Search results for: agricultural extension

Authors: Gulcin Yildiz, Gokcen Izli

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Drying (dehydration) is the process of removing water from food in order to preserve the food. Drying is one of the oldest methods known for the preservation of agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables. Drying of agricultural products enhances their storage life, minimizes losses during storage, and save shipping and transportation costs. Apples are considered excellent candidates for drying. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of microwave and oven processing on the quality of selected apple products. Red delicious and golden delicious apples were washed, peeled, and sliced. Drying experiments were performed in an oven at 50, 75 and 100 °C and in a microwave at 140 W and 210 W. Quality attributes such as color, total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity of dried samples with different methods were compared with the fresh sample. A Minolta CR-300 Chroma Meter was used to examine color changes in the apples. Total phenolic content was determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. The free radical scavenging activity of the extract was determined using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). It was found that the phenolic contents and antioxidant capacities of dried samples under all drying conditions were decreased compared to the fresh samples. The phenolic contents of microwave dried samples at 140 W and 210 W for both red and golden delicious apples were higher than those of the oven drying at 50, 75 and 100 °C. Similarly, the antioxidant activities of microwave dried samples at 140 W and 210 W were higher than those of the oven drying at 50, 75 and 100 °C for both types of apples. All color parameters (L*, a*, b*) were changed significantly depending on the drying methods and temperatures. The closest color values to the fresh sample were found for the microwave dried samples at 140 W. Microwave drying was proven to be more effective than oven drying.

Keywords: antioxidant capacity, color, golden delicious, microwave, red delicious, total phenolic content

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Authors: Ritsuko Kawasaki (Aiba), Takeshi Hiromatsu

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Management is required to understand all information security risks within an organization, and to make decisions on which information security risks should be treated in what level by allocating how much amount of cost. However, such decision-making is not usually easy, because various measures for risk treatment must be selected with the suitable application levels. In addition, some measures may have objectives conflicting with each other. It also makes the selection difficult. Moreover, risks generally have trends and it also should be considered in risk treatment. Therefore, this paper provides the extension of the model proposed in the previous study. The original model supports the selection of measures by applying a combination of weighted average method and goal programming method for multi-objective analysis to find an optimal solution. The extended model includes the notion of weights to the risks, and the larger weight means the priority of the risk.

Keywords: information security risk treatment, selection of risk measures, risk acceptance, multi-objective optimization

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Authors: Yael Dubinsky, Orit Hazzan

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There is a constant need for hi-tech innovation to be decentralized to peripheral regions. This work describes how we applied design science research (DSR) principles to define what we refer to as the Sea of Galilee (SoG) method. The goal of the SoG method is to harness existing and new technological initiatives in peripheral regions to create a socio-technological network that can initiate and maintain hi-tech activities. The SoG method consists of a set of principles, a stakeholder network, and actual hi-tech business initiatives, including their infrastructure and practices. The three cycles of DSR, the Relevance, Design, and Rigor cycles, layout a research framework to sharpen the requirements, collect data from case studies, and iteratively refine the SoG method based on the existing knowledge base. We propose that the SoG method can be deployed by regional authorities that wish to be considered smart regions (an extension of the notion of smart cities).

Keywords: design science research, socio-technological initiatives, Sea of Galilee method, periphery stakeholder network, hi-tech initiatieves

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Authors: Ismail Elkhrachy

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Determination of land use changing is an important component of regional planning for applications ranging from urban fringe change detection to monitoring change detection of land use. This data are very useful for natural resources management.On the other hand, the technologies and methods of change detection also have evolved dramatically during past 20 years. So it has been well recognized that the change detection had become the best methods for researching dynamic change of land use by multi-temporal remotely-sensed data. The objective of this paper is to assess, evaluate and monitor land use change surrounding the area of Najran city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) using Landsat images (June 23, 2009) and ETM+ image(June. 21, 2014). The post-classification change detection technique was applied. At last,two-time subset images of Najran city are compared on a pixel-by-pixel basis using the post-classification comparison method and the from-to change matrix is produced, the land use change information obtained.Three classes were obtained, urban, bare land and agricultural land from unsupervised classification method by using Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS software. Accuracy assessment of classification has been performed before calculating change detection for study area. The obtained accuracy is between 61% to 87% percent for all the classes. Change detection analysis shows that rapid growth in urban area has been increased by 73.2%, the agricultural area has been decreased by 10.5 % and barren area reduced by 7% between 2009 and 2014. The quantitative study indicated that the area of urban class has unchanged by 58.2 km〗^2, gained 70.3 〖km〗^2 and lost 16 〖km〗^2. For bare land class 586.4〖km〗^2 has unchanged, 53.2〖km〗^2 has gained and 101.5〖km〗^2 has lost. While agriculture area class, 20.2〖km〗^2 has unchanged, 31.2〖km〗^2 has gained and 37.2〖km〗^2 has lost.

Keywords: land use, remote sensing, change detection, satellite images, image classification

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Authors: Nida Rizvi, Deeksha Katyal, Varun Joshi

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River Hindon is an important river catering the demand of highly populated rural and industrial cluster of western Uttar Pradesh, India. Water quality of river Hindon is deteriorating at an alarming rate due to various industrial, municipal and agricultural activities. The present study aimed at identifying the pollution sources and quantifying the degree to which these sources are responsible for the deteriorating water quality of the river. Various water quality parameters, like pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, calcium, chloride, nitrate, sulphate, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and total alkalinity were assessed. Water quality data obtained from eight study sites for one year has been subjected to the two multivariate techniques, namely, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Principal component analysis was applied with the aim to find out spatial variability and to identify the sources responsible for the water quality of the river. Three Varifactors were obtained after varimax rotation of initial principal components using principal component analysis. Cluster analysis was carried out to classify sampling stations of certain similarity, which grouped eight different sites into two clusters. The study reveals that the anthropogenic influence (municipal, industrial, waste water and agricultural runoff) was the major source of river water pollution. Thus, this study illustrates the utility of multivariate statistical techniques for analysis and elucidation of multifaceted data sets, recognition of pollution sources/factors and understanding temporal/spatial variations in water quality for effective river water quality management.

Keywords: cluster analysis, multivariate statistical techniques, river Hindon, water quality

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Authors: Abebaw Assaye, Seiichi Sakurai, Marutama Atsush, Dawit Alemu

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Rice is considered as a strategic agricultural commodity targeting national food security and import substitution in Ethiopia and diverse measures are put in place a number of initiatives to ensure the growth and development of rice sector in the country. This study assessed factors that influence smallholder farmers' level of rice commercialization in Ethiopia. The required data were generated from 594 randomly sampled rice producers using multi-stage sampling techniques from four major rice-producing regional states. Both descriptive and econometric methods were used to analyze the data. We adopted the ordered probit model to analyze factors determining output commercialization in the rice market. The ordered probit model result showed that the sex of the household head, educational status of the household head, credit use, proportion of irrigated land cultivated, membership in social groups, and land dedicated to rice production were found to influence significantly and positively the probability of being commercial-oriented. Conversely, the age of the household, total cultivated land, and distance to the main market were found to influence negatively. These findings suggest that promoting productivity-increasing technologies, development of irrigation facilities, strengthening of social institutions, and facilitating access to credit are crucial for enhancing the commercialization of rice in the study area. Since agricultural lands are limited, intensified farming through promoting improved rice technologies and mechanized farming could be an option to enhance marketable surplus and increase level of rice market particicpation.

Keywords: rice, commercialization, Tobit, ordered probit, Ethiopia

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Authors: Subhra Chattopadhyay

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New Towns are usually built up at city-periphery with an eye to accommodate overspill population and functions of the city. ‘New towns are self-sufficient planned towns having a full range of urban economic and social activities, so it can provide employments for all of its inhabitants as well as a balanced self-content social community could be maintained’. In 3rd world countries New towns often emerge from scratch i.e on the area having no urban background and therefore, it needs a massive land conversion from rural to urban. This paper aims to study the implication of such land title transfer into rural sustainability with a case study at Jatragachi, New Town Kolkata. Broad objectives of this study are to understand 1. new changes in this area like i)changes in land use, ii) demographic changes, iii) occupational changes of the local people and 2.their view about new town planning. Major observations are stated below. The studied area was completely rural till recent years and is now at the heart of New Town Kolkata. Though this area is now under the jurisdiction of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), it is still administrated by rural self-government.It creates administrative confusion and misuse of public capital. It is observed in this study that cultivation was the mainstay of livelihood for the majority of residents till recent past. There was a dramatic rise in irrigated area in the decade of 90’s pointing out agricultural prosperity.The area achieved the highest productivity of rice in the District. Percentage of marginal workers dropped significantly.In addition to it, ascending women’s literacy rate as found in this rural Mouza obviously indicates a constant social progress .Through land conversion, this flourishing agricultural land has been transformed into urban area with highly sophisticated uses. Such development may satisfy educated urban elite but the dwellers of the area suffer a lot. They bear the cost of new town planning through loss of their assured food and income as well as their place identity. The number of marginal workers increases abruptly. The growth of female literacy drops down. The area loses its functional linkages with its surroundings and fails to prove its actual growth potentiality. The physical linkages( like past roads and irrigation infrastructure) which had developed through time to support the economy become defunct. The ecological services which were provided by the agricultural field are denied. The historicity of this original site is demolished. Losses of the inhabitants of the area who have been evicted are also immense and cannot be materially compensated. Therefore, the ethos of such new town planning in stake of rural sustainability is under question. Need for an integrated approach for rural and urban development planning is felt in this study.

Keywords: new town, sustainable development, growth potentiality, land transfer

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Authors: Alireza Pour Ebrahimi, Vahid Abasi

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Recently by the extension of internet usage, Research on the intrusion detection system takes a significant importance. Many of improvement systems prevent internal and external network attacks by providing security through firewalls and antivirus. In recently years, intrusion detection systems gradually turn from host-based systems and depend on O.S to the distributed systems which are running on multiple O.S. In this work, by considering the diversity of computer networks whit respect to structure, architecture, resource, services, users and also security goals requirement a fully distributed collaborative intrusion detection system based on peer to peer architecture is suggested. in this platform each partner device (matched device) considered as a peer-to-peer network. All transmitted information to network are visible only for device that use security scanning of a source. Experimental results show that the distributed architecture is significantly upgradeable in respect to centralized approach.

Keywords: network, intrusion detection system, peer to peer, internal and external network

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Authors: Pooja Mishra, Chris Pollett

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This paper explores efficient ways to implement various media-updating features like news aggregation, video conversion, and bulk email handling. All of these jobs share the property that they are periodic in nature, and they all benefit from being handled in a distributed fashion. The data for these jobs also often comes from a social or collaborative source. We isolate the class of periodic, one round map reduce jobs as a useful setting to describe and handle media updating tasks. As such tasks are simpler than general map reduce jobs, programming them in a general map reduce platform could easily become tedious. This paper presents a MediaUpdater module of the Yioop Open Source Search Engine Web Portal designed to handle such jobs via an extension of a PHP class. We describe how to implement various media-updating tasks in our system as well as experiments carried out using these implementations on an Amazon Web Services cluster.

Keywords: distributed jobs framework, news aggregation, video conversion, email

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Authors: P. Nayak, Shakeel Shaikh

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In this paper, we analyse the apparel export performance of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the world market. The study covers the 2003-2012 period at the sector as well as product levels (6 digit HS) and analysis is based HS 2002 nomenclature. We measure export similarity among Southeast Asian nations for the apparel sector (two digit HS-61 & 62), besides analysing the products performance in the world through Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) technique. Coupled with RCA, the price as a factor of competitiveness was examined from the available Unit Value Realizations (UVR). Further to this, the resource availability or outsourced from the region was considered as an extension to the analysis of competitiveness between the nations. With the help of these methodologies, we examine the degree of competition between the exports of southeast nations in the world market. Our results show that Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam are well performing states within ASEAN. The paper further delves into sustainability of the export performing countries within ASEAN.

Keywords: export competitiveness, export similarity index, revealed comparative advantage, unit value realisation

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Authors: Luana Guerra, Silvio C. Sampaio, Vladimir Pavan Margarido, Ralpho R. Reis

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Brazil is the world's largest consumer of pesticides. The excessive use of these compounds has negative impacts on animal and human life, the environment, and food security. Bees, crucial for pollination, are exposed to pesticides during the collection of nectar and pollen, posing risks to their health and the food chain, including honey contamination. Aquatic sediments are also affected, impacting water quality and the microbiota. Therefore, the analysis of aquatic sediments and bee honey is essential to identify environmental contamination and monitor ecosystems. The aim of this study was to use samples of honey from honeybees (Apis mellifera) and aquatic sediment as bioindicators of environmental contamination by pesticides and their relationship with agricultural use in the surrounding areas. The sample collections of sediment and honey were carried out in two stages. The first stage was conducted in the Bituruna municipality region in the second half of the year 2022, and the second stage took place in the regions of Laranjeiras do Sul, Quedas do Iguaçu, and Nova Laranjeiras in the first half of the year 2023. In total, 10 collection points were selected, with 5 points in the first stage and 5 points in the second stage, where one sediment sample and one honey sample were collected for each point, totaling 20 samples. The honey and sediment samples were analyzed at the Laboratory of the Paraná Institute of Technology, with ten samples of honey and ten samples of sediment. The selected extraction method was QuEChERS, and the analysis of the components present in the sample was performed using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The pesticides Azoxystrobin, Epoxiconazole, Boscalid, Carbendazim, Haloxifope, Fomesafen, Fipronil, Chlorantraniliprole, Imidacloprid, and Bifenthrin were detected in the sediment samples from the study area in Laranjeiras do Sul, Paraná, with Carbendazim being the compound with the highest concentration (0.47 mg/kg). The honey samples obtained from the apiaries showed satisfactory results, as they did not show any detection or quantification of the analyzed pesticides, except for Point 9, which had the fungicide tebuconazole but with a concentration Keywords: contamination, water research, agrochemicals, beekeeping activity

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Authors: Kaouther Jaouadi, Jihene Bettaieb, Amira Bennour, Ghassen Kharroubi, Sadok Salem, Afif Ben Salah

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In Tunisia, chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania (L) tropica is an important health problem. Its spreading has not been fully elucidated. Information on sandfly vectors, as well as their associated Leishmania species, is of paramount importance since vector dispersion is one of the major factors responsible for pathogen dissemination. In total, 650 sandflies were captured between June and August 2015 using sticky paper traps in the governorate of Sidi Bouzid, a classical focus of L. major in the Central-West of Tunisia. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the internal transcribed spacer 1 and sequencing were used for Leishmania detection and identification. Ninety-seven unfed females were tested for the presence of Leishmania parasite DNA. Six Phlebotomus sergenti were found positive for L. tropica. This finding enhances the understanding of the cycle extension of L. tropica outside its original focus of Tataouine in the South-East of the country.

Keywords: cutaneous leishmaniasis, Leishmania tropica, sandflies, Tunisia

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Authors: Ani Thomas

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Every narrative is a temporal construct. Every narrative creates a qualitative experience of time for the viewer. The paper argues for the concept of a qualified time that emerges from the interaction between the narrative and the audience. The paper also challenges the conventional understanding of narrative time as either story time, real time or discourse time. Looking at narratives through the medium of Cinema, the study examines how narratives create and manipulate duration or durée, the qualitative experience of time as theorized by Henri Bergson. The paper further analyzes how Cinema and, by extension, narratives are nothing but Durée and the filmmaker, the artist of durée, who shape and manipulate the perception and emotions of the viewer through the manipulation and construction of durée. The paper draws on cinematic works to look at the techniques to demonstrate how filmmakers use, for example, editing, sound, compositional and production narratives etc., to create various modes of durée that challenge, amplify or unsettle the viewer’s sense of time. Bringing together the Viewer’s durée and exploring its interaction with the narrative construct, the paper explores the emergence of the new qualitative time, the narrative durée, that defines the audience experience.

Keywords: cinema, time, bergson, duree

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Authors: Mazwane S., Makhura M. N., Ginege A.

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Digitalization in South Africa has received considerable attention from policymakers. The support for the development of the digital economy by the South African government has been demonstrated through the enactment of various national policies and strategies. This study sought to develop an index for agricultural digitalization by applying composite confirmatory analysis (CCA). Another aim was to determine the factors that affect the development of digitalization in PLAS farms. Data on the indicators of the three dimensions of digitalization were collected from 300 Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) farms in South Africa using semi-structured questionnaires. Confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) was employed to reduce the items into three digitalization dimensions and ultimately to a digitalization index. Standardized digitalization index scores were extracted and fitted to a linear regression model to determine the factors affecting digitalization development. The results revealed that the model shows practical validity and can be used to measure digitalization development as measures of fit (geodesic distance, standardized root mean square residual, and squared Euclidean distance) were all below their respective 95%quantiles of bootstrap discrepancies (HI95 values). Therefore, digitalization is an emergent variable that can be measured using CCA. The average level of digitalization in PLAS farms was 0.2 and varied significantly across provinces. The factors that significantly influence digitalization development in PLAS land reform farms were age, gender, farm type, network type, and cellular data type. This should enable researchers and policymakers to understand the level of digitalization and patterns of development, as well as correctly attribute digitalization development to the contributing factors.

Keywords: agriculture, digitalization, confirmatory composite model, land reform, proactive land acquisition strategy, South Africa

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Authors: Lillian M. Seo, Curtis L. Petersen, Ryan J. Halter, David Kotz, John A. Batsis

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Background: Resistance-based exercises effectively enhance muscle strength, which is especially important in older populations as it reduces the risk of disability. Our group developed a Bluetooth-enabled handle for resistance exercise bands that wirelessly transmits relative force data through low-energy Bluetooth to a local smartphone or similar device. The system has the potential to measure home-based exercise interventions, allowing health professionals to monitor compliance. Its feasibility has already been demonstrated in both clinical and field-based settings, but it remained unclear whether the system’s usability persisted upon repeated use. The current study sought to assess the usability of this system and its users’ satisfaction with repeated use by deploying the device among younger adults to gather formative information that can ultimately improve the device’s design for older adults. Methods: A usability study was conducted in which 32 participants used the above system. Participants executed 10 repetitions of four commonly performed exercises: bicep flexion, shoulder abduction, elbow extension, and triceps extension. Each completed three exercise sessions, separated by at least 24 hours to minimize muscle fatigue. At its conclusion, subjects completed an adapted version of the usefulness, satisfaction, and ease (USE) questionnaire – assessing the system across four domains: usability, satisfaction, ease of use, and ease of learning. The 20-item questionnaire examined how strongly a participant agrees with positive statements about the device on a seven-point Likert scale, with one representing ‘strongly disagree’ and seven representing ‘strongly agree.’ Participants’ data were aggregated to calculate mean response values for each question and domain, effectively assessing the device’s performance across different facets of the user experience. Summary force data were visualized using a custom web application. Finally, an optional prompt at the end of the questionnaire allowed for written comments and feedback from participants to elicit qualitative indicators of usability. Results: Of the n=32 participants, 13 (41%) were female; their mean age was 32.4 ± 11.8 years, and no participants had a physical impairment. No usability questions received a mean score < 5 of seven. The four domains’ mean scores were: usefulness 5.66 ± 0.35; satisfaction 6.23 ± 0.06; ease of use 6.25 ± 0.43; and ease of learning 6.50 ± 0.19. Representative quotes of the open-ended feedback include: ‘A non-rigid strap-style handle might be useful for some exercises,’ and, ‘Would need different bands for each exercise as they use different muscle groups with different strength levels.’ General impressions were favorable, supporting the expectation that the device would be a useful tool in exercise interventions. Conclusions: A simple usability assessment of a Bluetooth-enabled resistance exercise band supports a consistent and positive user experience among young adults. This study provides adequate formative data, assuring the next steps can be taken to continue testing and development for the target population of older adults.

Keywords: Bluetooth, exercise, mobile health, mHealth, usability

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Authors: Driouiche Ali, Karmal Ilham

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The Agadir region is characterized by a dry climate, ranging from arid attenuated by oceanic influences to hyper-arid. The water mobilized in the agricultural sector of greater Agadir is 95% of underground origin and comes from the water table of Chtouka. The rest represents the surface waters of the Youssef Ben Tachfine dam. These waters are intended for the irrigation of 26880 hectares of modern agriculture. More than 120 boreholes and wells are currently exploited. Their depth varies between 10 m and 200 m and the unit flow rates of the boreholes are 5 to 50 l/s. A drop in the level of the water table of about 1.5 m/year, on average, has been observed during the last five years. Farmers are thus called upon to improve irrigation methods. Thus, localized or drip irrigation is adopted to allow rational use of water. The importance of this irrigation system is due to the fact that water is applied directly to the root zone and its compatibility with fertilization. However, this irrigation system faces a thorny problem which is the clogging of pipes and drippers. This leads to a lack of uniformity of irrigation over time. This so-called scaling phenomenon, the consequences of which are harmful (cleaning or replacement of pipes), leads to considerable unproductive expenditure. The objective set by this work is the search for green inhibitors likely to prevent this phenomenon of scaling. This study requires a better knowledge of these waters, their physico-chemical characteristics and their scaling power. Thus, using the "LCGE" controlled degassing technique, we initially evaluated, on pure calco-carbonic water at 30°F, the scaling-inhibiting power of some available plant extracts in our region of Souss-Massa. We then carried out a comparative study of the efficacy of these green inhibitors. The action of the most effective green inhibitor on real agricultural waters was then studied.

Keywords: green inhibitors, localized irrigation, plant extracts, scaling inhibition

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Authors: Amna Khan, Zareena Kausar, Saad Malik

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Bio Mechatronics has extended applications in the field of rehabilitation. It has been contributing since World War II in improving the applicability of prosthesis and assistive devices in real life scenarios. In this paper, classification accuracies have been compared for two classifiers against five positions of elbow. Electromyography (EMG) signals analysis have been acquired directly from skeletal muscles of human forearm for each of the three defined positions and at modified extreme positions of elbow flexion and extension using 8 electrode Myo armband sensor. Features were extracted from filtered EMG signals for each position. Performance of two classifiers, support vector machine (SVM) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) has been compared by analyzing the classification accuracies. SVM illustrated classification accuracies between 90-96%, in contrast to 84-87% depicted by LDA for five defined positions of elbow keeping the number of samples and selected feature the same for both SVM and LDA.

Keywords: classification accuracies, electromyography, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Myo armband sensor, support vector machine (SVM)

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Authors: Roopa Singh, Anurag Singh, Ajay

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Agriculture contributes a major share in the national economy of India. A major portion of Indian economy (about 70%) depends upon agriculture as it forms the main source of income. About 43% of India’s geographical area is used for agricultural activity which involves 65-75% of total population of India. The given work deals with the Fast moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries and their inventories which use agricultural produce as their raw material or input for their final product. Since the beginning of inventory practices, many developments took place which can be categorised into three phases, based on the review of various works. The first phase is related with development and utilization of Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model and methods for optimizing costs and profits. Second phase deals with inventory optimization method, with the purpose of balancing capital investment constraints and service level goals. The third and recent phase has merged inventory control with electrical control theory. Maintenance of inventory is considered negative, as a large amount of capital is blocked especially in mechanical and electrical industries. But the case is different in food processing and agro-based industries and their inventories due to cyclic variation in the cost of raw materials of such industries which is the reason for selection of these industries in the mentioned work. The application of electrical control theory in inventory control makes the decision-making highly instantaneous for FMCG industries without loss in their proposed profits, which happened earlier during first and second phases, mainly due to late implementation of decision. The work also replaces various inventories and work-in-progress (WIP) related errors with their monetary values, so that the decision-making is fully target-oriented.

Keywords: control theory, inventory control, manufacturing sector, EOQ, feedback, FMCG sector

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Authors: Liana Lortkipanidze, Nino Amirezashvili, Nino Javashvili

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The purpose of the grammatical dictionary is to provide information on the morphological and syntactic characteristics of the basic word in the dictionary entry. The electronic grammatical dictionaries are used as a tool of automated morphological analysis for texts processing. The Georgian Grammatical Dictionary should contain grammatical information for each word: part of speech, type of declension/conjugation, grammatical forms of the word (paradigm), alternative variants of basic word/lemma. In this paper, we present the system for compiling the Georgian Grammatical Dictionary automatically. We propose dictionary-based methods for extending grammatical lexicons. The input lexicon contains only a few number of words with identical grammatical features. The extension is based on similarity measures between features of words; more precisely, we add words to the extended lexicons, which are similar to those, which are already in the grammatical dictionary. Our dictionaries are corpora-based, and for the compiling, we introduce the method for lemmatization of unknown words, i.e., words of which neither full form nor lemma is in the grammatical dictionary.

Keywords: acquisition of lexicon, Georgian grammatical dictionary, lemmatization rules, morphological processor

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Authors: Jawairia Umar, Tanveer Hussain, Zulfiqar Ali, Muhammad Maqsood

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Different knitted structures and knitted parameters play a vital role in the stretch and recovery management of compression sportswear in addition to the materials use to generate this stretch and recovery behavior of the fabric. The present work was planned to predict the different performance indicators of a compression sportswear fabric with some ground parameters i.e. base yarn stitch length (polyester as base yarn and spandex as plating yarn involve to make a compression fabric) and linear density of the spandex which is a key material of any sportswear fabric. The prediction models were generated by response surface method for performance indicators such as stretch & recovery percentage, compression generated by the garment on body, total elongation on application of high power force and load generated on certain percentage extension in fabric. Certain physical properties of the fabric were also modeled using these two parameters.

Keywords: Compression, sportswear, stretch and recovery, statistical model, kikuhime

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Authors: Nowbuth Manta Devi, Rasmally Mohammed Hussein

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Flood is one of the most devastating climate impacts that many countries are facing. Many different causes have been associated with the intensity of floods being recorded over time. Unplanned development, low carrying capacity of drains, clogged drains, construction in flood plains or increasing intensity of rainfall events. While a combination of these causes can certainly aggravate the flood conditions, in many cases, increasing drainage capacity has not reduced flood risk to the level that was expected. The present study analyzed the extent to which land use is contributing to aggravating impacts of flooding in a city. Satellite images have been analyzed over a period of 20 years at intervals of 5 years. Both unsupervised and supervised classification methods have been used with the image processing module of ArcGIS. The unsupervised classification was first compared to the basemap available in ArcGIS to get a first overview of the results. These results also aided in guiding data collection on-site for the supervised classification. The island of Mauritius is small, and there are large variations in land use over small areas, both within the built areas and in agricultural zones involving food crops. Larger plots of agricultural land under sugar cane plantations are relatively more easily identified. However, the growth stage and health of plants vary and this had to be verified during ground truthing. The results show that although there have been changes in land use as expected over a span of 20 years, this was not significant enough to cause a major increase in flood risk levels. A digital elevation model was analyzed for further understanding. It could not be noted that overtime, development tampered with natural flow paths in addition to increasing the impermeable areas. This situation results in backwater flows, hence increasing flood risks.

Keywords: climate change, flood, natural flow paths, small islands

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Authors: Chukwuebuka Vincent Azuka, Chidimma Peace Odoh

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Changes in agricultural practices and land use influence the storage and release of soil organic carbon and soil structural dynamics. To investigate this in Nsukka, southeastern Nigeria, soil samples were collected at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm from three locations; Ovoko (OV), Obukpa (OB) and University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and three land use types; cultivated land (CL), forest land (FL) and grassland (GL)). Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS. Also, correlations between organic carbon stock, structural stability indices and other soil properties were established. The result showed that Ksat was significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by location with mean values of 68 cmhr⁻¹,121.63 cmhr⁻¹, 8.42 cmhr⁻¹ in OV, OB and UNN respectively. The MWD and aggregate stability (AS) were significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by land use and depth. The mean values of MWD are 0.85 (CL), 1.35 (FL) and 1.45 (GL), and 1.66 at 0-10 cm, 1.08 at 10-20 cm and 0.88 mm at 20-30 cm. The mean values of AS are; 27.66% (CL), 46.39% (FL) and 49.81% (GL), and 53.96% at 0-10cm, 40.22% at 10-20cm and 29.57% at 20-30cm. Clay flocculation (CFI) and dispersion indices (CDI) differed significantly (p < 0.05) among the land use. Soil pH differed significantly (p < 0.05) across the land use and locations with mean values ranging from 3.90-6.14. Soil organic carbon (SOC) significantly (p < 0.05) differed across locations and depths. SOC decreases as depth increases depth with mean values of 15.6 gkg⁻¹, 10.1 gkg⁻¹, and 8.6 gkg⁻¹ at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, and 20-30 cm respectively. SOC in the three land use was 8.8 g kg-1, 15.2 gkg⁻¹ and 10.4 gkg⁻¹ at CL, FL, and GL respectively. The highest aggregate-associated carbon was recorded in 0.5 mm across the land use and depth except in cultivated land and at 20-30 cm which recorded their highest SOC at 1mm. SOC stock, total nitrogen (TN) and CEC were significantly (p < 0.05) different across the locations with highest values of 23.43 t/ha, 0.07g/kg and 14.27 Cmol/kg respectively recorded in UNN. SOC stock was significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by depth as follows; 0-10>10-20>20-30 cm. TN was low with mean values ranging from 0.03-0.07 across the locations, land use and depths. The mean values of CEC ranged from 9.96-14.27 Cmol kg⁻¹ across the locations and land use. SOC stock showed correlation with silt, coarse sand, N and CEC (r = 0.40*, -0.39*, -0.65** and 0.64** respectively. AS showed correlation with BD, Ksat, pH in water and KCl, and SOC (r = -0.42*, 0.54**, -0.44*, -0.45* and 0.49** respectively. Thus, land use and location play a significant role in sustainable management of soil resources.

Keywords: agricultural practices, structural dynamics, sequestration, soil resources, management

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Authors: Suktisuddha Goswami, Surekha Chukkali

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Metaverse is a real time rendered 3D world which is an extension of the virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and holographic reality. While using the metaverse can enhance various aspects of our lives, it might also create certain challenges. However, since the concept of the metaverse is very new, there is a lack of research on factors influencing the individual’s behavioural intentions to use it. To address this gap, this quantitative research study was conducted to understand the factors influencing the behavioural intention of individuals towards metaverse usage. This research was conducted through a large-scale questionnaire survey of 325 Indian students at three major engineering colleges. The questionnaire was adequately customized for the present study. It was found that behavioral intention towards metaverse usage differs among individuals. There were few individuals who had no intention of using metaverse in near future, while some of them were already using it and a few were significantly inclined towards using it. The findings of this study have suggested that behavioural intention was significantly and positively related to performance expectancy and effort expectancy of individuals.

Keywords: behavioral intention, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, technology, metaverse

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Authors: Jing Zhao, Yongqing Bai, Qiaofang Shi, Huaihao Zhang

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Advances in software technology enable computational chemistry to be commonly applied in various research fields, especially in pedagogy. Thus, in order to expand and improve experimental instructions of computational chemistry for undergraduates, we designed an introductory experiment—research on acrylamide molecular structure and physicochemical properties. Initially, students construct molecular models of acrylamide and polyacrylamide in Gaussian and Materials Studio software respectively. Then, the infrared spectral data, atomic charge and molecular orbitals of acrylamide as well as solvation effect of polyacrylamide are calculated to predict their physicochemical performance. At last, rheological experiments are used to validate these predictions. Through the combination of molecular simulation (performed on Gaussian, Materials Studio) with experimental verification (rheology experiment), learners have deeply comprehended the chemical nature of acrylamide and polyacrylamide, achieving good learning outcomes.

Keywords: upper-division undergraduate, computer-based learning, laboratory instruction, molecular modeling

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Authors: Dae Kyung Choi, Won Man Park, Kyungsoo Kim, Yoon Hyuk Kim

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The interspinous process devices have been recently used due to its advantages such as minimal invasiveness and less subsidence of the implant to the osteoporotic bone. In this paper, we have analyzed the influences of ligature tightening of several interspinous process devices using finite element analysis. Four types of interspinous process implants were inserted to the L3-4 spinal motion segment based on their surgical protocols. Inferior plane of L4 vertebra was fixed and 7.5 Nm of extension moment were applied on superior plane of L3 vertebra with 400N of compressive load along follower load direction and pretension of the ligature. The stability of the spinal unit was high enough than that of intact model. The higher value of pretension in the ligature led the decrease of dynamic stabilization effect in cases of the WallisTM, DiamTM, Viking, and Spear®. The results of present study could be used to evaluate surgical option and validate the biomechanical characteristics of the spinal implants.

Keywords: interspinous process device, bone fracture risk, lumbar spine, finite element analysis

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Authors: M. Meftahi, M. Hoseinzadeh, S. A. Naeini

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Selection of soil bearing capacity is an important issue that should be investigated under different conditions. The bearing capacity of foundation around of soil slope is based on the active and passive forces. On the other hand, due to extension of urban structures, it is inevitable to put the foundations together. Concerning the two cases mentioned above, investigating the behavior of adjacent foundations which are constructed besides soil slope is essential. It should be noted that, according to the conditions, the bearing capacity of adjacent foundations can be less or more than mat foundations. Also, soil reinforcement increases the bearing capacity of adjacent foundations, and the amount of its increase depends on the distance between foundations. In this research, based on numerical studies, a method is presented for evaluating ultimate bearing capacity of adjacent foundations at different intervals. In the present study, the effect of foundation width, the center to center distance of adjacent foundations and reinforced soil has been investigated on the bearing capacity of adjacent foundations beside soil slope. The results indicate that, due to interference of failure surfaces created under foundation, it depends on their intervals and the ultimate bearing capacity of foundation varies.

Keywords: adjacent foundation, bearing capacity, reinforcements, settlement, numerical analysis

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Authors: Sihem Oujdi, Hafida Belbachir

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Existing methods of data mining cannot be applied on spatial data because they require spatial specificity consideration, as spatial relationships. This paper focuses on the classification with decision trees, which are one of the data mining techniques. We propose an extension of the C4.5 algorithm for spatial data, based on two different approaches Join materialization and Querying on the fly the different tables. Similar works have been done on these two main approaches, the first - Join materialization - favors the processing time in spite of memory space, whereas the second - Querying on the fly different tables- promotes memory space despite of the processing time. The modified C4.5 algorithm requires three entries tables: a target table, a neighbor table, and a spatial index join that contains the possible spatial relationship among the objects in the target table and those in the neighbor table. Thus, the proposed algorithms are applied to a spatial data pattern in the accidentology domain. A comparative study of our approach with other works of classification by spatial decision trees will be detailed.

Keywords: C4.5 algorithm, decision trees, S-CART, spatial data mining

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Authors: M.Rüştü Karaman, İsmail İşeri, Kadir Saltalı, A.Reşit Brohi, Ayhan Horuz, Mümin Dizman

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Considerable relations has recently been given to the environmental hazardous caused by agricultural chemicals such as excess fertilizers. In this study, a neural network approach was investigated in the prediction of potential nitrate pollution across different land-use patterns by using a feedforward multilayered computer model of artificial neural network (ANN) with proper training. Periodical concentrations of some anions, especially nitrate (NO3-), and cations were also detected in drainage waters collected from the drain pipes placed in irrigated tomato field, unirrigated wheat field, fallow and pasture lands. The soil samples were collected from the irrigated tomato field and unirrigated wheat field on a grid system with 20 m x 20 m intervals. Site specific nitrate concentrations in the soil samples were measured for ANN based simulation of nitrate leaching potential from the land profiles. In the application of ANN model, a multi layered feedforward was evaluated, and data sets regarding with training, validation and testing containing the measured soil nitrate values were estimated based on spatial variability. As a result of the testing values, while the optimal structures of 2-15-1 was obtained (R2= 0.96, P < 0.01) for unirrigated field, the optimal structures of 2-10-1 was obtained (R2= 0.96, P < 0.01) for irrigated field. The results showed that the ANN model could be successfully used in prediction of the potential leaching levels of nitrate, based on different land use patterns. However, for the most suitable results, the model should be calibrated by training according to different NN structures depending on site specific soil parameters and varied agricultural managements.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, ANN, drainage water, nitrate pollution

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Authors: Mariam Aref Mahmoud

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After centuries of historical development, Egypt is no stranger to national identity frustrations. What may or may not be counted as this “national identity” becomes a source of contention. Today, after decades of neoliberal reform, Cairo has become the center of Egypt’s cultural debacle. At its heart, the Egyptian capital serves as Egypt’s extension into global capitalism, its flailing hope to become part of the modernized, cosmopolitan world. Yet, to converge into this image of cosmopolitanism, Cairo must silence the perceived un-modernized sounds, cultures, and spaces that arise from within its alleyways. Currently, the agitation surrounding shaabi music, particularly, that of mahraganat, places these contentions to the center of the modernization debates. This paper will discuss the process through which the conversations between modernization, space, and culture have taken place through a historical analysis of national identity formation under Egypt’s neoliberal regimes. Through this, the paper concludes that music becomes a spatial force through which public space, identity, and globalization must be contested. From these findings researchers can then analyze Cairo through not only its physical landscapes, but also its metaphysical features – such as the soundscape.

Keywords: music, space, globalization, Cairo

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Authors: Vaiyapuri Subbarayn Periasamy, Jegan Athinarayanan, Ali A. Alshatwi

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The widespread use of Titanium oxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs), now are found with different physic-chemical properties (size, shape, chemical properties, agglomeration, etc.) in many processed foods, agricultural chemicals, biomedical products, food packaging and food contact materials, personal care products, and other consumer products used in daily life. Growing evidences have been highlighted that there are risks of physico-chemical properties dependent toxicity with special attention to “TiO2-NPs and human immune system”. Unfortunately, agglomeration and aggregation have frequently been ignored in immuno-toxicological studies, even though agglomeration and aggregation would be expected to affect nanotoxicity since it changes the size, shape, surface area, and other properties of the TiO2-NPs. In this present investigation, we assessed the immune toxic effect of TiO2-NPs on human immune cells Total WBC including Lymphocytes (T cells (CD3+), T helper cells (CD3+, CD4+), Suppressor/cytotoxic T cells (CD3+/CD8+) and NK cells (CD3-/CD16+ and CD56+), Monocytes (CD14+, CD3-) and B lymphocytes (CD19+, CD3-) in order to find the immunological response (IL1A, IL1B, IL2 IL-4, IL5 IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IFN-γ, TGF-β, and TNF-a) and redox gene regulation (TNF, p53, BCl-2, CAT, GSTA4, TNF, CYP1A, POR, SOD1, GSTM3, GPX1, and GSR1)-linking physicochemical properties with special reference to agglomeration of TiO2-NPs. Our findings suggest that TiO2-NPs altered cytokine production, enhanced phagocytic indexing, metabolic stress through specific immune regulatory- genes expression in different WBC subsets and may contribute to pro-inflammatory response. Although TiO2-NPs have great advantages in the personal care products, biomedical, food and agricultural products, its chronic and acute immune-toxicity still need to be assessed carefully with special reference to food and environmental safety.

Keywords: TiO2 nanoparticles, oxidative stress, cytokine, human immune cells

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