Search results for: small farmers

Authors: Haoyang Liang, Dandong Ge

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With the rapid development of Chinese cities, traffic congestion has become more and more serious. At the same time, there are many closed old residential area in Chinese cities, which seriously affect the connectivity of urban roads and reduce the density of urban road networks. After reopening the restricted old residential area, the internal roads in the original residential area were transformed into urban roads, which was of great help to alleviate traffic congestion. This paper uses the spatial syntactic theory to analyze the urban road network and compares the roads with the integration and connectivity degree to evaluate whether the opening of the roads in the residential areas can improve the urban traffic. Based on the road network system within the first loop road in Kunming, the Space Syntax evaluation model is established for status analysis. And comparative analysis method will be used to compare the change of the model before and after the road openness of the old urban residential district within the first-ring road in Kunming. Then it will pick out the areas which indicate a significant difference for the small dimensions model analysis. According to the analyzed results and traffic situation, the evaluation of road openness in the old urban residential district will be proposed to improve the urban residential districts.

Keywords: Space Syntax, Kunming, urban renovation, traffic jam

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Authors: Simon Ingelsten, Anton Lundberg, Vijay Shankar, Lars-Olof Landström, Örjan Johansson

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The flow in a low consistency disc refiner is simulated with the aim of identifying flow structures possibly being of importance for a future study to optimise the energy efficiency in refining processes. A simplified flow geometry is used, where a single groove of a refiner disc is modelled. Two different fibre models are used to simulate turbulent fibre suspension flow in the groove. The first model is a Bingham viscoplastic fluid model where the fibre suspension is treated as a non-Newtonian fluid with a yield stress. The second model is a new model proposed in a recent study where the suspended fibres effect on flow is accounted for through a modelled orientation distribution function (ODF). Both models yielded similar results with small differences. Certain flow characteristics that were expected and that was found in the literature were identified. Some of these flow characteristics may be of importance in a future process to optimise the refiner geometry to increase the energy efficiency. Further study and a more detailed flow model is; however, needed in order for the simulations to yield results valid for quantitative use in such an optimisation study. An outline of the next steps in such a study is proposed.

Keywords: disc refiner, fibre flow, sustainability, turbulence modelling

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Authors: Tareq Issa

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Lean manufacturing is concerned with the implementation of several tools and methodologies that aim for the continuous elimination of wastes throughout manufacturing process flow in the production system. This research addresses the implementation of lean principles and tools in a small-medium industry focusing on 'fused' plastic bags production company in Amman, Jordan. In this production operation, the major type of waste to eliminate include material, waiting-transportation, and setup wastes. The primary goal is to identify and implement selected lean strategies to eliminate waste in the manufacturing process flow. A systematic approach was used for the implementation of lean principles and techniques, through the application of Value Stream Mapping analysis. The current state value stream map was constructed to improve the plastic bags manufacturing process through identifying opportunities to eliminate waste and its sources. Also, the future-state value stream map was developed describing improvements in the overall manufacturing process resulting from eliminating wastes. The implementation of VSM, 5S, Kanban, Kaizen, and Reduced lot size methods have provided significant benefits and results. Productivity has increased to 95.4%, delivery schedule attained at 99-100%, reduction in total inventory to 1.4 days and the setup time for the melting process was reduced to about 30 minutes.

Keywords: lean implementation, plastic bags industry, value stream map, process flow

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Authors: Hagen Stosnach

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The analytical demands on modern instruments for element analysis in food samples include the analysis of major, trace and ultra-trace essential elements as well as potentially toxic trace elements. In this study total reflection, X-ray fluorescence analysis (TXRF) is presented as an analytical technique, which meets the requirements, defined by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) regarding the limit of quantification, repeatability, reproducibility and recovery for most of the target elements. The advantages of TXRF are the small sample mass required, the broad linear range from µg/kg up to wt.-% values, no consumption of gases or cooling water, and the flexible and easy sample preparation. Liquid samples like alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages can be analyzed without any preparation. For solid food samples, the most common sample pre-treatment methods are mineralization, direct deposition of the sample onto the reflector without/with minimal treatment, mainly as solid suspensions or after extraction. The main disadvantages are due to the possible peaks overlapping, which may lower the accuracy of quantitative analysis and the limit in the element identification. This analytical technique will be presented by several application examples, covering a broad range of liquid and solid food types.

Keywords: essential elements, toxic metals, XRF, spectroscopy

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Authors: Fatmeh Alzoubi, Reem Ali

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Jordan is a developing country in the Middle East and, much like other countries in the world, has high rates of intimate partner violence (IPV). Little information is available on Jordanian men’s and women’s attitudes toward IPV. The purpose of this study is to examine men’s and women’s attitudes toward IPV in Jordan and its relationship with some demographics and family functioning. A descriptive cross-sectional correlational design with a sample of 401 men and women was used. Descriptive statistics (M, SD), Pearson r, t test, and ANOVA were used. The results indicated that Jordanian men and women have a lower score of IPVAS, 40.06 (SD = 8.20), indicating lower acceptance of IPV compared with the literature. Family functioning was 3.12 (SD = 0.46), indicating more healthy families. Family functioning was negatively correlated with IPVAS scores (r = –.22, p = .00). All demographic variables showed small to moderate correlations with IPVAS. Education for both study participants and their spouses had a negative correlation with IPVAS (r = –.27, p = .00) and (r = –.20, p = .00), respectively. Male participants, individuals who were living with extended family, and those living in rural areas had significantly high IPVAS scores, indicating more accepting attitudes toward IPV. Practitioners should provide families with education on the methods of conflict resolution, effective communication within the family, problem-solving approaches, equal role distribution, and appropriate styles of establishing a family.

Keywords: intimate partner violence, Jordanian men and women’s health, attitudes, family functioning

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Authors: Clinton Chidiebere Anyanwu

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Secondary education is a vital part of a virtuous circle of economic growth within the context of a globalised knowledge economy. The teaching of Business Education entails teaching learners the essentials, rudiments, assumptions, and methods of business. Hence, it was deemed necessary for the study to investigate technology integration in Business Education. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), the study observes teachers’ level of technology use in Business Education classrooms. Using a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, probability, and purposive sampling, the majority of participants were found to be not integrating technology to an acceptable level and a small percentage was. After an analysis of constructs from UTAUT, some of this could be attributed to the lack of facilitating conditions in the teaching and learning of Business Education. The implication of the study findings is that poor investment in technology integration in secondary schools in Nigeria affects pedagogical implementations and effective teaching and learning of Business Education subjects. The study concludes that if facilitating conditions and professional development are considered to address the shortfalls in terms of TPACK, technology integration will become a reality in secondary schools in Nigeria.

Keywords: business education, secondary education, technology integration, TPACK, UTAUT

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Authors: Xin Tong, Jin-sheng Xu, Xiong Chen, Ya Zheng

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The aim of this paper is to study the mechanical properties of HTPB (Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene) composite propellant under harsh conditions. It describes two tests involving uniaxial tensile tests of various strain rates (ranging from 0.0005 s^-1 to 1.5 s^-1), temperatures (ranging from 223 K to 343 K) and high-cycle fatigue tests under low-temperature (223 K, frequencies were set at 50, 100, 150 Hz) using DMA (Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer). To highlight the effect of small pre-strain on fatigue properties of HTPB propellant, quasi-static stretching was carried out before fatigue loading, and uniaxial tensile tests at constant strain rates were successively applied. The results reveal that flow stress of propellant increases with reduction in temperature and rise in strain rate, and the strain rate-temperature equivalence relationship could be described by TTSP (time-temperature superposition principle) incorporating a modified WLF equation. Moreover, the rate of performance degradations and damage accumulation of propellant during fatigue tests increased with increasing strain amplitude and loading frequencies, while initial quasi-static loading has a negative effect on fatigue properties by comparing stress-strain relations after fatigue tests.

Keywords: fatigue, HTPB propellant, tensile properties, time-temperature superposition principle

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Authors: Murat Mert, Yusuf Ozer, Fatih Kolay

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Behaviour of giving harm to the body in literature has been named as “self-injury”, “self-mutilation” ve “self-harm”. “Self-injury”, or “self-mutilation” is generally used for the same meaning and mentioned as an action which is committed to the body itself directly. As is seen that alcohol and drug users have injured their bodies because of deprivation, whereas behaviour of self-injury in some societies is accepted as religious and cultural, it has nevertheless been diagnosed in people who have a borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, psychotic personality disorder and mood disorder. There has not been any direct self-murder tendency in people having self-harmed. However, death cases can be seen together with loss of consciousness depending on loss of blood by exceeding the limit in the course of injury action. 34- year old – male person who was alcohol addicted, having had a psycological treatment beforehand, had mutilated his small intestine together with fatty tissue by cutting his body with a razor-blade at the thought of insects strolling around the body (delirium tremens) due to deprivation attack and had died in the result of various cuts. In this study, crime scene investigation and death mechanism of the person having had self-harmed in a result of abstinence syndrome will be explained. Relevant criteria which differentiate this case from homicide will be examined.

Keywords: self-injury, autopsy, abstinence syndrome, CSI

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Authors: Papakonstantinou Apostolos, Argyrios Moustakas, Panagiotis Zervos, Dimitrios Stefanakis, Manolis Tsapakis, Nektarios Spyridakis, Mary Paspaliari, Christos Kontos, Antonis Legakis, Sarantis Houzouris, Konstantinos Topouzelis

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For years unmanned and remotely operated robots have been used as tools in industry research and education. The rapid development and miniaturization of sensors that can be attached to remotely operated vehicles in recent years allowed industry leaders and researchers to utilize them as an affordable means for data acquisition in air, land, and sea. Despite the recent developments in the ground and unmanned airborne vehicles, a small number of Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) platforms are targeted for mapping and monitoring environmental parameters for research and industry purposes. The ARGO project is developed an open-design USV equipped with multi-level control hardware architecture and state-of-the-art sensors and payloads for the autonomous monitoring of environmental parameters in large sea areas. The proposed USV is a catamaran-type USV controlled over a wireless radio link (5G) for long-range mapping capabilities and control for a ground-based control station. The ARGO USV has a propulsion control using 2x fully redundant electric trolling motors with active vector thrust for omnidirectional movement, navigation with opensource autopilot system with high accuracy GNSS device, and communication with the 2.4Ghz digital link able to provide 20km of Line of Sight (Los) range distance. The 3-meter dual hull design and composite structure offer well above 80kg of usable payload capacity. Furthermore, sun and friction energy harvesting methods provide clean energy to the propulsion system. The design is highly modular, where each component or payload can be replaced or modified according to the desired task (industrial or research). The system can be equipped with Multiparameter Sonde, measuring up to 20 water parameters simultaneously, such as conductivity, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, etc. Furthermore, a high-end multibeam echo sounder can be installed in a specific boat datum for shallow water high-resolution seabed mapping. The system is designed to operate in the Aegean Sea. The developed USV is planned to be utilized as a system for autonomous data acquisition, mapping, and monitoring bathymetry and various environmental parameters. ARGO USV can operate in small or large ports with high maneuverability and endurance to map large geographical extends at sea. The system presents state of the art solutions in the following areas i) the on-board/real-time data processing/analysis capabilities, ii) the energy-independent and environmentally friendly platform entirely made using the latest aeronautical and marine materials, iii) the integration of advanced technology sensors, all in one system (photogrammetric and radiometric footprint, as well as its connection with various environmental and inertial sensors) and iv) the information management application. The ARGO web-based application enables the system to depict the results of the data acquisition process in near real-time. All the recorded environmental variables and indices are presented, allowing users to remotely access all the raw and processed information using the implemented web-based GIS application.

Keywords: monitor marine environment, unmanned surface vehicle, mapping bythometry, sea environmental monitoring

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Authors: Yoshie Asahara, Hidekuni Takao

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Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV), a type of ventilation therapy, is a treatment in which a mask is attached to the patient's face and delivers gas into the mask to support breathing. The NPPV mask uses a strap, which is necessary to attach and secure the mask in the appropriate facial position, but the tensile strength of the strap is adjusted by the sensation of the hands. The strap uniformity and fine-tuning strap tension are judged by the skill of the operator and the amount felt by the finger. In the future, additional strap operation and adjustment methods will be required to meet the needs for reducing the burden on the patient’s face. In this study, we fabricated a mechanism that can measure, adjust and fix the tension of the straps. A small amount of strap tension can be adjusted by rotating the shaft. This makes it possible to control the slight strap tension that is difficult to grasp with the sense of the operator's hand. In addition, this mechanism allows the operator to control the strap while controlling the movement of the mask body. This leads to the establishment of a suitable mask fitting method for each patient. The developed mechanism enables the operation and fine reproducible adjustment of the strap tension and the mask balance, reducing the burden on the face.

Keywords: balance of the mask strap, fine adjustment, film sensor, mask fitting technique, mask strap tension

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Authors: Davidson E. Egirani, Nanfe R. Poyi, Napoleon Wessey

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This paper would report the environmental challenges faced by stakeholders in the development and management of mineral resources in Mindanao mining region of the Philippines. The paper would proffer solutions via the development and management of integrated mineral resource framework. This is by interfacing the views of government, operating mining companies and the mining host communities. The project methods involved the desktop review of existing local, regional, national environmental and mining legislation. This was followed up with visits to mining sites and discussions were held with stakeholders in the mineral sector. The findings from a 2-year investigation would reveal lack of information, education, and communication campaign by stakeholders on environmental, health, political, and social issues in the mining industry. Small-scale miners lack the professional muscles for a balance shift of emphasis to sustainable and responsible mining to avoid environmental degradation and human health effect. Therefore, there is a need to balance ecological requirements, sustainability of the environment and development of mineral resources. This paper would provide an environmentally friendly mineral resource development framework.

Keywords: ecological requirements, environmental degradation, human health, mining legislation, responsible mining

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Authors: Shyam Sunder Kawan

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Museums are enclosed buildings encompassing and displaying creative artworks, artefacts, and discoveries for people’s knowledge and observation. In the context of Nepal, museums and exhibition areas are either adaptive to small gallery spaces in residences or ‘neo-classical palatial complexes’ that evolved during the 19th century. This study accepts the sparse occurrence of a diverse range of artworks and expressions in the country's complex cultural manifestations within vivid ethnic groups. This study explores the immense potential of one such prevalence beyond the delimitation of physical boundaries. Taking Bhaktapur World Heritage Site as a case, the study perpetuates its investigation into real-time life activities that this city and its cultural landscapes ensemble. Seeking the ‘musealization’ as an urban process to induce museums into the city precinct, this study anticipates art space into urban spaces to offer a limitless experience for this contemporary world. Unveiling art as an experiential component, this study aims to conceptualize a living heritage as an infinite resource for museum interpretation beyond just educational institute purposes.

Keywords: living museum, site museum, museulization, contemporary arts, cultural heritage, historic cities

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Authors: Hua Chai, Qiangling Duan, Huiqi Cao, Mi Li, Jinhua Sun

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Nitrocellulose (NC), a kind of energetic material, has been widely used in the industrial and military fields. However, this material can also cause serious social disasters due to storage conditions. Thermal hazard of nitrocellulose (NC) was experimentally investigated using the CALVET heat flux calorimeter C80, and three kinds of storage conditions were considered in the experiments: (1) drying time, (2) moisture content, (3) cycles. The results showed that the heat flow curves of NC moved to the low-temperature direction firstly and then slightly moved back by increasing the drying hours. Moisture that was responsible for the appearance of small exothermic peaks was proven to be the unfavorable safety factor yet it could increase the onset temperature of the main peak to some extent. And cycles could both lower the onset temperature and the maximum heat flow but enlarged the peak temperature. Besides, relevant kinetic parameters such as the heat of reaction (ΔH) and the activation energy (Ea) were obtained and compared. It was found that all the three conditions could reduce the values of Ea and most of them produced larger reaction heat. In addition, the critical explosion temperature (Tb) of the NC samples were derived. It was clear that not only the drying time but also the cycles would increase the thermal hazard of the NC. Yet, the right amount of water helped to reduce the thermal hazard.

Keywords: C80, nitrocellulose, storage conditions, the critical explosion temperature, thermal hazard

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Authors: Anton Serov, Alan Maslani, Michal Hlina, Vladimir Kopecky, Milan Hrabovsky

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Recycling of organic waste is an increasingly hot topic in recent years. This issue becomes even more interesting if the raw material for the fuel production can be obtained as the result of that recycling. A process of high-temperature decomposition of a lignite (a non-hydrolysable complex organic compound) was studied on the plasma gasification reactor PLASGAS, where water-stabilized plasma torch was used as a source of high enthalpy plasma. The plasma torch power was 120 kW and allowed heating of the reactor to more than 1000 °C. The material feeding rate in the gasification reactor was selected 30 and 60 kg per hour that could be compared with small industrial production. An efficiency estimation of the thermal decomposition process was done. A balance of the torch energy distribution was studied as well as an influence of the lignite particle size and an addition of methane (CH4) in a reaction volume on the syngas composition (H2+CO). It was found that the ratio H2:CO had values in the range of 1,5 to 2,5 depending on the experimental conditions. The recycling process occurred at atmospheric pressure that was one of the important benefits because of the lack of expensive vacuum pump systems. The work was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under the project GA15-19444S.

Keywords: atmospheric pressure, lignite, plasma treatment, water-stabilized plasma torch

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Authors: Ahmed Zahran

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Bifidobacterium breve ATCC 15700, Bifidobacterium adolescents ATCC 15704 and Bifidobacterium longum ATCC 15707 were tested for their growth, acid production, bile tolerance, antibiotic resistance and adherence to columnar epithelial cells of the small intestine of goat. The growth of all studied species was determined in the MRSL medium. B.longum 15707 was the most active species in comparison with the other two species; it was also more resistant to bile acids. The adhesion of the studied species to the columnar epithelial cells was studied. All the studied species showed some degree of adhesion; however, B.longum adhered more than the other two species. This species was resistant to four types of antibiotics and was sensitive to chloramphenicol 30 µg. The activity of Bifidobacterium species in soymilk was evaluated by measuring the development of titratalle acidity. B.longum 15707 was the most active species in terms of growth and activity of soymilk. So, soymilk containing bifidobacteria could be added to goat milk to produce acceptable functional soy yogurt, using the ratio of (1:4) soy milk to goat milk. This product could be of unique health benefits, especially in the case of high cholesterol levels and replenishment of intestinal flora after antibiotic therapy.

Keywords: bifidobacteria physiological properties, soy milk, goat milk, attachment epithelial cells, columnar tissues, probiotic food

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Authors: Lauren Dixon, David Galvani

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Objective: Sharing devastating news with patients is often considered the most difficult task of doctors. This study aimed to explore patients’ perceptions of receiving bad news including which features improve the experience and which areas need refining. Methods: A questionnaire was written based on the steps of the SPIKES model for breaking bad news. 20 patients receiving treatment for a haematological malignancy completed the questionnaire. Results: Overall, the results are promising as most patients praised their consultation. ‘Poor’ was more commonly rated by women and participants aged 45-64. The main differences between the ‘excellent’ and ‘poor’ consultations include the doctor’s sensitivity and checking the patients’ understanding. Only 35% of patients were asked their existing knowledge and 85% of consultations failed to discuss the impact of the diagnosis on daily life. Conclusion: This study agreed with the consensus of existing literature. The commended aspects include consultation set-up and information given. Areas patients felt needed improvement include doctors determining the patient’s existing knowledge and exploring how the diagnosis will affect the patient’s life. With a poorer prognosis, doctors should work on conveying appropriate hope. The study was limited by a small sample size and potential recall bias.

Keywords: cancer, diagnosis, haematology, patients

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Authors: Andrés Quiroz, Emilio Hormazábal, Ana Mutis, Fernando Ortega, Loreto Méndez, Leonardo Parra

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Red clover root borer, Hylastinus obscurus Marsham (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is the main insect pest associated to red clover, Trifolium pratense L. An average of 1.5 H. obscurus per plant can cause 5.5% reduction in forage yield in pastures of two to three years old. Moreover, insect attack can reach 70% to 100% of the plants. To our knowledge, there is no a chemical strategy for controlling this pest. Therefore alternative strategies for controlling H. obscurus are a high priority for red clover producers. One of this alternative is related to the study of secondary metabolites involved in intrinsic chemical defenses developed by plants, such as isoflavonoids. The isoflavonoids formononetin and daidzein have elicited an antifeedant and phagostimult effect on H. obscurus respectively. However, we do not know how is the dynamic variation of these isoflavonoids under field conditions. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the variation of the antifeedant isoflavonoids formononetin, the phagostimulant isoflavonoids daidzein, and their respective glycosides over time in different ecotypes of red clover. Fourteen red clover ecotypes (8 cultivars and 6 experimental lines), were collected at INIA-Carillanca (La Araucanía, Chile). These plants were established in October 2015 under irrigated conditions. The cultivars were distributed in a randomized complete block with three replicates. The whole plants were sampled in four times: 15th October 2016, 12th December 2016, 27th January 2017 and 16th March 2017 with sufficient amount of soil to avoid root damage. A polar fraction of isoflavonoid was obtained from 20 mg of lyophilized root tissue extracted with 2 mL of 80% MeOH for 16 h using an orbital shaker in the dark at room temperature. After, an aliquot of 1.4 mL of the supernatant was evaporated, and the residue was resuspended in 300 µL of 45% MeOH. The identification and quantification of isoflavonoid root extracts were performed by the injection of 20 µL into a Shimadzu HPLC equipped with a C-18 column. The sample was eluted with a mobile phase composed of AcOH: H₂O (1:9 v/v) as solvent A and CH₃CN as solvent B. The detection was performed at 260 nm. The results showed that the amount of aglycones was higher than the respective glycosides. This result is according to the biosynthetic pathway of flavonoids, where the formation of glycoside is further to the glycosides biosynthesis. The amount of formononetin was higher than daidzein. In roots, where H. obscurus spent the most part of its live cycle, the highest content of formononetin was found in G 27, Pawera, Sabtoron High, Redqueli-INIA and Superqueli-INIA cvs. (2.1, 1.8, 1.8, 1.6 and 1.0 mg g⁻¹ respectively); and the lowest amount of daidzein were found Superqueli-INIA (0.32 mg g⁻¹) and in the experimental line Sel Syn Int4 (0.24 mg g⁻¹). This ecotype showed a high content of formononetin (0.9 mg g⁻¹). This information, associated with cultural practices, could help farmers and breeders to reduce H. obscurus in grassland, selecting ecotypes with high content of formononetin and low amount of daidzein in the roots of red clover plants. Acknowledgements: FONDECYT 1141245 and 11130715.

Keywords: daidzein, formononetin, isoflavonoid glycosides, trifolium pratense

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Authors: Chander Shekhar Kohli

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In the field of international relations, countries have been experiencing distinct nature of conflicts. But, in the case of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for a long time, the members have witnessed conflicts, small and large. These conflicts, as a result, have given catastrophic outcomes, such as killings and destroying properties. For the resolution of such conflicts, nonetheless, efforts likewise have been made, simultaneously, in terms of establishing peace and security. In this background, the ASEAN presents a significant example as before it had faced several wars, like Vietnam War, Cambodia conflicts, and so on. This research paper, therefore, strives to examine the ASEAN as a case with the help of both primary and secondary sources. It likewise will be dealt with how changing norms and identity building facilitate the ASEAN countries to deal with their conflicts both internal and external. This paper also will discuss how internal developments within countries affect conflict resolution process as each member of ASEAN is guided by its national interest. It is then argued that conflict resolution in the ASEAN is moving from its existing power-based solution to norms and identity-based solution as member countries have become more dependent on other countries. The research, therefore, is concluded by saying that the conflicts could only be resolved through building norms and common identities, which of course are recognized crucial mechanisms among the ASEAN countries with some exceptions.

Keywords: ASEAN, conflict resolution, norms and identities, peace and security

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Authors: Abdulaziz Bashir Kutawa, Khairulmazmi Ahmad, Mohd Zobir Hussein, Asgar Ali, Mohd Aswad Abdul Wahab, Amara Rafi, Mahesh Tiran Gunasena, Muhammad Ziaur Rahman, Md. Imam Hossain, Syazwan Afif Mohd Zobir

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Rice is a cereal crop and belongs to the family Poaceae, it was domesticated in southern China and North-Eastern India around 8000 years ago, and it’s the staple nourishment for over half of the total world’s population. Rice production worldwide is affected by different abiotic and biotic stresses. Diseases are important challenges for the production of rice, among all the diseases in rice plants, the most severe and common disease is the rice blast. Worldwide, it is one of the most damaging diseases affecting rice cultivation, the disease is caused by the non-obligate filamentous ascomycete fungus called Magnaporthe grisae or Pyricularia oryzae Cav. Nanotechnology is a new idea to improve agriculture by combating the diseases of plants, as nanoparticles were found to possess an inhibitory effect on different species of fungi. This work aimed to develop and determine the efficacy of agronanofungicides, and commercial fungicides (in-vitro and in-vivo). The agronanofungicides were developed using ionic gelation methods. In-vitro antifungal activity of the synthesized agronanofungicides was evaluated against P. oryzae using the poisoned medium technique. The potato dextrose agar (PDA) was amended in several concentrations; 0.001, 0.005, 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, and 0.35 ppm for the agronanofungicides. Medium with the only solvent served as a control. Mycelial growth was recorded every day, and the percentage inhibition of radial growth (PIRG) was also calculated. Based on the results of the zone of inhibition, the chitosan-hexaconazole agronanofungicide (2g/mL) was the most effective fungicide to inhibit the growth of the fungus with 100% inhibition at 0.2, 0.25, 0.30, and 0.35 ppm, respectively. The least were found to be propiconazole and basamid fungicides with 100% inhibition only at 100 ppm. In terms of the glasshouse results, the chitosan-hexaconazole-dazomet agronanofungicide (CHDEN) treatment (2.5g/L) was found to be the most effective fungicide to reduce the intensity of the disease with a disease severity index (DSI) of 19.80%, protection index (PI) of 82.26%, lesion length of 1.63cm, disease reduction (DR) of 80.20%, and AUDPC (390.60 Unit2). The least effective fungicide was found to be ANV with a disease severity index (45.60%), protection index (45.24%), lesion length (3.83 cm), disease reduction (54.40%), and AUDPC (1205.75 Unit2). The negative control did not show any symptoms during the glasshouse assay, while the untreated control treatment exhibited severe symptoms of the disease with a DSI value of 64.38%, lesion length of 5.20 cm, and AUDPC value of 2201.85 Unit2, respectively. The treatments of agronanofungicides have enhanced the yield significantly with CHDEN having 239.00 while the healthy control had 113.67 for the number of grains per panicle. The use of CHEN and CHDEN will help immensely in reducing the severity of rice blast in the fields, and this will increase the yield and profit of the farmers that produced rice.

Keywords: chitosan, dazomet, disease severity, efficacy, and blast disease

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Authors: Gachara Grace, Kebira Anthony, Harvey Jagger, Wainaina James

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Aflatoxin contamination of maize in Africa poses a major threat to food security and the health of many African people. In Kenya, aflatoxin contamination of maize is high due to the environmental, agricultural and socio-economic factors. Many studies have been conducted to understand the scope of the problem, especially at pre-harvest level. This research was carried out to gather scientific information on the fungi population, diversity and aflatoxin level during the post-harvest period. The study was conducted in three geographical locations of; Kitui, Kitale and Nakuru. Samples were collected from storage structures of farmers and transported to the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA), International Livestock and Research Institute (ILRI) hub laboratories. Mycoflora was recovered using the direct plating method. A total of five fungal genera (Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Rhizopus and Bssyochlamys spp.) were isolated from the stored maize samples. The most common fungal species that were isolated from the three study sites included A. flavus at 82.03% followed by A.niger and F.solani at 49% and 26% respectively. The aflatoxin producing fungi A. flavus was recovered in 82.03% of the samples. Aflatoxin levels were analysed on both the maize samples and in vitro. Most of the A. flavus isolates recorded a high level of aflatoxin when they were analysed for presence of aflatoxin B1 using ELISA. In Kitui, all the samples (100%) had aflatoxin levels above 10ppb with a total aflatoxin mean of 219.2ppb. In Kitale, only 3 samples (n=39) had their aflatoxin levels less than 10ppb while in Nakuru, the total aflatoxin mean level of this region was 239.7ppb. When individual samples were analysed using Vicam fluorometer method, aflatoxin analysis revealed that most of the samples (58.4%) had been contaminated. The means were significantly different (p=0.00<0.05) in all the three locations. Genetic relationships of A. flavus isolates were determined using 13 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) markers. The results were used to generate a phylogenetic tree using DARwin5 software program. A total of 5 distinct clusters were revealed among the genotypes. The isolates appeared to cluster separately according to the geographical locations. Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) of the genetic distances among the 91 A. flavus isolates explained over 50.3% of the total variation when two coordinates were used to cluster the isolates. Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) showed a high variation of 87% within populations and 13% among populations. This research has shown that A. flavus is the main fungal species infecting maize grains in Kenya. The influence of aflatoxins on human populations in Kenya demonstrates a clear need for tools to manage contamination of locally produced maize. Food basket surveys for aflatoxin contamination should be conducted on a regular basis. This would assist in obtaining reliable data on aflatoxin incidence in different food crops. This would go a long way in defining control strategies for this menace.

Keywords: aflatoxin, Aspergillus flavus, genotyping, Kenya

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Authors: Anjana Goel, Ashok Kumar Bhatia

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Ocimum sanctum, a well known medicinal plant is used for various alignments in Ayurvedic medicines. It was found to be effective in treating the humans suffering from different viral infections like chicken pox, small pox, measles and influenza. In addition, curative effect of the plant in malignant patients was also reported. In the present study, leaves of this plant were screened against animal viruses i.e. Bovine Herpes Virus-type-1 (BHV-1), Foot and Mouth disease virus (FMDV) and Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV). BHV-1 and FMDV were screened in MDBK and BHK cell lines respectively using cytopathic inhibition test. While NDV was propagated in chick embryo fibroblast culture and tested by haemagglutination inhibition test. Maximum non toxic dose of aqueous extract of Ocimum sanctum leaves was calculated by MTT assay in all the cell cultures and nontoxic doses were used for antiviral activity against viruses. 98.4% and 85.3% protection were recorded against NDV and BHV-1 respectively. However, Ocimum sanctum extract failed to show any inhibitory effect on the cytopathic effect caused by FMD virus. It can be concluded that Ocimum sanctum is a very effective remedy for curing viral infections in animals also.

Keywords: bovine herpes virus-type-1, foot and mouth disease virus, newcastle disease virus, Ocimum sanctum

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Authors: Bruce Small, Martin Espig, Alyssa Ryan

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In the agricultural sector, the rapid expansion of herbicide resistant weeds is a major threat to the global sustainability of food and fibre production. Efforts to avoid herbicide resistance have primarily focused on new technologies and farmer education. Yet, despite decades of advice to growers from agricultural scientists and extension professionals of the need for management strategies for herbicide use, herbicide resistance continues to increase. Technological options are running out and current extension efforts to change farmer behaviour are failing to curb the problem. As part of a five-year, government funded, research programme to address herbicide resistance in New Zealand, social science theory and practice are being utilised to investigate the complexities of managing herbicide use and controlling resistance. As an initial step, we are utilising a transdisciplinary, multi-level systems approach to examine the problem definition, knowledge beliefs, attitudes and values of different important actors in the agri-business sector. In this paper, we report early project results from qualitative research examining the similarities and contrasts in the perceptions of scientists, farmer/growers, and rural professionals.

Keywords: behaviour change, herbicide resistant weeds, knowledge beliefs, systems perspective

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Authors: D. S. Gurjar, R. Kaur, K. P. Singh, R. Singh

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A greater volume of wastewater generate from urban areas in India. Due to the adequate availability, less energy requirement and nutrient richness, farmers of urban and peri-urban areas are deliberately using wastewater to grow high value vegetable crops. Wastewater contains pathogens and toxic pollutants, which can enter in the food chain system while using wastewater for irrigating vegetable crops. Hence, wastewater can use for growing commercial flower crops that may avoid food chain contamination. Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) is one of the most important commercially grown, cultivated over 30, 000 ha area, flower crop in India. Its popularity is mainly due to the sweet fragrance as well as the long keeping quality of the flower spikes. The flower spikes of tuberose has high market price and usually blooms during summer and rainy seasons when there is meager supply of other flowers in the market. It has high irrigation water requirement and fresh water supply is inadequate in tuberose growing areas of India. Therefore, wastewater may fulfill the water and nutrients requirements and may enhance the productivity of tuberose. Keeping in view, the present study was carried out at WTC farm of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 2014-15. Prajwal was the variety of test crop. The seven treatments were taken as T-1. Wastewater irrigation at 0.6 ID/CPE, T-2: Wastewater irrigation at 0.8 ID/CPE, T-3: Wastewater irrigation at 1.0 ID/CPE, T-4: Wastewater irrigation at 1.2 ID/CPE, T-5: Wastewater irrigation at 1.4 ID/CPE, T-6: Conjunctive use of Groundwater and Wastewater irrigation at 1.0 ID/CPE in cyclic mode, T-7: Control (Groundwater irrigation at 1.0 ID/CPE) in randomized block design with three replication. Wastewater and groundwater samples were collected on monthly basis (April 2014 to March 2015) and analyzed for different parameters of irrigation quality (pH, EC, SAR, RSC), pollution hazard (BOD, toxic heavy metals and Faecal coliforms) and nutrients potential (N, P, K, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn) as per standard methods. After harvest of tuberose crop, soil samples were also collected and analyzed for different parameters of soil quality as per standard methods. The vegetative growth and flower parameters were recorded at flowering stage of tuberose plants. Results indicated that wastewater samples had higher nutrient potential, pollution hazard as compared to groundwater used in experimental crop. Soil quality parameters such as pH EC, available phosphorous & potassium and heavy metals (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cd. Pb, Ni, Cr, Co, As) were not significantly changed whereas organic carbon and available nitrogen were significant higher in the treatments where wastewater irrigations were given at 1.2 and 1.4 ID/CPE as compared to groundwater irrigations. Significantly higher plant height (68.47 cm), leaves per plant (78.35), spike length (99.93 cm), rachis length (37.40 cm), numbers of florets per spike (56.53), cut spike yield (0.93 lakh/ha) and loose flower yield (8.5 t/ha) were observed in the treatment of Wastewater irrigation at 1.2 ID/CPE. Study concluded that given quality of wastewater improves the productivity of tuberose without an adverse impact on soil quality/health. However, its long term impacts need to be further evaluated.

Keywords: conjunctive use, irrigation, tuberose, wastewater

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Authors: MD Mashiur Rahman, Muhammad Arshadul Haque

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Emerging conservation agriculture (CA) is an option for improving soil health and maintaining environmental sustainability for intensive agriculture, especially in the tropical climate. Three years lengthy research experiment was performed in arid climate from 2018 to 2020 at research field of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Station (RARS)F, Jamalpur (soil texture belongs to Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ)-8/9, 24˚56'11''N latitude and 89˚55'54''E longitude and an altitude of 16.46m) to evaluate the effect of CA approaches on energy use efficiency and a streamlined life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of wheat production. For this, the conservation tillage practices (strip tillage (ST) and minimum tillage (MT)) were adopted in comparison to the conventional farmers' tillage (CT), with retained a fixed level (30 cm) of residue retention. This study examined the relationship between energy consumption and life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of wheat cultivation in Jamalpur region of Bangladesh. Standard energy equivalents megajoules (MJ) were used to measure energy from different inputs and output, similarly, the global warming potential values for the 100-year timescale and a standard unit kilogram of carbon dioxide equivalent (kg CO₂eq) was used to estimate direct and indirect GHG emissions from the use of on-farm and off-farm inputs. Farm efficiency analysis tool (FEAT) was used to analyze GHG emission and its intensity. A non-parametric data envelopment (DEA) analysis was used to estimate the optimum energy requirement of wheat production. The results showed that the treatment combination having MT with optimum energy inputs is the best suit for cost-effective, sustainable CA practice in wheat cultivation without compromising with the yield during the dry season. A total of 22045.86 MJ ha⁻¹, 22158.82 MJ ha⁻¹, and 23656.63 MJ ha⁻¹ input energy for the practice of ST, MT, and CT was used in wheat production, and output energy was calculated as 158657.40 MJ ha⁻¹, 162070.55 MJ ha⁻¹, and 149501.58 MJ ha⁻¹, respectively; where energy use efficiency/net energy ratio was found to be 7.20, 7.31 and 6.32. Among these, MT is the most effective practice option taken into account in the wheat production process. The optimum energy requirement was found to be 18236.71 MJ ha⁻¹ demonstrating for the practice of MT that if recommendations are followed, 18.7% of input energy can be saved. The total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission was calculated to be 2288 kgCO₂eq ha⁻¹, 2293 kgCO₂eq ha⁻¹ and 2331 kgCO₂eq ha⁻¹, where GHG intensity is the ratio of kg CO₂eq emission per MJ of output energy produced was estimated to be 0.014 kg CO₂/MJ, 0.014 kg CO₂/MJ and 0.015 kg CO₂/MJ in wheat production. Therefore, CA approaches ST practice with 30 cm residue retention was the most effective GHG mitigation option when the net life cycle GHG emission was considered in wheat production in the silt clay loam soil of Bangladesh. In conclusion, the CA approaches being implemented for wheat production involving MT practice have the potential to mitigate global warming potential in Bangladesh to achieve soil carbon footprint, where the life cycle assessment approach needs to be applied to a more diverse range of wheat-based cropping systems.

Keywords: conservation agriculture and tillage, energy use efficiency, life cycle GHG, Bangladesh

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Authors: Muhammad Kamran Asif

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MPLS stands for Multi-Protocol Label Switching. It is the technology which replaces ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and frame relay. In this paper, we have designed a full fledge small scale MPLS based service provider network core network model, which provides communication services (e.g. voice, video and data) to the customer more efficiently using label switching technique. Using MPLS VPN provides security to the customers which are either on LAN or WAN. It protects its single customer sites from being attacked by any intruder from outside world along with the provision of concept of extension of a private network over an internet. In this paper, we tried to implement a service provider network using minimum available resources i.e. five 3800 series CISCO routers comprises of service provider core, provider edge routers and customer edge routers. The customers on the one end of the network (customer side) is capable of sending any kind of data to the customers at the other end using service provider cloud which is MPLS VPN enabled. We have also done simulation and emulation for the model using GNS3 (Graphical Network Simulator-3) and achieved the real time scenarios. We have also deployed a NMS system which monitors our service provider cloud and generates alarm in case of any intrusion or malfunctioning in the network. Moreover, we have also provided a video help desk facility between customers and service provider cloud to resolve the network issues more effectively.

Keywords: MPLS, VPN, NMS, ATM, asynchronous transfer mode

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Authors: Aiman Elragig, Hanan Dreiwi, Dung Ly, Idriss Elmabrook

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This paper highlights a new approach to look at online principle components analysis (OPCA). Given a data matrix X ∈ R,^m x n we characterise the online updates of its covariance as a matrix perturbation problem. Up to the principle components, it turns out that online updates of the batch PCA can be captured by symmetric matrix perturbation of the batch covariance matrix. We have shown that as n→ n0 >> 1, the batch covariance and its update become almost similar. Finally, utilize our new setup of online updates to find a bound on the angle distance of the principle components of X and its update.

Keywords: online data updates, covariance matrix, online principle component analysis, matrix perturbation

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Authors: Asiye Aydilek, Harun Aydilek

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We investigate the costs of various suboptimal allocations in housing, consumption, bond and stock holdings of a retiree in a setting with recursive utility, considering the extensive empirical evidence that investors make suboptimal decisions in different ways. We find that suboptimal stock holdings impose only modest costs on the retiree. This may have a merit in explaining the limited stock investment in the data. The cost of suboptimal bond holdings is higher than that of stocks, but still small. This may partially explain why many more people hold bonds compared to stocks. We find that positive deviations from the optimal level are less costly relative to the negative ones in suboptimal housing allocations. This may help us to clarify why the elderly are over consuming housing, as seen in the housing data. The cost of suboptimal consumption is quite high and the highest of all. Our paper suggests that, in terms of welfare, the decisions of how much of liquid wealth to use for consumption and for saving are more important than the decision about the composition of liquid savings. Suboptimal stock holdings are twice more costly in power utility and suboptimal bond holdings are twenty times more costly in recursive utility. Recursive utility is superior to power utility in terms of rationalizing many people's preference for bonds instead of stocks in investment.

Keywords: housing, recursive utility, retirement, suboptimal decisions, welfare cost

Procedia PDF Downloads 316

Authors: Raka Aldy Nugraha, Kiwah Andanni, Aditya Indra Pratama, Aswin Guntara

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Background: Torus palatinus is a bony protuberance in the hard palate. Sex and race are considered as influencing factors for the development of torus palatinus. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and characteristics of torus palatinus and its correlation with sex and ethnicity among Western Indonesian Population. Methods: We conducted a descriptive and analytical study employing cross-sectional design in 274 new students of Universitas Indonesia. Data were collected by using consecutive sampling method through questionnaire-filling and direct oral examination. Subject with racial background other than indigenous Indonesian Mongol were excluded from this study. Data were statistically analyzed using chi square test for categorical variables whereas logistic regression model was employed to assess the correlation between variables of interest with prevalence of torus palatinus. Results: Torus palatinus were found in 212 subjects (77.4%), mostly small in size (< 3 mm) and single in number, with percentage of 50.5% and 90.6%, respectively. The prevalence of torus palatinus were significantly higher in women (OR 2.88; 95% CI: 1.53-5.39; p = 0.001), dominated by medium-sized and single tori. There was no significant correlation between ethnicity and the occurrence of torus palatinus among Western Indonesian population. Conclusion: Torus palatinus was prevalent among Western Indonesian population. It showed significant positive correlation with sex, but not with ethnicity.

Keywords: characteristic, ethnicity, Indonesia, mongoloid, prevalence, sex, Torus palatinus

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Authors: Dana Christensen

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Undergraduate students, particularly in the environmental sciences, have difficulty displaying quantitative skills in their laboratory courses. Students spend time sampling in the field, often using new methods, and are expected to make sense of the data they collect. Computational thinking may be used to navigate these new experiences. We developed a curriculum for the marine science department at a small liberal arts college in the Northeastern United States based on previous computational thinking frameworks. This curriculum incorporates marine science data sets with specific objectives and topics selected by the faculty at the College. The curriculum was distributed to all students enrolled in introductory marine science classes as a mandatory module. Two pre-tests and post-tests will be used to quantitatively assess student progress on both content-based and computational principles. Student artifacts are being collected with each lesson to be coded for content-specific and computational-specific items in qualitative assessment. There is an overall gap in marine science education research, especially curricula that focus on computational thinking and associated quantitative assessment. The curricula itself, the assessments, and our results may be modified and applied to other environmental science courses due to the nature of the inquiry-based laboratory components that use quantitative skills to understand nature.

Keywords: marine science, computational thinking, curriculum assessment, quantitative skills

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Authors: Selma Sbit, Mohamed Bechir Dadi, Belgacem Chibani Rhaimi

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Incorporating Home eNodeB (HeNB) in cellular networks, e.g. Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A), is beneficial for extending coverage and enhancing capacity at low price especially within the non-line-of sight (NLOS) environments such as homes. HeNB or femtocell is a small low powered base station which provides radio coverage to the mobile users in an indoor environment. This deployment results in a heterogeneous network where the available spectrum becomes shared between two layers. Therefore, a problem of Inter Cell Interference (ICI) appears. This issue is the main challenge in LTE-A. To deal with this challenge, various techniques based on frequency, time and power control are proposed. This paper deals with the impact of carrier aggregation and higher order MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) schemes on the LTE-Advanced performance. Simulation results show the advantages of these schemes on the system capacity (4.10⁹ b/s/Hz when bandwidth B=100 MHz and when applying MIMO 8x8 for SINR=30 dB), maximum theoretical peak data rate (more than 4 Gbps for B=100 MHz and when MIMO 8x8 is used) and spectral efficiency (15 b/s/Hz and 30b/s/Hz when MIMO 4x4 and MIMO 8x8 are applying respectively for SINR=30 dB).

Keywords: capacity, carrier aggregation, LTE-Advanced, MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), peak data rate, spectral efficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 256