Search results for: integrated field

Authors: Kristina Sutiene, Lina Dapkute

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The paper investigates the current demographic trends that exert the sustainability of pension systems in most EU regions. Several drivers usually compose the demographic challenge, coming from the structure and trends of population in the country. As the case of research, three main variables of demographic risk in Lithuania have been singled out and have been used in making up the analysis. Over the last two decades, the country has presented a peculiar demographic situation characterized by pessimistic fertility trends, negative net migration rate and rising life expectancy that make the significant changes in labor-age population. This study, therefore, sets out to assess the relative impact of these risk factors both individually and in aggregate, while assuming economic trends to evolve historically. The evidence is presented using data of pension funds that operate in Lithuania and are financed by defined-contribution plans. To achieve this goal, the discrete-time pension fund’s value model is developed that reflects main operational modalities: contribution income from current participants and new entrants, pension disbursement and administrative expenses; it also fluctuates based on returns from investment activity. Age-structured Leslie population dynamics model has been integrated into the main model to describe the dynamics of fertility, migration and mortality rates upon age. Validation has concluded that Leslie model adequately fits the current population trends in Lithuania. The elasticity of pension system is examined using Loimaranta efficiency as a measure for comparison of plausible long-term developments of demographic risks. With respect to the research question, it was found that demographic risks have different levels of influence on future value of aggregated pension funds: The fertility rates have the highest importance, while mortality rates give only a minor impact. Further studies regarding the role of trying out different economic scenarios in the integrated model would be worthwhile.

Keywords: asset liability modelling, Leslie model, pension funds, population dynamics

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Authors: Asli Yagmur Akbulut

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Despite a robust and growing job market and lucrative salaries, there is a global shortage of Information Technology (IT) professionals. To make matters worse, women continue to be underrepresented in the IT workforce and among IT degree holders. In today’s knowledge based economy and society, it is extremely important to increase the presence of women in the IT field. In order to do so, it is necessary to reduce entry barriers and attract more women to pursue degrees in various IT fields including the field of Management Information Systems (MIS). Even though MIS is considered to have a more feminine nature, women still tend to avoid majoring in this field. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research that investigates the specific factors that may deter women from pursuing a degree in MIS. To address this research gap, this study examined a set of key environmental barriers that might prevent women from pursuing an MIS degree and explored whether there were any gender differences between female and male students in terms of these key barriers. Based on a survey of 280 students enrolled in an introductory level MIS course, the study empirically confirmed that there were significant differences between male and female students in terms of the key contextual barriers perceived. Female students demonstrated major concerns about gender discrimination related barriers, whereas male students were more concerned about negative social influences. Both male and female students were equally concerned about not being able to fit in well with other MIS majors. The findings have important implications for MIS programs, as the information gained can be used to design and implement specific intervention strategies to overcome the barriers and attract larger pools of women to the MIS discipline. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, implications, and future research directions.

Keywords: gender differences, MIS major, underrepresentation, women in IT

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Authors: Zachary Cooper-Baldock, Paulo E. Santos, Russell S. A. Brinkworth, Karl Sammut

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- In recent years, large unmanned underwater vehicles such as the Boeing Voyager and Anduril Ghost Shark have been developed. These vessels can be structured to contain onboard internal payload bays. These payload bays can serve a variety of purposes – including the launch and recovery (LAR) of smaller underwater vehicles. The LAR of smaller vessels is extremely important, as it enables transportation over greater distances, increased time on station, data transmission and operational safety. The larger vessel and its payload bay structure complicate the LAR of UUVs in contrast to static docks that are affixed to the seafloor, as they actively impact the local flow field. These flow field impacts require analysis to determine if UUV vessels can be safely launched and recovered inside the motherships. This research seeks to determine the hydrodynamic forces exerted on a vertically over-actuated, small, unmanned underwater vehicle (OUUV) during an internal LAR manoeuvre and compare this to an under-actuated vessel (UUUV). In this manoeuvre, the OUUV is navigated through the stern wake region of the larger vessel to a set point within the internal payload bay. The manoeuvre is simulated using ANSYS Fluent computational fluid dynamics models, covering the entire recovery of the OUUV and UUUV. The analysis of the OUUV is compared against the UUUV to determine the differences in the exerted forces. Of particular interest are the drag, pressure, turbulence and flow field effects exerted as the OUUV is driven inside the payload bay of the larger vessel. The hydrodynamic forces and flow field disturbances are used to determine the feasibility of making such an approach. From the simulations, it was determined that there was no significant detrimental physical forces, particularly with regard to turbulence. The flow field effects exerted by the OUUV are significant. The vertical thrusters exert significant wake structures, but their orientation ensures the wake effects are exerted below the UUV, minimising the impact. It was also seen that OUUV experiences higher drag forces compared to the UUUV, which will correlate to an increased energy expenditure. This investigation found no key indicators that recovery via a mothership payload bay was not feasible. The turbulence, drag and pressure phenomenon were of a similar magnitude to existing static and towed dock structures.

Keywords: underwater vehicles, submarine, autonomous underwater vehicles, auv, computational fluid dynamics, flow fields, pressure, turbulence, drag

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Authors: Zunnu Raen Akhtar, Farhan Ali, Muhammad Saeed-Ur-Rehman

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Jassids are considered as serious sucking pests in eggplants. Jassids can be controlled using imidacloprid, but it can also result in non-target ecological impacts on eco-system. It can also result in reduced population of predators of jassids in the field. An experiment was conducted on jassids, Amrasca sp. reared on eggplant leaves were treated with insecticide imidacloprid at lower, recommended and higher doses including 1L, 2L, 3L respectively. 3rd instar larvae and adults of jassids were exposed to lower, recommended, higher doses. Mortality tests were repeated three times for each dose and insect growth stage. Imidacloprid was sprayed on the leaves followed by drying. Data was recorded for 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 hours after spraying insecticide on the leaves. Results showed that higher mortality was observed in higher and recommended doses, while slow mortality was observed in the case of lower dose. It can be asserted that higher and recommended doses causing immediate mortality of insects are better to control Amrasca sp. in the field, it will not cause immediate resistance development in insects against imidacloprid.

Keywords: Amrasca sp., imidacloprid, egg plant, efficacy

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Authors: Y. Bablu Singh, B. S. Purkayashtha, Chungkham Yashawanta Singh

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Morphological analysis forms the basic foundation in NLP applications including syntax parsing Machine Translation (MT), Information Retrieval (IR) and automatic indexing in all languages. It is the field of the linguistics; it can provide valuable information for computer based linguistics task such as lemmatization and studies of internal structure of the words. Computational Morphology is the application of morphological rules in the field of computational linguistics, and it is the emerging area in AI, which studies the structure of words, which are formed by combining smaller units of linguistics information, called morphemes: the building blocks of words. Morphological analysis provides about semantic and syntactic role in a sentence. It analyzes the Manipuri word forms and produces several grammatical information associated with the words. The Morphological Analyzer for Manipuri has been tested on 3500 Manipuri words in Shakti Standard format (SSF) using Meitei Mayek as source; thereby an accuracy of 80% has been obtained on a manual check.

Keywords: morphological analysis, machine translation, computational morphology, information retrieval, SSF

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Authors: Atif Naim, Faisal E. Ahmed, Sershen

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A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive winter seasons at the Demonstration Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Sudan, to study effects of different levels of irrigation regime and plant density on yield of introduced small seeded (desi type) chickpea cultivar (ILC 482). The experiment was laid out in a 3X3 factorial split-plot design with 4 replications. The treatments consisted of three irrigation regimes (designated as follows: I1 = optimum irrigation, I2 = moderate stress and I3 = severe stress; this corresponded with irrigation after drainage of 50%, 75% and 100% of available water based on 70%, 60% and 50% of field capacity, respectively) assigned as main plots and three plant densities (D₁=20, D₂= 40 and D₃= 60 plants/m²) assigned as subplots. The results indicated that the yield components (number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, 100 seed weight), seed yield per plant, harvest index and yield per unit area of chickpea were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by irrigation regime. Decreasing irrigation regime significantly (p < 0.05) decreased all measured parameters. Alternatively, increasing plant density significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the number of pods and seed yield per plant and increased seed yield per unit area. While number of seeds per pod and harvest index were not significantly (p > 0.05) affected by plant density. Interaction between irrigation regime and plant density was also significantly (p < 0.05) affected all measured parameters of yield, except for harvest index. It could be concluded that the best irrigation regime was full irrigation (after drainage of 50% available water at 70% field capacity) and the optimal plant density was 20 plants/m² under conditions of semi-arid regions.

Keywords: irrigation regime, Cicer arietinum, chickpea, plant density

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Authors: A. I. Ma’ali, R. B. Adeniyi, A. Y. Badeggi, U. Mohammed

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An error estimation of the integrated formulation of the Lanczos tau method for some class of ordinary differential equations was reported. This paper is concern with the generalization of tau approximants and their corresponding error estimates for some class of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) characterized by m + s =3 (i.e for m =1, s=2; m=2, s=1; and m=3, s=0) where m and s are the order of differential equations and number of overdetermination, respectively. The general result obtained were validated with some numerical examples.

Keywords: approximant, error estimate, tau method, overdetermination

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Authors: Aldona Anna Osajda

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Suicide is a phenomenon that worries both the public and scientists in various fields. In society, suicide is a taboo subject, and in addition, there are many myths and stereotypes that are detrimental to the proper understanding and appropriate response of a person at risk of suicide. It is necessary to educate society and the suicide prevention system for various age groups. The research covers the level of knowledge and views of Polish society, including teachers and youth, regarding suicides. The main research problem is to establish the level of awareness of Polish society about the phenomenon of suicides. The study will be based on the diagnostic survey method, using the survey technique. Information about the research will be disseminated electronically on the Internet via social messaging. The collected data will be analyzed using appropriate statistics. On the basis of the obtained results, answers will be given to research questions, which will become the basis for designing an appropriate educational strategy for the society in the field of suicide and developing recommendations and recommendations for teachers to conduct classes in the field of suicide prevention for children and adolescents.

Keywords: phenomenon of suicides, suicide, suicide prevention, suicidology

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Authors: Anupam Deka

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Gender discrimination has been considered as a major obstacle in granting equal opportunity for woman in Higher education as education plays a pivotal role in a country’s socio-economic development. To examine the empowerment of women in the higher education field of Assam, a case study has been carried out. In the first stage, an overview of enrolment of students in different courses has been made by considering the whole state. In the second stage a study has been conducted regarding the enrolment of students in various degree and P-G courses for the period 2000-2007 under Gauhati University (which is one of the four universities of Assam) and the relevant data has been collected. It has been found that though the enrolment of students in the degree levels has been constantly increasing, but the enrolment of girls are not proportionately increasing, specially in commerce and law. On the other hand, in the post-graduate level, these proportions are higher in almost all the subjects (except some subjects like M. COM., L.L.M, M. C. A., Mathematics, etc.), indicating that more number of girls than boys are taking admission in the P-G courses.

Keywords: field study, enrolment of girls in degree and P G levels, regression lines, Chi Square test, diagrams and statistical tables

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Authors: Ghazal Faraj, Andras Micsik

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The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) is an extensible ontology that provides integrated access to heterogeneous and digital datasets. The CIDOC-CRM offers a “semantic glue” intended to promote accessibility to several diverse and dispersed sources of cultural heritage data. That is achieved by providing a formal structure for the implicit and explicit concepts and their relationships in the cultural heritage field. The COURAGE (“Cultural Opposition – Understanding the CultuRal HeritAGE of Dissent in the Former Socialist Countries”) project aimed to explore methods about socialist-era cultural resistance during 1950-1990 and planned to serve as a basis for further narratives and digital humanities (DH) research. This project highlights the diversity of flourished alternative cultural scenes in Eastern Europe before 1989. Moreover, the dataset of COURAGE is an online RDF-based registry that consists of historical people, organizations, collections, and featured items. For increasing the inter-links between different datasets and retrieving more relevant data from various data silos, a shared federated ontology for reconciled data is needed. As a first step towards these goals, a full understanding of the CIDOC CRM ontology (target ontology), as well as the COURAGE dataset, was required to start the work. Subsequently, the queries toward the ontology were determined, and a table of equivalent properties from COURAGE and CIDOC CRM was created. The structural diagrams that clarify the mapping process and construct queries are on progress to map person, organization, and collection entities to the ontology. Through mapping the COURAGE dataset to CIDOC-CRM ontology, the dataset will have a common ontological foundation with several other datasets. Therefore, the expected results are: 1) retrieving more detailed data about existing entities, 2) retrieving new entities’ data, 3) aligning COURAGE dataset to a standard vocabulary, 4) running distributed SPARQL queries over several CIDOC-CRM datasets and testing the potentials of distributed query answering using SPARQL. The next plan is to map CIDOC-CRM to other upper-level ontologies or large datasets (e.g., DBpedia, Wikidata), and address similar questions on a wide variety of knowledge bases.

Keywords: CIDOC CRM, cultural heritage data, COURAGE dataset, ontology alignment

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Authors: Humera Malik

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Gender inequality, as a societal issue, is prevalent in all spheres of life in Pakistan. It is world-wide understood that gender equality is a basic right of every human being as well as the source of development and prosperity for the whole country. In fact, many countries endeavor to ensure equal opportunities for men and women which will, in turn, help to attain sustainable growth in every field. Most of the women in Pakistan live their life under the societal pressure which is exerted by centuries old traditions. This archaic setup restricts women to stay at home because their survival is conditional to their total subjugation to the male member of the family. This patriarchal structure confers men the right to deal women as their property. It is not wrong to say that women endure severe discrimination in their whole life. No doubt, women are confronted with multifaceted discrimination in the field of education, health, politics, social status, etc. The main theme of this research is to ascertain the present condition of gender inequality in the field of economy in Pakistan. Pakistan’s poor ranking in Global Gender Gap Index, 2016 clearly depicts that women are deprived of fundamental rights as well as equal opportunities of development. This very state of affairs depicts the real picture of government’s commitment to women empowerment and gender equality. The nature of this research is descriptive which helps to determine the status of women in Pakistan on the basis of labour force participation, wage gap, estimated incomes, and ratio of high ranking positions secured by women. It is an endeavor to understand the reasons of economic inequality by following qualitative method of research. Moreover, few recommendations will be suggested to get rid of this issue.

Keywords: dismal, discrimination, feudal, patriarchal, wage gap

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Authors: Y. M. Aiyesimi, G. T. Okedayo, O. W. Lawal

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The analysis has been carried out to study unsteady MHD thin film flow of a third grade fluid down an inclined plane with heat transfer when the slippage between the surface of plane and the lower surface of the fluid is valid. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations involved are reduced to linear partial differential equations using regular perturbation method. The resulting equations were solved analytically using method of separation of variable and eigenfunctions expansion. The solutions obtained were examined and discussed graphically. It is interesting to find that the variation of the velocity and temperature profile with the slip and magnetic field parameter depends on time.

Keywords: non-Newtonian fluid, MHD flow, thin film flow, third grade fluid, slip boundary condition, heat transfer, separation of variable, eigenfunction expansion

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Authors: Dereje Moges Azbite

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Laboratory analysis of igneous rocks is performed with the help of the main oxide plots. The lithology of the two wells was identified using the main oxides obtained using the XRF method. Twenty-four (24) cutting samples with different degrees of alteration were analyzed to determine and identify the rock types by plotting these well samples on special diagrams and correlating with the regional rocks. The results for the analysis of the main oxides and trace elements of 24 samples are presented. Alteration analysis in the two well samples was conducted for 21 samples from two wells for identifying clay minerals. Bulk sample analysis indicated quartz, illite & micas, calcite, cristobalite, smectite, pyrite, epidote, alunite, chlorite, wairakite, diaspore and kaolin minerals present in both wells. Hydrothermal clay minerals such as illite, chlorite, smectite and kaoline minerals were identified in both wells by X-ray diffraction.

Keywords: auto geothermal field, igneous rocks, major oxides, tracer elements, XRF, XRD, alteration minerals

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Authors: Subrat Partha Sarathi Pattnaik, Rajan N.K.S.

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Integrated rocket ramjet engines are highly suitable for long range missile applications. Designing the fixed geometry intakes for such missiles that can operate efficiently over a range of operating conditions is a highly challenging task. Hence, the present study aims to evaluate the effect of throat design on the performance of a rectangular mixed compression intake for operation in the Mach number range of 1.8 – 2.5. The analysis has been carried out at four different Mach numbers of 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.5 and two angle-of-attacks of +5 and +10 degrees. For the throat design, three different throat heights have been considered, one corresponding to a 3- external shock design and two heights corresponding to a 2-external shock design leading to different internal contraction ratios. The on-design Mach number for the study is M 2.2. To obtain the viscous flow field in the intake, the theoretical designs have been considered for computational fluid dynamic analysis. For which Favre averaged Navier- Stokes (FANS) equations with two equation SST k-w model have been solved. The analysis shows that for zero angle of attack at on-design and high off-design Mach number operations the three-ramp design leads to a higher total pressure recovery (TPR) compared to the two-ramp design at both contraction ratios maintaining same mass flow ratio (MFR). But at low off-design Mach numbers the total pressure shows an opposite trend that is maximum for the two-ramp low contraction ratio design due to lower shock loss across the external shocks similarly the MFR is higher for low contraction ratio design as the external ramp shocks move closer to the cowl. At both the angle of attack conditions and complete range of Mach numbers the total pressure recovery and mass flow ratios are highest for two ramp low contraction design due to lower stagnation pressure loss across the detached bow shock formed at the ramp and lower mass spillage. Hence, low contraction design is found to be suitable for higher off-design performance.

Keywords: internal contraction ratio, mass flow ratio, mixed compression intake, performance, supersonic flows

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Authors: Kusay Wheib, Alexandra Krvchenko

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Crop yields are influenced by many factors, including natural ones, such as soil and environmental characteristics of the agricultural land, as well as manmade ones, such as management applications. One of the factors that frequently affect crop yields in undulating Midwest landscapes is topography, which controls the movement of water and nutrients necessary for plant life. The main objective of this study is to examine how field topography influences performance of different management practices in undulated terrain of southwest Michigan. A total of 26 agricultural fields, ranging in size from 1.1 to 7.4 ha, from the Scale-Up at Kellogg Biological Station were included in the study. The two studied factors were crop species with three levels, i.e., corn (Zea mays L.) soybean (Glycine max L.), and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and management practice with three levels, i.e., conventional, low input, and organic managements. They were compared under three contrasting topographical settings, namely, summit (includes summits and shoulders), slope (includes backslopes), and depression (includes footslope and toeslope). Yield data of years 2007 through 2012 was processed, cleaned, and filtered, average yield then was calculated for each field, topographic setting, and year. Topography parameters, including terrain, slope, curvature, flow direction and wetness index were computed under ArcGIS environment for each topographic class of each field to seek their effects on yield. Results showed that topographical depressions produced greatest yields in most studied fields, while managements with chemical inputs, both low input and conventional, resulted in higher yields than the organic management.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture, precision agriculture, topography, yield

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Authors: Yumeng He

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The purpose of this paper is to establish the “extenics” of children music education, the “extenics” thought and methods are introduced into the children music education field. Discussions are made from the perspective of children music education on how to generate new music cognitive from music cognitive, how to generate new music education from music education and how to generate music learning from music learning. The research methods including the extensibility of music art, extensibility of music education, extensibility of music capability and extensibility of music learning. Results of this study indicate that the thought and research methods of children’s extended music education not only have developed the “extenics” concept and ideological methods, meanwhile, the brand-new thought and innovative research perspective have been employed in discussing the children music education. As indicated in research, the children’s extended music education has extended the horizon of children music education, and has endowed the children music education field with a new thought and research method.

Keywords: comprehensive evaluations, extension thought, extension cognition music education, extensibility

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Authors: Arii Bowo Yudhaprasetya, Ario Guritno, Agus Setiawan, Recky Tehupuring, Cosmas Supriatna

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The offshore facilities condition of Pertamina Hulu Energi Offshore North West Java (PHE ONWJ) varies greatly from place to place, depending on the characteristics of the presently installed facilities. In some locations, such as ESA platform, gas trap is mainly caused by the occurrence of flash gas phenomenon which is known as mechanical-physical separation process of multiphase flow. Consequently, the presence of gas trap at main oil line would accumulate on certain areas result in a reduced oil stream throughout the pipeline. Any presence of discrete gaseous along continuous oil flow represents a unique flow condition under certain specific volume fraction and velocity field. From gas lift source, a benefit line is used as a motive flow for ejector which is designed to generate a syphon effect to minimize the gas trap phenomenon. Therefore, the ejector’s exhaust stream will flow to the designated point without interfering other systems.

Keywords: diffuser, ejector, flow, fluent

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Authors: Vered Holzmann, Ramzi Halabi

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The current research investigates motivators and barriers to high-tech entrepreneurship in the Israeli-Arab Community. With the aim to exploit the capacity of Israel as a 'start-up nation', we identify the most important aspects to promote integration of Israeli-Arab entrepreneurs in high-tech startups and business companies, thus impact the socio-economic status of the Arab community in Israel. We reviewed the literature on the role of high-tech and entrepreneurship in the Israeli economy, the profile of the Israeli-Arab community with regard to education and employability, and the characteristics of minority entrepreneurship to understand entrepreneurs' intentions, their incentives to choose the entrepreneurial route on one hand and the obstacles that they face on the other hand. Based on the literature review, we conducted an integrated study that included a survey among 73 Israeli-Arabs involved in high-tech entrepreneurship and 16 semi-structured interviews with Israeli-Arab and Jewish entrepreneurs and leaders in the high-tech industry. We analyzed the data to explore personal and social motivating factors to entrepreneurship as well as educational and socio-economical barriers for entrepreneurship. Three major elements were found to be the most influential on Arab high-tech entrepreneurship in Israel: education, financial resources, and strategic-institutional support. The relationship between education and employability that is well-known with regard to general education, requires two additional aspects in the field of high-tech entrepreneurship: education of technology and engineering, and education of business and entrepreneurship. The study findings reveal that the main motivation factors for entrepreneurship are development of creative ideas and improvement of the socio-economic status, while financial-related factors and lack of institutional and governmental support are perceived as impediments to entrepreneurial activities. Financing difficulties are mainly derived from discriminating financial environment and lack of professional networking. The relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth seems to be clear and simple; thus it is a national interest to encourage entrepreneurship among the Arab community, and especially high-tech entrepreneurship which has a significant role in the economic growth of Israel.

Keywords: high-tech industry, innovation management, Israeli-Arab community, minority entrepreneurship, motivating factors and barriers

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Authors: Anuradha Maharaj, Adrian Cashman

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The cross-cutting nature of water as a resource translates into the need for a better understanding of its movement, storage and loss at all points in the hydro-socioeconomic cycle. An integrated approach to addressing the issue of sustainability means quantitatively understanding: the linkages within this cycle, the role of water managers in resource allocation, and the critical factors influencing its scarcity. The Water Evaluation and Planning Tool (WEAP) is an integrative model that combines the catchment-scale hydrologic processes with a water management model, driven by environmental requirements and socioeconomic demands. The concept of demand priorities is included to represent the areas of greatest use within a given catchment. Located on Barbados’ West Coast, Speightstown and the surrounding areas encompass a well-developed tourist, residential and agricultural area. The main water resource for this area, and the rest of the island, is that of groundwater. The availability of groundwater in Barbados may be adversely affected by the projected changes in climate, such as reduced wet season rainfall. Economic development and changing sector priorities together with climate related changes have the potential to affect water resource abundance and by extension the allocation of resources for example in the Speightstown area. In order to investigate the potential impacts on the Speightstown area specifically, a WEAP Model of the study area was developed to estimate the present available water (baseline reference scenario 2000-2010). From this baseline scenario, it is envisioned that an exploration into projected changes in availability in the near term (2035-2045) and medium/long term (2065-2075) time frames will be undertaken. The generated estimations can assist water managers to better evaluate the status of and identify trends in water use and formulate adaptation measures to offset future deficits.

Keywords: water evaluation and planning system (WEAP), water availability, demand and supply, water allocation

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Authors: Constâncio Augusto Machanguana, Luís Miguel Estevão Cristóvão

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In Mozambique, over 80% of the rural population relies on agriculture, livestock, and silviculture for their livelihoods. Unfortunately, these communities face persistent food shortages, which are exacerbated by natural disasters and post-harvest losses due to inadequate storage facilities. Addressing post-harvest loss is critical not only for ensuring food security but also for preventing financial hardships faced by farmers. The study delves into the perceptions of beneficiary communities regarding the construction of three food dryer models made from metal, wood, and clay brick. These solar dryers are part of the project titled ‘Solar Dryer Integrated with Natural Rocks as Energy Storage for Drying Fruits and Vegetables in Mozambique.’ The overarching goal is to enhance food availability beyond the typical growing season, particularly for fruits and vegetables, while simultaneously combating hunger. Given the context of climate change impacts on agriculture, this project becomes even more relevant. Structured interviews conducted with 45 members of beneficiary associations in Manica Province—primarily female heads of households—revealed that rural communities are aware of various food drying alternatives. However, reliance on traditional methods often comes at a cost: compromised product quality and reduced shelf life. To address these challenges, the project implemented energy storage solutions like rock-based thermal energy storage for food drying. This result underscores the urgent need to foster innovation and extend these sustainable practices —such as solar dryers integrated with thermal energy-storage systems made of locally abundant and affordable materials— to more local communities, especially those with significant agricultural potential within the country. By taking these actions, we can improve food security and alleviate hunger.

Keywords: solar dryer, food security, rural community, small technology

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Authors: Ozlem Durna Aydin, Gultekin Yildiz

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Antibiotics are microbial metabolites with low molecular weight produced by fungi and algae, inhibiting the development of other microorganisms even in low growth. Antibiotics have been used as growth factors in animal feeds for many years. They prohibited; because of increased residue problem and increased resistance to antibiotics in bacteria due to prolonged use. Aromatic plants and extracts have attracted the attention of scientists nowadays due to positive reasons such as confidence of the community to the products those are coming from nature, desire to consume, and no residue problems. Plant extracts are obtained from aromatic plants, and they come forward with antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant and antilipidemic properties. It has been stated that intestinal histomorphology and microbiosis are positively affected by the use of plant extract in feeds. In the present day, aromatic plants and extracts are a remarkable research field with intriguing unknowns in the field of animal nutrition, and they continue to exist in the journal in vitro and in vivo studies.

Keywords: aromatic plant, broilers, extract mechanism of action, intestinal health

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Authors: Eugenia Vomvoridi-Ivanovic

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It is broadly assumed that participation in field experiences will help pre-service teachers (PSTs) bridge theory to practice. However, this is often not the case since PSTs who are placed in classrooms with large numbers of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds (culturally diverse students (CDS)) usually observe ineffective mathematics teaching practices that are in contrast to those discussed in their teacher preparation program. Over the past decades, the educational research community has paid increasing attention to investigating out-of-school learning contexts and how participation in such contexts can contribute to the achievement of underrepresented groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and their expanded participation in STEM fields. In addition, several research studies have shown that students display different kinds of mathematical behaviors and discourse practices in out-of-school contexts than they do in the typical mathematics classroom since they draw from a variety of linguistic and cultural resources to negotiate meanings and participate in joint problem solving. However, almost no attention has been given to exploring these contexts as field experiences for pre-service mathematics teachers. The purpose of this study was to explore how participation in a community based after-school field experience promotes understanding of the content pedagogy concepts introduced in elementary mathematics methods courses, particularly as they apply to teaching mathematics to CDS. This study draws upon a situated, socio-cultural theory of teacher learning that centers on the concept of learning as situated social practice, which includes discourse, social interaction, and participation structures. Consistent with exploratory case study methodology, qualitative methods were employed to investigate how a cohort of twelve participating pre-service teacher's approach to pedagogy and their conversations around teaching and learning mathematics to CDS evolved through their participation in the after-school field experience, and how they connected the content discussed in their mathematics methods course with their interactions with the CDS in the after-school. Data were collected over a period of one academic year from the following sources: (a) audio recordings of the PSTs' interactions with the students during the after-school sessions, (b) PSTs' after-school field-notes, (c) audio-recordings of weekly methods course meetings, and (d) other document data (e.g., PST and student generated artifacts, PSTs' written course assignments). The findings of this study reveal that the PSTs benefitted greatly through their participation in the after-school field experience. Specifically, after-school participation promoted a deeper understanding of the content pedagogy concepts introduced in the mathematics methods course and gained a greater appreciation for how students learn mathematics with understanding. Further, even though many of PSTs' assumptions about the mathematical abilities of CDS were challenged and PSTs began to view CDSs' cultural and linguistic backgrounds as resources (rather than obstacles) for learning, some PSTs still held negative stereotypes about CDS and teaching and learning mathematics to CDS in particular. Insights gained through this study contribute to a better understanding of how informal mathematics learning contexts may provide a valuable context for pre-service teacher's learning to teach mathematics to CDS.

Keywords: after-school mathematics program, pre-service mathematical education of teachers, qualitative methods, situated socio-cultural theory, teaching culturally diverse students

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Authors: Abdulhakim Ali Mosleh Alzubidy

Abstract:

The study's aim was to establish a proposed training program for kindergarten teachers according to their modern professional demands so that they could effectively teach children through movement education and play. The sample, which consisted of (46) teachers and administrators selected at random from the Ibb governorate, represented the study population of kindergarten teachers and administrators. The researcher developed three survey forms as a tool for data collection, and the forms were used with the research sample. The researcher used the descriptive method due to its applicability and the nature of the study, and he also used the appropriate statistical treatment of the data, which is to extract the percentage and the percentage of agreement. The study came to the following conclusions: ● The proposed program is of great importance in preparing the kindergarten teacher in an appropriate manner that keeps pace with modern developments in this field. ● The field of movement education is a necessity for the kindergarten teacher, through which she will be able to prepare the child physically and kinetically and teach him effectively the principles of reading, writing, and numerical and arithmetic concepts.

Keywords: training program, professional needs, kindergarten, kindergarten teacher

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Authors: Maimuna Nontji

Abstract:

The life cycle of rice plant has three phases of growth; they are the vegetative, reproductive and maturation phase. They greatly affect the life of dynamics metanotrof bacterial as reducer methane emissions in the rice field, both of population and on the rate of growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the population and growth rate of methanotrof isolates which has been isolated in previous studies. Isolates were taken at all the life cycle of rice plant. Population of analysis was conducted by standard plate count method and growth rate was analysed by logarithmic calculation. The results showed that each isolate varied in population and growth rate. The highest population was obtained in the isolates Gowa Methanotrof Reproductive (GMR 8) about 7.06 x 10 11 cfu / ml on 3 days of incubation and the lowest population was obtained in the Gowa Methanotrof Maturation (GMP 5) about 0.27 x 10 11 cfu / ml on 7 day of incubation. Some isolate were demonstrated in long growth rate about 5 days of incubation and another are 3 days.

Keywords: emission, methanotrof, methane, population

Procedia PDF Downloads 450

Authors: Valentina V. Goftman, Vladislav A. Pankratov, Alexey V. Markin, Tangi Aubert, Zeger Hens, Sarah De Saeger, Irina Yu. Goryacheva

Abstract:

The most important requirements for biochemical applicability of quantum dots (QDs) are: 1) the surface cap should render intact or improved optical properties; 2) mono-dispersion and good stability in aqueous phase in a wide range of pH and ionic strength values; 3) presence of functional groups, available for bioconjugation; 4) minimal impact from the environment on the QDs’ properties and, vice versa, minimal influence of the QDs’ components on the environment; and 5) stability against chemical/biochemical/physical influence. The latter is especially important for in vitro and in vivo applications. For example, some physical intracellular delivery strategies (e.g., electroporation) imply a rapid high-voltage electric field impulse in order to temporarily generate hydrophilic pores in the cell plasma membrane, necessary for the passive transportation of QDs into the cell. In this regard, it is interesting to investigate how different capping layers, which can provide high stability and sufficient fluorescent properties of QDs in a water solution, behave under these abnormal conditions. In this contribution, hydrophobic core-shell CdSe/CdS/CdZnS/ZnS QDs (λem=600 nm), produced by means of the Successive Ion Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) technique, were transferred to a water solution using two of the most commonly used methods: (i) encapsulation in an amphiphilic brush polymer based on poly(maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecene) (PMAO) modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains and (ii) silica covering. Polymer encapsulation preserves the initial ligands on the QDs’ surface owing to the hydrophobic attraction between the hydrophobic groups of the amphiphilic molecules and the surface hydrophobic groups of the QDs. This covering process allows maintaining the initial fluorescent properties, but it leads to a considerable increase of the QDs’ size. However, covering with a silica shell, by means of the reverse microemulsion method, allows maintaining both size and fluorescent properties of the initial QDs. The obtained water solutions of polymer covered and silica-coated QDs in three different concentrations were exposed to a low-voltage electric field for a short time and the fluorescent properties were investigated. It is shown that the PMAO-PEG polymer acquires some additional charges in the presence of the electric field, which causes repulsion between the polymer and the QDs’ surface. This process destroys the homogeneity of the whole amphiphilic shell and it dramatically decreases the fluorescent properties (dropping to 10% from its initial value) because of the direct contact of the QDs with the strongly oxidative environment (water). In contrast, a silica shell possesses dielectric properties which allow retaining 90% of its initial fluorescence intensity, even after a longer electric impact. Thus, silica shells are clearly a preferable covering for bio-application of QDs, because – besides the high uniform morphology, controlled size and biocompatibility – it allows protecting QDs from oxidation, even under the influence of an electric field.

Keywords: electric field, polymer coating, quantum dots, silica covering, stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 458

Authors: K. Meera Saheb, K. Krishna Bhaskar

Abstract:

Complex structures used in many fields of engineering are made up of simple structural elements like beams, plates etc. These structural elements, sometimes carry concentrated masses at discrete points, and when subjected to severe dynamic environment tend to vibrate with large amplitudes. The frequency amplitude relationship is very much essential in determining the response of these structural elements subjected to the dynamic loads. For Timoshenko beams, the effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia are to be considered to evaluate the fundamental linear and nonlinear frequencies. A commonly used method for solving vibration problem is energy method, or a finite element analogue of the same. In the present Coupled Displacement Field method the number of undetermined coefficients is reduced to half when compared to the famous Rayleigh Ritz method, which significantly simplifies the procedure to solve the vibration problem. This is accomplished by using a coupling equation derived from the static equilibrium of the shear flexible structural element. The prime objective of the present paper here is to study, in detail, the effect of a central concentrated mass on the large amplitude free vibrations of uniform shear flexible beams. Accurate closed form expressions for linear frequency parameter for uniform shear flexible beams with a central concentrated mass was developed and the results are presented in digital form.

Keywords: coupled displacement field, coupling equation, large amplitude vibrations, moderately thick plates

Procedia PDF Downloads 226

Authors: Mai. M. Toughan, Ahmed A. A. Sallam, Ashraf O. Abd El-Latif

Abstract:

Termites are eusocial insects that are found on all continents except Antarctica. Termites have serious destructive impact, damaging local huts and crops of poor subsistence. The annual cost of termite damage and its control is determined in the billions globally. In Egypt, most of these damages are due to the subterranean termite species especially the sand termite, P. hypostoma. Pyrethroids became the primary weapon for subterranean termite control, after the use of chlorpyrifos as a soil termiticide was banned. Despite the important role of pyrethroids in termite control, its extensive use in pest control led to the eventual rise of insecticide resistance which may make many of the pyrethroids ineffective. The ability to diagnose the precise mechanism of pyrethroid resistance in any insect species would be the key component of its management at specified location for a specific population. In the present study, detailed toxicological and biochemical studies was conducted on the mechanism of pyrethroid resistance in P. hypostoma. The susceptibility of field populations of P. hypostoma against deltamethrin, α-cypermethrin and ƛ-cyhalothrin was evaluated. The obtained results revealed that the workers of P. hypostoma have developed high resistance level against the tested pyrethroids. Studies carried out through estimation of detoxification enzyme activity indicated that enhanced esterase and cytochrome P450 activities were probably important mechanisms for pyrethroid resistance in field populations. Elevated esterase activity and also additional esterase isozyme were observed in the pyrethroid-resistant populations compared to the susceptible populations. Strong positive correlation between cytochrome P450 activity and pyrethroid resistance was also reported. |Deltamethrin could be recommended as a resistance-breaking pyrethroid that is active against resistant populations of P. hypostoma.

Keywords: Psammotermes hypostoma, pyrethroid resistance, esterase, cytochrome P450

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Taslima Zahan

Abstract:

A field study was done in 2013-14 and 2014-15 by following bio-assay technique to determine the carryover effect of herbicides applied in rainy season rice on growth and yield of two probable succeeding crops of rice viz., wheat and lentil. Rice seedlings were transplanted on strip-tilled non-puddled field, and five herbicides named pyrazosufuron-ethyl, butachlor, orthosulfamuron, butachlor + propanil and 2,4-D amine were applied in rice at their recommended rate and time as eight treatment combinations and compared with one untreated control. Residual effects of those rice herbicides on the succeeding wheat and lentil were examined by following micro-plot bioassay technique. The study revealed that germination of wheat and lentil seeds were not affected by the residue of herbicides applied in the preceding rainy season rice. Shoot length of wheat and lentil seedlings of herbicide treated plots were also non-significantly varied with untreated control plots. Herbicide treated plots of wheat had higher leaf chlorophyll contents over the control plots by 1.8-14.0% on an average while in case of lentil herbicide treated plots had negligible amount of reduction in leaf chlorophyll contents than control plots. Grain yields of wheat and lentil in herbicide treated plots were higher than control plots by 2.8-6.6% and 0.2-10.9%, respectively. Therefore, two-year bioassay study claimed that tested herbicides applied in rainy season rice under strip-tilled non-puddled field had no adverse residual effect on growth and yield of the succeeding wheat and lentil.

Keywords: crop sensitivity, herbicide persistence, minimum tillage rice, yield improvement

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Hamid Maidat, Khedidja Bouhadef, Djamel Eddine Ameziani, Azzedine Abdedou

Abstract:

This work consists of a numerical simulation of convective heat transfer in a vertical plane channel filled with a heat generating porous medium, in the absence of local thermal equilibrium. The walls are maintained to a constant temperature and the inlet velocity is uniform. The dynamic range is described by the Darcy-Brinkman model and the thermal field by two energy equations model. A dimensionless formulation is developed for performing a parametric study based on certain dimensionless groups such as, the Biot interstitial number, the thermal conductivity ratio and the volumetric heat generation. The governing equations are solved using the finite volume method, gave rise to a multitude of results concerning in particular the thermal field in the porous channel and the existence or not of the local thermal equilibrium.

Keywords: local thermal non equilibrium model, mixed convection, porous medium, power generation

Procedia PDF Downloads 605

Authors: Rung-Shiang Cheng, Wei-Jun Hong, Jheng-Syun Wang, Kawuu W. Lin

Abstract:

Users rely increasingly on Location-Based Services (LBS) and automated navigation/guidance systems nowadays. However, while such services are easily implemented in outdoor environments using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, a requirement still exists for accurate localization and guidance schemes in indoor settings. Accordingly, the present study presents a methodology based on GPS, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. Through establishing graphic information and the design of algorithm, this study develops a guidance system for indoor and outdoor on smartphones, with aim to provide users a smart life through this system. The presented system is implemented on a smartphone and evaluated on a student campus environment. The experimental results confirm the ability of the presented app to switch automatically from an outdoor mode to an indoor mode and to guide the user to the requested target destination via the shortest possible route.

Keywords: beacon, indoor, BLE, Dijkstra algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 302