apply the critical path logic. This logic schedule activities, apply constraints between these activities and try to optimize and level the allocated resources. The extensive use of this logic produces a complex an erroneous network hard to present, follow and update. Planning and management building projects should tackle the coordination of works and the management of limited spaces, traffic, and supplies. Activities cannot be performed without the resources available and resources cannot be used beyond the capacity of workplaces. Otherwise, workspace congestion will negatively affect the flow of works. The objective of the space planning is to link the spatial and temporal aspects, promote efficient use of the site, define optimal site occupancy rates, and ensures suitable rotation of the workforce in the different spaces. The Chronographic scheduling modelling belongs to this category and models construction operations as well as their processes, logical constraints, association and organizational models, which help to better illustrate the schedule information using multiple flexible approaches. The model defined three categories of areas (punctual, surface and linear) and four different layers (space creation, systems, closing off space, finishing, and reduction of space). The Chronographical modelling is a more complete communication method, having the ability to alternate from one visual approach to another by manipulation of graphics via a set of parameters and their associated values. Each individual approach can help to schedule a certain project type or specialty. Visual communication can also be improved through layering, sheeting, juxtaposition, alterations, and permutations, allowing for groupings, hierarchies, and classification of project information. In this way, graphic representation becomes a living, transformable image, showing valuable information in a clear and comprehensible manner, simplifying the site management while simultaneously utilizing the visual space as efficiently as possible.

Keywords: building projects, chronographic modelling, CPM, critical path, precedence diagram, scheduling

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Authors: Avijit Mahala

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Present study is primarily concerned with the physical processes and status of land degradation in a tropical plateau fringe. Chotanagpur plateau is one of the most water erosion related degraded areas of India. The granite gneiss geological formation, low to medium developed soil cover, undulating lateritic uplands, high drainage density, low to medium rainfall (100-140cm), dry tropical deciduous forest cover makes the Silabati River basin a truly representative of the tropical environment. The different physical factors have been taken for land degradation study includes- physiographic formations, hydrologic characteristics, and vegetation cover. Water erosion, vegetal degradation, soil quality decline are the major processes of land degradation in study area. Granite-gneiss geological formation is responsible for developing undulating landforms. Less developed soil profile, low organic matter, poor structure of soil causes high soil erosion. High relief and sloppy areas cause unstable environment. The dissected highland causes topographic hindrance in productivity. High drainage density and frequency in rugged upland and intense erosion in sloppy areas causes high soil erosion of the basin. Decreasing rainfall and increasing aridity (low P/PET) threats water stress condition. Green biomass cover area is also continuously declining. Through overlaying the different physical factors (geological formation, soil characteristics, geomorphological characteristics, etc.) of considerable importance in GIS environment the varying intensities of land degradation areas has been identified. Middle reaches of Silabati basin with highly eroded laterite soil cover areas are more prone to land degradation.

Keywords: land degradation, tropical environment, lateritic upland, undulating landform, aridity, GIS environment

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Authors: Etleva Hamzaraj, Eva Kica, Anila Paparisto, Pranvera Lazo

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Worldwide demographic developments of recent decades have been associated with negative environmental consequences. For this reason, there is a growing interest in assessing the state of natural ecosystems or assessing human impact on them. In this respect, this study aims to evaluate the change in water quality of the Mat River for a period of about ten years to highlight human impact. In one year, period of study, several biological and environmental parameters are determined to evaluate river water quality, and the data collected are compared with those of a similar study in 2007. Samples are collected every month in five stations evenly distributed along the river. Total coliform bacteria, the number of heterotrophic bacteria in water, and benthic macroinvertebrates are used as biological parameters of water quality. The most probable number index is used for evaluation of total coliform bacteria in water, while the number of heterotrophic bacteria is determined by counting colonies on plates with Plate Count Agar, cultivated with 0.1 ml sample after series dilutions. Benthic macroinvertebrates are analyzed by the number of individuals per taxa, the value of biotic index, EPT Richness Index value and tolerance value. Environmental parameters like pH, temperature, and electrical conductivity are measured onsite. As expected, the bacterial load was higher near urban areas, and the pollution increased with the course of the river. The maximum concentration of fecal coliforms was 1100 MPN/100 ml in summer and near the most urbanized area of the river. The data collected during this study show that after about ten years, there is a change in water quality of Mat River. According to a similar study carried out in 2007, the water of Mat River was of ‘excellent’ quality. But, according to this study, the water was classified as of ‘excellent’ quality only in one sampling site, near river source, while in all other stations was of ‘good’ quality. This result is based on biological and environmental parameters measured. The human impact on the quality of water of Mat River is more than evident.

Keywords: water quality, coliform bacteria, MPN index, benthic macroinvertebrates, biotic index

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Authors: Abduladim Maitieg

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The oil manufacture is one of the main productive activities in Libya and has a massive infrastructure, including offshore drilling and exploration and wide oil export platform sites that located in coastal area. There is a threat to marine and coastal area of oil spills is greatest in those sites with a high spills comes from urban and industry, parallel to that, monitoring oil spills and risk emergency strategy is weakness, An approach for estimating a coastal resources vulnerability to oil spills is presented based on abundance, environmental and Scio-economic importance, distance to oil spill resources and oil risk likelihood. As many as 10 coastal resources were selected for oil spill assessment at the coast. This study aims to evaluate, determine and establish vulnerable coastal resource maps and estimating the rate of oil spill comes for different oil spill resources in Misratah marine environment. In the study area there are two type of oil spill resources, major oil resources come from offshore oil industries which are 96 km from the Coast and Loading/Uploading oil platform. However, the miner oil resources come from urban sewage pipes and fish ports. In order to analyse the collected database, the Geographic information system software has been used to identify oil spill location, to map oil tracks in front of study area, and developing seasonal vulnerable costal resources maps. This work shows that there is a differential distribution of the degree of vulnerability to oil spills along the coastline, with values ranging from high vulnerability and low vulnerability, and highlights the link between oil spill movement and coastal resources vulnerability. The results of assessment found most of costal freshwater spring sites are highly vulnerable to oil spill due to their location on the intertidal zone and their close to proximity to oil spills recourses such as Zreag coast. Furthermore, the Saltmarsh coastline is highly vulnerable to oil spill risk due to characterisation as it contains a nesting area of sea turtles and feeding places for migratory birds and the . Oil will reach the coast in winter season according to oil spill movement. Coastal tourist beaches in the north coast are considered as highly vulnerable to oil spill due to location and closeness to oil spill resources.

Keywords: coastal recourses vulnerability, oil spill trajectory, gnome software, Misratah coast- Libya, GIS

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Authors: Seung Chul Lee, Jooyeong Kim, Ki Ok Ahn, Juok Park

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Background: Injuries caused by motorcycle crashes are one of the major public health burdens leading to high mortality, functional disability. The risk of death among motorcyclists is 30 times greater than that among car drivers, with head injuries the leading cause of death. The motorcycle helmet is crucial protective equipment for motorcyclists. Aims: This study aimed to measure the protective effect of motorcycle helmet use on intracranial injury and mortality and to compare the preventive effect in drivers and passengers. Methods: This is a cross-sessional study based on the Emergency Department (ED)–based Injury In-depth Surveillance (EDIIS) database from 23 EDs in Korea. All of the trauma patients injured in motorcycle crashes between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016 were eligible, excluding cases with unknown helmet use and outcomes. The primary and secondary outcomes were intracranial injury and in-hospital mortality. We calculated adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of helmet use for study outcomes after adjusting for potential confounders. Using interaction models, we compared the protective effect of helmet use on outcomes across driving status (driver and passenger). Results: Among 17,791 eligible patients, 10,668 (60.0%) patients were wearing helmets at the time of the crash, 2,128 (12.0%) patients had intracranial injuries and 331 (1.9%) patients had in-hospital death. 16,381 (92.1%) patients were drivers and 1410 (7.9%) patients were passengers. 62.6% of drivers and 29.1% of passengers were wearing helmets at the time of the crash. Compared to un-helmeted group, the helmeted group was less likely to have an intracranial injury(8.0% vs. 17.9%, AOR: 0.43 (0.39-0.48)) and in-hospital mortality (1.0% vs. 3.2%, AOR: 0.29 (0.22-0.37)).In the interaction model, AORs (95% CIs) of helmet use for intracranial injury were 0.42 (0.38-0.47) in drivers and 0.61(0.41-0.90) in passengers, respectively. There was a significant preventive effect of helmet use on in-hospital mortality in drivers (AOR: 0.26(0.21–0.34)). Discussion and conclusions: Wearing helmets in motorcycle crashes reduced intracranial injuries and in-hospital mortality. The preventive effect of motorcycle helmet use on intracranial injury was stronger in drivers than in passengers. There was a significant preventive effect of helmet use on in-hospital mortality in driver but not in passengers. Public health efforts to increase motorcycle helmet use are needed to reduce health burden from injuries caused by motorcycle crashes.

Keywords: intracranial injury, helmet, mortality, motorcycle crashes

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Authors: Sedigheh Kalantari, Yaping Huang

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The historic area of cities has experienced different phases of transformation. The beginning of the twentieth century, modernism, and modern development changed the integrated pattern of change and the historic urban quarter were regarded as subject comprehensive redevelopment. In this respect, historic area of Iranian cities have not been safe from these changes and affected by widespread evolutions; in particular after Islamic Revolution eras (1978) cities have traveled through an evolution in conservation and development policies and practices. Moreover, moving toward a specific approach and specific attention paid to the regeneration of the historical urban centers in Iran has started since the 1990s. This reveals the great importance attached to the historical centers of cities. This paper is an approach to examine an experience on urban regeneration in Iran through a case study. The study relies on multiple source of evidence. The use of multiple sources of evidence can help substantially improve the validity and reliability of the research. The empirical core of this research, therefore, rests in the process of urban revitalization of the old square in Isfahan. Isfahan is one of the oldest city of Persia. The historic area of city encompasses a large number of valuable buildings and monuments. One of the cultural and historical region of Isfahan is Atiq Square (Old Square). It has been the backbone node of the city that in course of time has being ignored more and more and transformed negatively. The complex had suffered from insufficiencies especially with respect to social and spatial aspects. Therefore, reorganization of that complex as the main and most important urban center of Isfahan became an inevitable issue; So this paper except from reminding the value of such historic-cultural heritage and review of its transformation, focused on an experience of urban revitalization project in this heritage site. The outcome of this research shows that situated in different socio-economic political and historical contexts and in face of different urban regeneration issues, Iran have displayed significant differences in the way of urban regeneration.

Keywords: historic area, Iran, urban regeneration, revitalization

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Authors: Asmamaw Yehun, Tsegaye Gogie, Martin Vermeer, Addisu Hunegnaw

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The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based radio positioning system, which is capable of providing continuous position, velocity, and time information to users anywhere on or near the surface of the Earth. The main objective of this work was to estimate the integrated precipitable water vapour (IPWV) using ground GPS and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Radio Occultation (RO) to study spatial-temporal variability. For LEO-GPS RO, we used Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) datasets. We estimated the daily and monthly mean of IPWV using six selected ground-based GPS stations over a period of range from 2012 to 2016 (i.e. five-years period). The main perspective for selecting the range period from 2012 to 2016 is that, continuous data were available during these periods at all Ethiopian GPS stations. We studied temporal, seasonal, diurnal, and vertical variations of precipitable water vapour using GPS observables extracted from the precise geodetic GAMIT-GLOBK software package. Finally, we determined the cross-correlation of our GPS-derived IPWV values with those of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-40 Interim reanalysis and of the second generation National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) model ensemble Forecast System Reforecast (GEFS/R) for validation and static comparison. There are higher values of the IPWV range from 30 to 37.5 millimetres (mm) in Gambela and Southern Regions of Ethiopia. Some parts of Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia regions had low IPWV ranges from 8.62 to 15.27 mm. The correlation coefficient between GPS-derived IPWV with ECMWF and GEFS/R exceeds 90%. We conclude that there are highly temporal, seasonal, diurnal, and vertical variations of precipitable water vapour in the study area.

Keywords: GNSS, radio occultation, atmosphere, precipitable water vapour

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Authors: Njabulo Ncube, Elena Kulinskaya, Nicholas Steel, Dmitry Pshezhetskiy

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Life expectancy in the United Kingdom (UK) has been near constant since 2010, particularly for the individuals of 65 years and older. This trend has been also noted in several other countries. This slowdown in the increase of life expectancy was concurrent with the increase in the number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases. Of particular concern is the world-wide exponential increase in the number of diabetes related deaths. Previous studies have reported increased mortality hazards among diabetics compared to non-diabetics, and on the differing effects of antidiabetic drugs on mortality hazards. This study aimed to estimate the all-cause mortality hazards and related life expectancies among type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients in the UK using the time-variant Gompertz-Cox model with frailty. The study also aimed to understand the major causes of the change in life expectancy growth in the last decade. A total of 221 182 (30.8% T2DM, 57.6% Males) individuals aged 50 years and above, born between 1930 and 1960, inclusive, and diagnosed between 2000 and 2016, were selected from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database of the UK primary care data and followed up to 31 December 2016. About 13.4% of participants died during the follow-up period. The overall all-cause mortality hazard ratio of T2DM compared to non-diabetic controls was 1.467 (1.381-1.558) and 1.38 (1.307-1.457) when diagnosed between 50 to 59 years and 60 to 74 years, respectively. The estimated life expectancies among T2DM individuals without further comorbidities diagnosed at the age of 60 years were 2.43 (1930-1939 birth cohort), 2.53 (1940-1949 birth cohort) and 3.28 (1950-1960 birth cohort) years less than those of non-diabetic controls. However, the 1950-1960 birth cohort had a steeper hazard function compared to the 1940-1949 birth cohort for both T2DM and non-diabetic individuals. In conclusion, mortality hazards for people with T2DM continue to be higher than for non-diabetics. The steeper mortality hazard slope for the 1950-1960 birth cohort might indicate the sub-population contributing to a slowdown in the growth of the life expectancy.

Keywords: T2DM, Gompetz-Cox model with frailty, all-cause mortality, life expectancy

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Authors: Vistorina Amputu, Katja Tielboerger, Nichola Knox

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Primary productivity in dry savannahs is constraint by moisture availability and under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Thus, considering climate change and the unprecedented pace and scale of rangeland deterioration, methods for assessing the status of such rangelands should be easy to apply, yield reliable and repeatable results that can be applied over large spatial scales. Global and local scale monitoring of rangelands through satellite data and labor-intensive field measurements respectively, are limited in accurately assessing the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of vegetation dynamics to provide crucial information that detects degradation in its early stages. Fortunately, newly emerging techniques such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), associated miniaturized sensors and improving digital photogrammetric software provide an opportunity to transcend these limitations. Yet, they have not been extensively calibrated in natural systems to encompass their complexities if they are to be integrated for long-term monitoring. Limited research using drone technology has been conducted in arid savannas, for example to assess the health status of this dynamic two-layer vegetation ecosystem. In our study, we fill this gap by testing the relationship between UAV-estimated cover of rangeland functional attributes and field data collected in discrete sample plots in a Namibian dryland savannah along a degradation gradient. The first results are based on a supervised classification performed on the ultra-high resolution multispectral imagery to distinguish between rangeland functional attributes (bare, non-woody, and woody), with a relatively good match to the field observations. Integrating UAV-based observations to improve rangeland monitoring could greatly assist in climate-adapted rangeland management.

Keywords: arid savannah, degradation gradient, field observations, narrow-band sensor, supervised classification

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Authors: Freddy Munzhelele

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Setting: the empirical research has shown that the life cycle theory has an impact on the firms’ financing decisions, particularly the dividend pay-outs. Accordingly, the life cycle theory posits that as a firm matures, it gets to a level and capacity where it distributes more cash as dividends. On the other hand, the young firms prioritise investment opportunities sets and their financing; thus, they pay little or no dividends. The research on firms’ financing decisions also demonstrated, among others, the adoption of trade-off and pecking order theories on the dynamics of firms capital structure. The trade-off theory talks to firms holding a favourable position regarding debt structures particularly as to the cost and benefits thereof; and pecking order is concerned with firms preferring a hierarchical order as to choosing financing sources. The case of life cycle hypothesis explaining the financial managers’ decisions as regards the firms’ capital structure dynamics appears to be an interesting link, yet this link has been neglected in corporate finance research. If this link is to be explored as an empirical research, the financial decision-making alternatives will be enhanced immensely, since no conclusive evidence has been found yet as to the dynamics of capital structure. Aim: the aim of this study is to examine the impact of life cycle theory on the capital structure dynamics trade-off and pecking order theories of firms listed in retail, industrial and mining sectors of the JSE. These sectors are among the key contributors to the GDP in the South African economy. Design and methodology: following the postpositivist research paradigm, the study is quantitative in nature and utilises secondary data obtainable from the financial statements of sampled firm for the period 2010 – 2022. The firms’ financial statements will be extracted from the IRESS database. Since the data will be in panel form, a combination of the static and dynamic panel data estimators will used to analyse data. The overall data analyses will be done using STATA program. Value add: this study directly investigates the link between the life cycle theory and the dynamics of capital structure decisions, particularly the trade-off and pecking order theories.

Keywords: life cycle theory, trade-off theory, pecking order theory, capital structure, JSE listed firms

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