Search results for: rural water supply services

Authors: Phuong Nguyen, Trung Tran

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Along with the global ongoing energy transition, Vietnam has indicated a strong commitment in the last COP events on the zero-carbon emission target. However, it is a real challenge for the nation to replace fossil-fired power plants by a significant amount of renewable energy sources (RES) while maintaining security of supply. The unpredictability and variability of RES would cause technical issues for supply-demand balancing, network congestions, system balancing, among others. It is crucial to take these into account while planning the future grid infrastructure. This study will address both generation and transmission adequacy and reveal a comprehensive analysis about the impact of ongoing energy transition on the development of Vietnam power system in 2030. This will provide insight for creating an secure, stable, and affordable pathway for the country in upcoming years.

Keywords: generation adequacy, transmission adequacy, security of supply, energy transition

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Authors: Teewin Plangsrinont, Wasawat Nakkiew

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In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was utilized to simulate and predict the path of water from water soot blower through an ambient flow field in 300-megawatt tangentially burned pulverized coal boiler that utilizes a water soot blower as a cleaning device. To predict the position of the impact of water on the opposite side of the water soot blower under identical conditions, the nozzle size and water flow rate were fixed in this investigation. The simulation findings demonstrated a high degree of accuracy in predicting the direction of water flow to the boiler's water wall tube, which was validated by comparison to experimental data. Results show maximum deviation value of the water jet trajectory is 10.2 percent.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, tangentially fired boiler, thermal power plant, water soot blower

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Authors: Rommila Chandra, Harshika Choudhary

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The present-day tourism sector is globally developing at a fast pace, searching for new ideas and new venues. In the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), tourism has experienced a vast growth and continuous diversification over the last few years, thus becoming one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in India. With its majestic landscape, high peaks, rich floral and faunal diversity, and cultural history, the IHR has continuously attracted tourists and pilgrims from across the globe. The IHR has attracted a vast range of visitors who seek adventure sports, natural and spiritual solace, peace, cultural assets, food, and festivals, etc. Thus, the multi-functionality of the region has turned tourism into a key component of economic growth for the rural communities in the hills. For the local mountain people, it means valuable economic opportunity for income generation, and for the government and entrepreneurs, it brings profits. As the urban cities gain attention and investment in India, efforts have to be made to protect, safeguard, and strengthen the cultural, spiritual, and natural heritage of IHR for sustainable livelihood development. Furthermore, the socio-economic and environmental insecurities, along with geographical isolation, adds to the challenging survival in the tough terrains of IHR, creating a major threat of outmigration, land abandonment, and degradation. The question the paper intends to answer is: whether the rural community of IHR is aware of the new global trends in rural tourism and the extent of their willingness to adapt to the evolving tourism industry, which impacts the rural economy, including sustainable livelihood opportunity. The objective of the paper is to discuss the integrated nature of rural tourism, which widely depends upon natural resources, cultural heritage, agriculture/horticulture, infrastructural development, education, social awareness, and willingness of the locals. The sustainable management of all these different rural activities can lead to long-term livelihood development and social upliftment. It highlights some gap areas and recommends fewcommunity-based coping measures which the local people can adopt amidst the disorganized sector of rural tourism. Lastly, the main contribution is the exploratory research of the rural tourism vulnerability in the IHR, which would further help in studying the resilience of the tourism sector in the rural parts of a developing nation.

Keywords: community-based approach, sustainable livelihood development, Indian Himalayan region, rural tourism

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Authors: Prajakta M. Wazat, D. N. Raut

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The study consists of a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) beverage company wherein a portion of the supply chain which deals with outbound logistics is taken for improvement in order to reduce its logistics cost by using critical path method (CPM) method. Logistics is a major portion of the supply chain where customers are not willing to pay as it adds cost to product without adding value. In this study, it is necessary to ensure that products are delivered to clients at the right time while preserving high-quality standards from the beginning to the end of the supply chain. CPM is a logical sequencing method where in the most efficient route is achieved by arranging the series of events. CPM enables to identify a critical factor in order to minimize the delays and interruption by providing a feasible solution.

Keywords: FMCG, supply chain, outbound logistics, vehicle turnaround time, critical path method, cost reduction

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Authors: Lungile Maliba, O. I. Nkwonta, E Onyari

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Water resources development and management are regarded as crucial for poverty reduction in many developing countries and sustainable economic growth such as South Africa. The contribution of large hydraulic infrastructure and management of it, particularly reservoirs, to development remains controversial. This controversy stems from the fact that from a historical point of view construction of reservoirs has brought fewer benefits than envisaged and has resulted in significant environmental and social costs. A further complexity in reservoir management is the variety of stakeholders involved, all with different objectives, including domestic and industrial water use, flood control, irrigation and hydropower generation. The objective was to evaluate technical adaptation options for kleinfontein Dam’s current operating rule curves. To achieve this objective, the current operating rules curves being used in the sub-basin were analysed. An objective methodology was implemented in other to get the operating rules with regards to the target storage curves. These were derived using the Water Resources Yield/Planning Model (WRY/PM), with the aim of maximising of releases to demand zones. The result showed that the system is over allocated and in addition the demands exceed the long-term yield that is available for the system. It was concluded that the current operating rules in the system do not produce the optimum operation such as target storage curves to avoid supply failures in the system.

Keywords: infrastructure, Kleinfontein dam, operating rule curve, water resources yield and planning model

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Authors: Nattapong Techarattanased

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The objectives of this research were to study the influence of market orientation and supply chain management on competitive capability in case of the automotive parts industry in Thailand. This study employed by survey research and questionnaire was used to collect the data from 400 entrepreneurs in the automotive parts industry in Thailand. The descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. The results revealed that the overall dimensions of marketing orientation, namely, responsiveness, intelligence generation, and intelligence dissemination were rated at the high level. As well, the overall dimensions of supply chain management, namely, collaboration, communication, trust, and commitment were also rated at the high level. Furthermore, the hypothesis testing results showed that supply chain management and market orientation affected competitive capability of the automotive parts industry in Thailand which these two variables could be combined to predict competitive capability of the automotive parts industry in Thailand by 31.5 percent.

Keywords: automotive parts industry, competitive capability, market orientation, supply chain management

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Authors: A. Ejah Umraeni Salam, M. Tola, M. Selintung, F. Maricar

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Clean water is an essential and fundamental human need. Therefore, its supply must be assured by maintaining the quality, quantity and water pressure. However the fact is, on its distribution system, leakage happens and becomes a common world issue. One of the technical causes of the leakage is a leaking pipe. The purpose of the research is how to use the Radial Basis Function Neural (RBFNN) model to detect the location and the magnitude of the pipeline leakage rapidly and efficiently. In this study the RBFNN are trained and tested on data from EPANET hydraulic modeling system. Method of Radial Basis Function Neural Network is proved capable to detect location and magnitude of pipeline leakage with of the accuracy of the prediction results based on the value of RMSE (Root Meant Square Error), comparison prediction and actual measurement approaches 0.000049 for the whole pipeline system.

Keywords: radial basis function neural network, leakage pipeline, EPANET, RMSE

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Authors: F. Fabeil Noor, Roslinah Mahmud, Janice L. H. Nga, Rasid Mail

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In Malaysia, particularly in Sabah, the government has been promoting entrepreneurship among rural people to encourage them to earn their living by making good use of the diverse natural resources and local cultures of Sabah. Nevertheless, despite the government’s aim to encourage more local community in rural area to involve in entrepreneurship, the involvement of community in entrepreneurial activity is still low. It is crucial to identify the factors stimulate (or prevent) the involvement of rural community in Sabah in entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, this study tries to investigate the personal and contextual factors that may have impact on decision to start a business among the local community in Mantanani Island. In addition, this study also aims to identify the perceived benefits they receive from entrepreneurial activity. A structured face-to-face interview was conducted with 61 local communities in Mantanani Island. Data analysis revealed that passion, personal skills and self-confidence are the significant internal factors to entrepreneurial activity, whereas access to finance, labour and infrastructure are the significant external factors that are found to influence entrepreneurship. In terms of perceived rewards they received from taking up small business, it was found that respondents are predominantly agreed that entrepreneurship offers financial benefit than non-financial. In addition, this study also offers several suggestions for entrepreneurship development in Mantanani Island and it is hoped that this study may help the related agency to develop effective support policies in order to encourage more people in rural area to involve in entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, motivation, perceived rewards, rural community

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Authors: Dato Surmanidze, Dato Antadze, Tornike Partenadze

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Public online services in Georgia are concentrated on main target segments: public administration, business, population, non-governmental and other interested organizations. Therefore, the strategy of digital Georgia is focused on providing G2C, G2B/B2G, G2NGO and G2G services. In G2C framework sophisticated and high-technological online services have been developed in order to provide passports, identity cards, documentations concerning residence and civil acts (birth, marriage, divorce, child adoption, change of name and surname, death, etc) as well as other services. Websites like my.gov.ge and sda.gov.ge have distance services like electronic application, processing and decision making. In line with international standards automatic services like electronic tenders, product catalogues, invoices and payment have been developed. This creates better investment climate for foreign companies in Georgia in the framework of G2B politics. The website mybusiness.gov.ge creates better conditions for local business. Among electronic services is e-NRMS (electronic system for national resource management) which was introduced by the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. The system was created in order to ensure management of national resources by state and business organizations. It is integrated with bank services and provides G2C, G2B and B2G representatives with electronic services. Also a portal meteo.gov.ge was created which gives electronic services concerning air, geological, environmental and pollution issues. Also worknet.gov.ge should be mentioned which is an electronic hub of information management for employers and employees. The information portal of labor market will facilitate receipt of information, its analysis and delivery to interested people like employers and employees. However, nowadays it’s been two years that only employees portal is activated. Therefore, awareness about the portal, its competitiveness and success is undermined.

Keywords: electronic services, public administration, information technology, information society

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Authors: Crysovaladou Kefaloudi, Kassiani Mellou, Eirini Saranti-Papasaranti, Athanasios Koustenis, Chrysoula Botsi, Agapios Terzidis

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Recent migration crisis led to a vast migrant – refugees movement to Greece which created an urgent need for hosting settlements. Taken into account the protection of public health from possible pathogens related to water and food supply as well as waste and sewage accumulation, a 'Living Conditions Recording Form' was created in the context of 'PHILOS' European Program funded by the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of EU’s DG Migration and Home Affairs, in order to assess a number of environmental sanitation parameters, in refugees – migrants camps in mainland. The assessment will be completed until the end of July. From March to June 2017, mobile unit teams comprised of health inspectors of sub-action 2 of “PHILOS” proceeded with the assessment of living conditions in twenty-two out of thirty-one camps and 'Stata' was used for the statistical analysis of obtained information. Variables were grouped into the following categories: 1) Camp administration, 2) hosted population number, 3) accommodation, 4) heating installations, 5) personal hygiene, 6) sewage collection and disposal, 7) water supply, 8) waste collection and management, 9) pest control, 10) fire safety, 11) food handling and safety. Preliminary analysis of the results showed that camp administration was performed in 90% of the camps by a public authority with the coordination of various NGOs. The median number of hosted population was 222 ranging from 62 to 3200, and the median value of hosted population per accommodation type was 4 in 19 camps. Heating facilities were provided in 86.1% of camps. In 18.2 % of the camps, one personal hygiene facility was available per 6 people ranging in the rest of the camps from 1 per 3 to 1 per 20 hosted refugees-migrants. Waste and sewage collection was performed depending on populations demand in an adequate way in all recorded camps. In 90% of camps, water was supplied through the central water supply system. In 85% of camps quantity and quality of water supply inside camps was regularly monitored for microbial and chemical indices. Pest control was implemented in 86.4% of the camps as well as fire safety measures. Food was supplied by catering companies in 50% of the camps, and the quality and quantity food was monitored at a regular basis. In 77% of camps, food was prepared by the hosted population with the availability of proper storage conditions. Furthermore, in all camps, hosted population was provided with personal hygiene items and health sanitary educational programs were implemented in 77.3% of camps. In conclusion, in the majority of the camps, environmental sanitation parameters were satisfactory. However, waste and sewage accumulation, as well as inadequate pest control measures were recorded in some camps. The obtained data have led to a number of recommendations for the improvement of sanitary conditions, disseminated to all relevant stakeholders. Special emphasis was given to hygiene measures implementation during food handling by migrants – refugees, as well as to waste and sewage accumulation taking in to account the population’s cultural background.

Keywords: environmental sanitation parameters, food borne diseases risk assessment, refugee – migrants camps, water borne diseases risk assessment

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Authors: Ananth Malali, Rohan Prasad, Ananth Revankar, Chiranth Hulgur

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This paper aims to show evidence that value creation by sustainable methods is achieved when a relation is shared with a sustainability attribute between two or more companies in every stage of the supply chain. The pillars of this paper, the value creation factors, attributes of sustainability and various relations that exist between firms in a horizontally integrated supply chain are defined. Further, a relational analysis was done using a simple analysis tool built based on research. Couple of case studies from the German manufacturing and Australian retail sectors were considered for the intra industry analysis and comparison. Taking the analysis ahead, for inter-industry comparison, the same cases were scrutinised in order to understand how the sustainability attributes change across each industry. Concluding, this paper gives an overview of how companies can plan their strategies to attain sustainability through horizontal integration.

Keywords: horizontal integration, value creation, sustainable supply chain

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Authors: Katie Wood

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Cyber criminals are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to exploit organisation and cause destruction. This could lead to significant cause of economic loss for organisations in the form of destruction in finances, reputation and even the overall survival of the organization. Additionally, this leads to serious consequences on national security. The threat of possible cyber attacks places further pressure on organisations to ensure they are secure, at a time where international scale cyber attacks have occurred in a range of sectors. Stakeholders are wanting confidence that their data is protected. This is only achievable if a business fosters a resilient supply chain strategy which is implemented throughout its supply chain by having a strong cyber leadership culture. This paper will discuss the essential role and need for organisations to adopt a cyber leadership culture and direction to learn about own internal processes to ensure mitigating systemic vulnerability of its supply chains. This paper outlines that to protect national security there is an urgent need for cyber awareness culture change. This is required in all organisations, regardless of their sector or size, to implementation throughout the whole supplier chain to support and protect economic prosperity to make the UK more resilient to cyber-attacks. Through businesses understanding the supply chain and risk management cycle of their own operates has to be the starting point to ensure effective cyber migration strategies.

Keywords: cyber leadership, cyber migration strategies, resilient supply chain strategy, cybersecurity

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Authors: Musa Ogah Ari

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Poverty has engaged the attention of the global community. Both the rich and poor countries are concerned about its prevalence and impacts. This phenomenon is more pervasive among developing countries with the greater challenges manifesting among African countries. In Nigeria people live with very low income, and so decent three-square meals, clothes, shelter and other basic necessities are very difficult to come by for most of the population. Qualitative health facilities are seriously lacking to over 160 million population in the state. Equally lacking are educational and social infrastructures that can be available to the people at affordable rates. Roads linking the interior parts of the state are generally in deplorable conditions, particularly in the rainy season. Safe drinking water is hard to come by as the state is not properly placed and equipped to function in full capacity to serve the interest of the people. The challenges of poverty is definitely enormous for both the national and state governments consequently, debilitating scourge of poverty. As the ruling elites in Nigeria claim to reduce the rising profile of poverty through series of policies and programmes, food production, promotion and funding of co-operatives for agriculture, improvement of infrastructures at the rural areas to guaranteeing employment through skill acquisition, assistance of rural women to break away from poverty and the provision of small scale credit facilities to poor members of the public were abysmally low. It is observed that the poverty alleviation programmes and policies failed because they were by nature, character and implementation pro-elites and anti-masses. None of the programmes or policies engaged the rural poor either in terms of formulation or implementation.

Keywords: the state, poverty, government policies, strategies, social amenities, corruption

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Authors: Kishore K. Pochampally

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The success of a supply chain heavily relies on the efficiency of the suppliers involved. In this paper, we propose a neural network approach to evaluate the efficiency of a supplier, which is being considered for inclusion in a supply chain, using the available linguistic (fuzzy) data of suppliers that already exist in the supply chain. The approach is carried out in three phases, as follows: In phase one, we identify criteria for evaluation of the supplier of interest. Then, in phase two, we use performance measures of already existing suppliers to construct a neural network that gives weights (importance values) of criteria identified in phase one. Finally, in phase three, we calculate the overall rating of the supplier of interest. The following are the major findings of the research conducted for this paper: (i) linguistic (fuzzy) ratings of suppliers such as 'good', 'bad', etc., can be converted (defuzzified) to numerical ratings (1 – 10 scale) using fuzzy logic so that those ratings can be used for further quantitative analysis; (ii) it is possible to construct and train a multi-level neural network in order to determine the weights of the criteria that are used to evaluate a supplier; and (iii) Borda’s rule can be used to group the weighted ratings and calculate the overall efficiency of the supplier.

Keywords: fuzzy data, neural network, supplier, supply chain

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Authors: Rama Seth, Luise Noring, Pratim Majumdar

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Based on an extensive literature review, this paper presents distinct approaches to value, quantify and trade ecosystem services, with particular emphasis on services provided by mangroves and wetlands. Building on diverse monetary and market-based systems for the improved allocation of natural resources, such trading and exchange-based methods can help tackle the degradation of ecosystem services in a more targeted and structured manner than achievable with stand-alone policy and administrative regulations. Using various threads of literature, the paper proposes a platform that serves as the skeletal foundation for developing an efficient global market for ecosystem services trading. The paper bridges a significant research and practice gap by recommending how to establish an equilibrium in the biosphere via trading mechanisms while also discovering other research gaps and future research potential in the domain of ecosystem valuation.

Keywords: environment, economics, mangroves, wetlands, markets, ESG, global capital, climate investments, valuation, ecosystem services

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Authors: Saba Javed, Abdul Majeed Nadeem, Imran Qaiser, Muhammad Asif Kamran, Azka Amin

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This study is designed to determine the poverty status and determinants of income diversification in rural areas of Pakistan using cross sectional data of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) for 2010-2011. The variables used for measuring income diversification are demographic indicators, poverty status, and income of households. Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures show that 43.1% poor and 56.9% non-poor resided in rural areas of Pakistan. A Tobit model was employed to examine the determinants of livelihood diversification among households. The result showed that age, gender, marital status, household size and province have significant impact on income diversification. The data show that non-poor and female headed household with higher family size diversify more as compared to poor, male headed household with small size of family members. The place of residence (province used as proxy for place) also plays important role for income diversification as Sindh Province was found more diversified as compared to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoon Kha (KPK). It is recommended to improve the ways of income diversification among rural household to reduce poverty among them. This can be done by more investment in education with universal access for poor and remote localities households.

Keywords: poverty, income diversification, rural Pakistan, Tobit regression model, FGT

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Authors: M.Goodarzi, M.Mohammadi, M. Rezaee

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The technical analysis of using solar energy and electricity for water pumping in the Khuzestan province in Iran is investigated. For this purpose, the ecological conditions such as the weather data, air clearness and sunshine hours are analyzed. The nature of groundwater in the region was examined in terms of depth, static and dynamic head, water pumping rate.Three configurations for solar water pumping system were studied in this thesis; AC solar water pumping with storage battery, AC solar water pumping with storage tank and DC direct solar water pumping.

Keywords: technical feasibility, solar energy, photovoltaic systems, photovoltaic water pumping system

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Authors: Arnold Missiame

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In Ghana, rural dwellers who depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood constitute about 60% of the country’s population. This shows the critical role and potentials of the agricultural sector in helping to achieve Ghana’s vision 2030. With the current threat of climate change and advancements in technology, agricultural extension is not just about technology transfer and improvements in productivity, but it is also about improving the managerial and technical skills of farmers. In Ghana, the government of Ghana as well as other players in the sector like; non-governmental organizations, NGOs, local and international funding agencies, for decades now, have made capacity-building-investments in smallholder farmers by way of extension services delivery. This study sought to compare the technical efficiency of farmers who have access to agricultural extension and farmers who do not in Ghana. The study employed the stochastic meta-frontier model to analyze household survey data comprising 300 smallholder cassava farmers from the Fanteakwa district of Ghana. The farmers were selected through a two-stage sampling technique where 5 communities were purposively selected in the first stage and then 60 smallholder cassava farmers were randomly selected from each of the 5 communities. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data on farmers’ socioeconomic and farm-level characteristics. The results showed that farmers who have access to agricultural extensions services have higher technical efficiencies (TE) and produce much closer to their meta-production frontiers (higher technology gap ratios (TGR) than farmers who do not have access to such extension services. Furthermore, experience in cassava cultivation and formal education significantly improves the technical efficiencies of farmers. The study recommends that the mode and scope of agricultural extension service delivery in the country should be enhanced to ensure that smallholder farmers have easy access to extension agents.

Keywords: agricultural extension, Ghana, smallholder farmers, stochastic meta-frontier model, technical efficiency

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Authors: Karthiyayini J., Arpita Chowdary Vantipalli, Darshana Sailu Tanti, Malvika Ravi Kudari, Krtin Kannan

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This paper is propelled from the generally existing undertaking of the smart water quality management, which addresses an IoT (Internet of things) based brilliant water quality observing (SWQM) framework which we call it AquaSwach that guides in the ceaseless estimation of water conditions dependent on five actual boundaries i.e., temperature, pH, electric conductivity and turbidity properties and water virtue estimation each time you drink water. Six sensors relate to Arduino-Mega in a discrete way to detect the water parameters. Extracted data from the sensors are transmitted to a desktop application developed in the NET platform and compared with the WHO (World Health Organization) standard values.

Keywords: AquaSwach, IoT, WHO, water quality

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Authors: Fikile Xaki, Zendy Magayiyana

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The increasing population and urbanization, with the demand for land and development, has had adverse impacts on wetland areas which has resulted in changing the hydrology and water chemistry of wetlands, affecting the water supply and water quality in urban areas like the Highland View, a residential area in Mbizana, South Africa. The settlement development in Highland View has led to wetland degradation due to land uses like agriculture and conversion of wetland for settlement development. Interviews with the local community were conducted to show how settlement development on wetland affects them. The results indicated that the environmental rights of people as according to Section 24 of the South African Constitution are compromised, and sustainable development was not put into consideration during development. With the results from the survey - through questionnaires for the Mbizana Local Municipality and the community, it was clear that the community needs education and capacity building on wetland management and conservation. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to map physical properties of the Highland View wetland and houses built on the wetland. With all the information gathered from the research, it was clear that local municipality, together with hydrologists, needs to develop an environmental management framework to protect the wetlands.

Keywords: sustainable development, wetlands, human settlement, water

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Authors: Kiranmay Sarma

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Recent decades have witnessed rapid increase in urbanization, for which, rural-urban migration is stated to be the principal reason. Urban growth throughout the world has already outstripped the capacities of most of the cities to provide basic amenities to the citizens, including clean drinking water and consequently, they are struggling to get fresh and clean water to meet water demands. Delhi, the capital of India, is one of the rapid fast growing metropolitan cities of the country. As a result, there has been large influx of population during the last few decades and pressure exerted to the limited available water resources, mainly on groundwater. Considering this important aspect, the present research has been designed to study the effects of urbanization on the green cover and groundwater and their relationships of Delhi. For the purpose, four different land uses of the study area have been considered, viz., protected forest area, trees outside forest, maintained park and settlement area. Samples for groundwater and vegetation were collected seasonally in post-monsoon (October), winter (February) and summer (June) at each study site for two years during 2012 and 2014. The results were integrated into GIS platform. The spatial distribution of groundwater showed that the concentration of most of the ions is decreasing from northern to southern parts of Delhi, thus groundwater shows an improving trend from north to south. The depth was found to be improving from south to north Delhi, i.e., opposite to the water quality. The study concludes the groundwater properties in Delhi vary spatially with depending on the types of land cover.

Keywords: groundwater, urbanization, GIS, green cover, Delhi

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Authors: Mika Kaufman

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Behavioral health in school-age children is a great concern. Negative behaviors can affect mental and physical health and, if ignored, can lead to further problems later in life. Rural communities often lack resources for counselors, social workers, and mental health care in the hopes of intervening with children who exhibit negative behaviors. Because of this, schools in rural communities are more likely to have children with behavioral issues. Prevention programs to recognize and address these behavioral concerns can educate teachers about mental health, different negative behaviors that students might exhibit, and how to manage those behaviors and engage with students in a positive way.

Keywords: prevention programs, behavioral health, resources for teachers, rural schools

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Authors: Parisa Alizadeh Oskuie, Shahram Baghban Ciruse

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The influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus(Glomus mossea) on plant growth and leaf-water potential of tomato (lycopersicum esculentum L.cv.super star) were studied in potted culture water stress stress period of 3 months in greenhouse conditions with the soil matric potential maintained at Fc1, Fc2, Fc3, and Fc4 respectively (0.8,0.7,0.6,0.5 Fc). Seven-day-old seedlings of tomato were transferred to pots containing Glomus mossea or non-AMF. AM colonization significantly stimulated shoot dry matter and leaf-water potential but water stress significantly decreased leaf area, shoot dry matter colonization and leaf-water potential.

Keywords: leaf-water potential, plant growth, tomato, VA mycorrhiza, water-stress

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Authors: Cassandra Maffei, Effie Pomaki, Salomé Deslauriers-Brouillard, Levana Dahan, Caroline Storr, Ramasubramanian Ponnusamy, Philippe S. Archambault

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Sexual health education following spinal cord injury (SCI) remains poorly integrated into the rehabilitation process, especially in low-income countries where the topics of disability and sexuality are stigmatized. This research aimed to evaluate a sexual health manual that was created and distributed amongst males with SCI who had received rehabilitation services at Amar Seva Sangam (ASSA), a rehabilitation center located in rural South India. A service evaluation was completed to collect data from a convenience sample of 37 males with spinal cord injuries. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The service evaluation showed that the manual was well received by the sample and had positive impacts on secondary outcome measures, including relationship dynamics and quality of life. It can thus be used as an effective adjunct tool to support the improvement of sexual health knowledge, attitudes, and practices of individuals with SCI.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, sexual health, rehabilitation, India, education, service evaluation

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Authors: Patarapan Odton

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This study investigates demographic and socio-economic factors of breastfeeding practice, including exclusively breastfeeding among children in Thailand using the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS3 and MICS4). Logistic regression models were used to examine the determinants of initial breastfeeding, exclusively breastfeeding, and predominant breastfeeding, using data from women and children section of the survey. For initial breastfeeding, women live in rural area were more likely to start breastfeeding within one day of birth rather than who live in urban area in both round of the surveys. In year 2012, there were significantly higher probabilities of women in rural area started breastfeeding within one hour of birth compare to urban area. Women in southern Thailand have higher probabilities of start breastfeeding within one hour and one day than women in Bangkok and central region. During the year 2005-2006, children aged less than 5 years old lived in rural area have been breastfed higher than children in urban area. Children live in the northeast region were more likely to have been breastfed than the other regions. Only the second wealth quintile group was significant higher probability of ever been breastfed than the poorest group. The findings in the second round of the survey are different from the year 2005-06. In 2012, there was no difference in probability of ever been breastfed among children live in urban and rural area, children in Bangkok and central region were less probability of ever been breastfed than the others.

Keywords: Breastfeeding, Exclusive Breastfeeding, Predominant Breastfeeding, Urban-Rural Difference

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Authors: J. Kodoh, H. L. Dumil, M. Maid

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Agroforestry system has been widely documented that provide benefits to rural livelihoods and improved socioeconomic status. This study concerns on agroforestry practices in generating local socioeconomic livelihoods. The general approach is to survey local community involvement in the agroforestry activities at four selected rural villages in Paitan district, using a structured questionnaire through personal interview technique. A total of 200 respondents were interviewed where the largest age group of the respondents was more than 50 years old (31%). Almost all respondents had former education (76%), and majority of them were employed (97%) either in the government and private sectors or self-employed. All respondents (100%) were involved in agroforestry activities where agroforestry products as their source of income (Hevea brasiliensis, Durio zibethinus, Elaeis guinensis) and foods (Manihot esculenta, Mangifera sp., Musa sp.) The mean monthly income from selling agroforestry products contributed 16.6% (USD130.37) of the mean total monthly income of the respondents (r=0.407, r²=0.166, p < 0.01). This study also showed that the main driven factor for the respondents (93%) to adopt and sustain the agroforestry practices is their traditional ways of farming that transferred from generation to generation.

Keywords: agroforestry, Paitan district, rural community, socioeconomic

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Authors: Johannes Atug, Andreas Radke, Mitchell Tseng, Gunther Reinhart

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In modern supply chains, large numbers of SKU (Stock-Keeping-Unit) need to be timely managed, and any delays in noticing disruptions of items often limit the ability to defer the impact on customer order fulfillment. However, in supply chains of IoT-connected enterprises, the ERP (Enterprise-Resource-Planning), the MES (Manufacturing-Execution-System) and the SCADA (Supervisory-Control-and-Data-Acquisition) systems generate large amounts of data, which generally glean much earlier notice of deviations in the business process steps. That is, analyzing these streams of data with process mining techniques allows the monitoring of the supply chain business processes and thus identification of items that deviate from the standard order fulfillment process. In this paper, a framework to enable event-based SCM (Supply-Chain-Management) processes including an overview of core enabling technologies are presented, which is based on the RAMI (Reference-Architecture-Model for Industrie 4.0) architecture. The application of this framework in the industry is presented, and implications for SCM in industry 4.0 and further research are outlined.

Keywords: cyber-physical production systems, event-based monitoring, supply chain management, RAMI (Reference-Architecture-Model for Industrie 4.0)

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Authors: L. Arumuru

Abstract:

The paper investigates computer anxiety and the use of computerized library system by university librarians in Delta State University library, Abraka, Nigeria. Some of the root causes of computer anxiety among university librarians such as lack of exposure to computers at early age, inadequate computer skills, inadequate computer training, fear at the sight of a computer, lack of understanding of how computers work, etc. were pin-pointed in the study. Also, the different services rendered in the university libraries with the aid of computers such as reference services, circulation services, acquisition services, cataloguing and classification services, etc. were identified. The study employed the descriptive survey research design through the expo-facto method, with a population of 56 librarians, while the simple percentage and frequency counts were used to analyze the data generated from the administered copies of the questionnaire. Based on the aforementioned root causes of computer anxiety and the resultant effect on computerized library system, recommendations were proffered in the study.

Keywords: computer anxiety, computerized library system, library services, university librarians

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Authors: Gift Udoh, Diane S. Rohlman, Benjamin Sindt

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: There is concern regarding the widespread use of pesticides and impacts on public health. Farmers in Nigeria frequently apply pesticides, including organophosphate pesticides which are known neurotoxicants. They receive little guidance on how much to apply or information about safe handling practices. Pesticide poisoning is one of the major hazards that farmers face in Nigeria. Farmers continue to use highly neurotoxic pesticides for agricultural activities. Because farmers receive little or no information on safe handling and how much to apply, they continue to develop severe and mild illnesses caused by high exposures to pesticides. The project aimed to reduce pesticide exposure among rural farmers in Nigeria by identifying hazards associated with pesticide use and developing and pilot testing training to reduce exposures to pesticides utilizing the hierarchy of controls system. METHODS: Information on pesticide knowledge, behaviors, barriers to safety, and prevention methods was collected from farmers in Nigeria through workplace observations, questionnaires, and interviews. Pre and post-surveys were used to measure farmer’s knowledge before and after the delivery of pesticide safety training. Training topics included the benefits and risks of using pesticides, routes of exposure and health effects, pesticide label activity, use and selection of PPE, ways to prevent exposure and information on local resources. The training was evaluated among farmers and changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors were collected prior to and following the training. RESULTS: The training was administered to 60 farmers, a mean age of 35, with a range of farming experience (<1 year to > 50 years). There was an overall increase in knowledge after the training. In addition, farmers perceived a greater immediate risk from exposure to pesticides and their perception of their personal risk increased. For example, farmers believed that pesticide risk is greater to children than to adults, recognized that just because a pesticide is put on the market doesn’t mean it is safe, and they were more confident that they could get advice about handling pesticides. Also, there was greater awareness about behaviors that can increase their exposure (mixing pesticides with bare hands, eating food in the field, not washing hands before eating after applying pesticides, walking in fields recently sprayed, splashing pesticides on their clothes, pesticide storage). CONCLUSION: These results build on existing evidence from a 2022 article highlighting the need for pesticide safety training in Nigeria which suggested that pesticide safety educational programs should focus on community-based, grassroots-style, and involve a family-oriented approach. Educating farmers on agricultural safety while letting them share their experiences with their peers is an effective way of creating awareness on the dangers associated with handling pesticides. Also, for rural communities, especially in Nigeria, pesticide safety pieces of training may not be able to reach some locations, so intentional scouting of rural farming communities and delivering pesticide safety training will improve knowledge of pesticide hazards. There is a need for pesticide information centers to be situated in rural farming communities or agro supply stores, which gives rural farmers information.

Keywords: pesticide exposure, pesticide safety, nigeria, rural farming, pesticide education

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: F. Massri, M. Shkarneh, B. Almassri

Abstract:

Water scarcity and increasing water demand especially for residential use are major challenges facing Palestine. The need to accurately forecast water consumption is useful for the planning and management of this natural resource. The main objective of this paper is to (i) study the major factors influencing the water consumption in Palestine, (ii) understand the general pattern of Household water consumption, (iii) assess the possible changes in household water consumption and suggest appropriate remedies and (iv) develop prediction model based on the Artificial Neural Network to the water consumption in Palestinian cities. The paper is organized in four parts. The first part includes literature review of household water consumption studies. The second part concerns data collection methodology, conceptual frame work for the household water consumption surveys, survey descriptions and data processing methods. The third part presents descriptive statistics, multiple regression and analysis of the water consumption in the two Palestinian cities. The final part develops the use of Artificial Neural Network for modeling the water consumption in Palestinian cities.

Keywords: water management, demand forecasting, consumption, ANN, Ramallah

Procedia PDF Downloads 195