Search results for: new silk road economic belt

Authors: Kashmir Johal

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Within a wider context of improving whole-life effectiveness of gas and oil fields, we have been researching how to generate power local to the wellhead. (Provision of external power to a subsea wellhead can be prohibitively expensive and results in uneconomic fields. This has been an oil/gas industry challenge for many years.) We have been developing a possible approach to “local” power generation and have been conducting technical, environmental, (and economic) research to develop a viable approach. We sought to create a workable design for a new type of power generation system that makes use of differential pressure that can exist between the sea surface and a gas (or oil reservoir). The challenge has not just been to design a system capable of generating power from potential energy but also to design it in such a way that it anticipates and deals with the wide range of technological, environmental, and chemical constraints faced in such environments. We believe this project shows the enormous opportunity in deriving clean, economic, and zero emissions renewable energy from offshore sources. Since this technology is not currently available, a patent has been filed to protect the advancement of this technology.

Keywords: renewable, energy, power, offshore

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Authors: Alaa Sheta

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Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) is one of the vital optimization problems in power system planning. Solving the ELD problems mean finding the best mixture of power unit outputs of all members of the power system network such that the total fuel cost is minimized while sustaining operation requirements limits satisfied across the entire dispatch phases. Many optimization techniques were proposed to solve this problem. A famous one is the Quadratic Programming (QP). QP is a very simple and fast method but it still suffer many problem as gradient methods that might trapped at local minimum solutions and cannot handle complex nonlinear functions. Numbers of metaheuristic algorithms were used to solve this problem such as Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). In this paper, another meta-heuristic search algorithm named Differential Evolution (DE) is used to solve the ELD problem in power systems planning. The practicality of the proposed DE based algorithm is verified for three and six power generator system test cases. The gained results are compared to existing results based on QP, GAs and PSO. The developed results show that differential evolution is superior in obtaining a combination of power loads that fulfill the problem constraints and minimize the total fuel cost. DE found to be fast in converging to the optimal power generation loads and capable of handling the non-linearity of ELD problem. The proposed DE solution is able to minimize the cost of generated power, minimize the total power loss in the transmission and maximize the reliability of the power provided to the customers.

Keywords: economic load dispatch, power systems, optimization, differential evolution

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Authors: Saradiya Mukherjee

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Background: Indian Muslims, compared to their counterparts in other religions, generally do not fare well on many yardsticks related to socio-economic progress and the same is true with maternal health care utilization. Due to low age at marriage a major percentage of child birth is ascribed to young (15-24 years) Muslim mothers in, which pose serious concerns on the maternal health care of Young Married Muslim women (YMMW). A thorough search of past literature on Muslim women’s health and health care reveals that studies in India have mainly focused on religious differences in fertility levels and contraceptive use while the research on the determinants of maternal health care utilization among Muslim women are lacking in India. Data and Methods: Retrieving data from the National Family Health Survey -3 (2005-06) this study attempts to assess the level of utilization and factors effecting three key maternal health indicators (full ANC, safe delivery and PNC) among YMMW (15-24 years) in India. The key socio-economic and demographic variables taken as independent or predictor variables in the study was guided by existing literature particularly for India. Bi-variate analysis and chi square test was applied and variables which were found to be significant were further included in binary logistic regression. Results: The findings of the study reveal abysmally low levels of utilization for all three indicators i.e. full ANC, safe delivery and PNC of maternal health care included in the study. Mother’s education, mass media exposure, women’s autonomy, birth order, economic status wanted status of child and region of residence were found to be significant variables effecting maternal health care utilization among YMMW. Multivariate analysis reveals that no mass media exposure, lower autonomy, education, poor economic background, higher birth order and unintended pregnancy are some of the reasons behind low maternal health care utilization. Conclusion: Considering the low level of safe maternal health care utilization and its proximate determinants among YMMW the study suggests educating Muslim girls, promoting family planning use, involving media and collaboration between religious leader and health care system could be some important policy level interventions to address the unmet need of maternity services among YMMW.

Keywords: young Muslim women, religion, socio-economic condition, antenatal care, delivery, post natal care

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Authors: Sven Borén, Henrik Ny

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Ambitions within the EU for moving towards sustainable transport include major emission reductions for fossil fuel road vehicles, especially for buses, trucks, and cars. The electric driveline seems to be an attractive solution for such development. This study first applied the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development to compare sustainability effects of today’s fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles that have batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. The study then addressed a scenario were electric vehicles might be in majority in Europe by 2050. The methodology called Strategic Lifecycle Assessment was first used, were each life cycle phase was assessed for violations against sustainability principles. This indicates where further analysis could be done in order to quantify the magnitude of each violation, and later to create alternative strategies and actions that lead towards sustainability. A Life Cycle Assessment of combustion engine cars, plug-in hybrid cars, battery electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell cars was then conducted to compare and quantify environmental impacts. The authors found major violations of sustainability principles like use of fossil fuels, which contribute to the increase of emission related impacts such as climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and particulate matters. Other violations were found, such as use of scarce materials for batteries and fuel cells, and also for most life cycle phases for all vehicles when using fossil fuel vehicles for mining, production and transport. Still, the studied current battery and hydrogen fuel cell cars have less severe violations than fossil fuel cars. The life cycle assessment revealed that fossil fuel cars have overall considerably higher environmental impacts compared to electric cars as long as the latter are powered by renewable electricity. By 2050, there will likely be even more sustainable alternatives than the studied electric vehicles when the EU electricity mix mainly should stem from renewable sources, batteries should be recycled, fuel cells should be a mature technology for use in vehicles (containing no scarce materials), and electric drivelines should have replaced combustion engines in other sectors. An uncertainty for fuel cells in 2050 is whether the production of hydrogen will have had time to switch to renewable resources. If so, that would contribute even more to a sustainable development. Except for being adopted in the GreenCharge roadmap, the authors suggest that the results can contribute to planning in the upcoming decades for a sustainable increase of EVs in Europe, and potentially serve as an inspiration for other smaller or larger regions. Further studies could map the environmental effects in LCA further, and include other road vehicles to get a more precise perception of how much they could affect sustainable development.

Keywords: strategic, electric vehicles, sustainability, LCA

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Authors: Raman Kumar Singh

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Urbanization and economic growth are considered to be the most striking features of the past century. There is currently a radical demographic shift in progress worldwide, wherein people are moving from rural to urban areas at an increasing rate. The UN-Habitat report 2005 indicates that in 2025, 61 per cent of the 5 billion world population will reside in the urban areas with about 85 per cent of the development process taking place in the urban hinterlands widely referred to as ‘peri-urban’, ‘suburbs’, ‘urban fringe’, ‘city edge’, ‘metropolitan shadow’, or ‘urban sprawl’. In this context the study is broadly concerned with understanding the development of the industrial hub in the Gurgaon and its impact on the immediate neighbourhood. However studies have revealed that with the increase of industrial development the growth pattern changes rapidly, not only the growth of the urban area but the overall economy shifts from more agrarian to non-agrarian, with the change in the occupational pattern of the people. The process is mainly known as tertiarization, where a number of tertiary activities increase in comparison to primary or secondary. The change in the occupational pattern creates a pull factor on its immediate neighbourhood, which triggers the in- migrations from the rural areas as people come in the core urban area in search of the better job opportunities and increased standards of living. But this gives way to the unplanned growth of the urban fringe and the villages which tend to accommodate the migrants and in turn the pressure on the socio-economic infrastructure increases. Therefore, it becomes increasing necessary for the government institution and policy level intervention to provide an overall socio-economic growth along with rapid industrial growth.

Keywords: policy intervention, urban morphology, urban industrial hub, livelihood transformation

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Authors: Man Guo, Wenyong Tan

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By combining spatial syntax with data obtained from field visits, this paper interprets the internal relationship between spatial morphology and spatial cognition in Lidukou Village. By comparing the obtained data, it is recognized that the spatial integration degree of Lidukou Village is positively correlated with the spatial cognitive intention of local villagers. The part with a higher spatial cognitive degree within the village is distributed along the axis mainly composed of Shuxiang Road. And the accessibility of historical relics is weak, and there is no systematic relationship between them. Aiming at the morphological problem of Lidukou Village, optimization strategies have been proposed from multiple perspectives, such as optimizing spatial mechanisms and shaping spatial nodes.

Keywords: traditional villages, spatial syntax, spatial integration degree, morphological problem

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Authors: Yoshimoto Kurihara, Tad Gonsalves

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Currently, in the field of object posture estimation, there is research on estimating the position and angle of an object by storing a 3D model of the object to be estimated in advance in a computer and matching it with the model. However, in this research, we have succeeded in creating a module that is much simpler, smaller in scale, and faster in operation. Our 6D pose estimation model consists of two different networks – a classification network and a regression network. From a single RGB image, the trained model estimates the class of the object in the image, the coordinates of the object, and its rotation angle in 3D space. In addition, we compared the estimation accuracy of each camera position, i.e., the angle from which the object was captured. The highest accuracy was recorded when the camera position was 75°, the accuracy of the classification was about 87.3%, and that of regression was about 98.9%.

Keywords: 6D posture estimation, image recognition, deep learning, AlexNet

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Authors: Mirza Adil Ahmad Mughal

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Transcendental analytics, in the critique of pure reason, combines space and time as conditions of the possibility of the phenomenon from the transcendental aesthetic with the pure magnitude-intuition notion. The property of continuity as a qualitative result of the additive magnitude brings the possibility of connecting with experience, even though only as a potential because of the a priori necessity from assumption, as syntheticity of the a priori task of a scientific method of philosophy given by Kant, which precludes the application of categories to something not empirically reducible to the content of such a category's corresponding and possible object. This continuity as the qualitative result of a priori constructed notion of magnitude lies as a fundamental assumption and property of, what in Microeconomic theory is called as, 'choice rules' which combine the potentially-empirical and practical budget-price pairs with preference relations. This latter result is the purest qualitative side of the choice rules', otherwise autonomously, quantitative nature. The theoretical, barring the empirical, nature of this qualitative result is a synthetic a priori truth, which, if at all, it should be, if the axiomatic structure of the economic theory is held to be correct. It has a potentially verifiable content as its possible object in the form of quantitative price-budget pairs. Yet, the object that serves the respective Kantian category is qualitative itself, which is utility. This article explores the validity of Kantian qualifications for this application of 'categories' to the economic structure of society.

Keywords: categories of understanding, continuity, convexity, psyche, revealed preferences, synthetic a priori

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Authors: Muge Unal, Ahmet Cilek

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Urban identity, having a dynamic characteristic spatial and semantic aspects, is a phenomenon in an ever-changing. Urban identity formation includes not only a process of physical nature but also development and change processes that take place in the political, economic, social and cultural values, whether national and international level. Although the concept of urban transformation is basically regarded as the spatial transformation; in fact, it reveals a holistic perspective and transformation based on dialectical relationship existing between the spatial and social relationship. For this reason, urban renewal needs to address as not only spatial but also the impact of spatial transformation on social, cultural and economic. Implementation tools used in the perception of urban transformation are varied concepts such as urban renewal, urban resettlement, urban rehabilitation, urban redevelopment, and urban revitalization. The phenomenon of urban transformation begins with the Industrial Revolution. Until the 1980s, it was interpreted as reconsidering physical fossil on urban environment factor like occurring in rapid urbanization, changing in the spatial structure of the city, concentrating of the population in urban areas. However, after the 1980s, it has resided in a conceptual structure which requires to be addressed physical, economic, social, technological and integrity of information. In conclusion, urban transformation, when it enter the literature as a practice of planning, has been up to date in terms of the conceptual structure and content and also hasn’t remained behind converting itself. Urban transformation still maintains its simplest expression, while it transforms so fast converts the contents. In this study, the relationship between urban design and components of urban transformation were discussed with strategies used as a place in the historical process of urban transformation besides a general evaluation of the concept of urban renewal.

Keywords: conceptual approach, urban identity, urban regeneration, urban renewal

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Authors: Tukur Daiyabu Abdulkadir, Wan Ishak Wan Ismail, Muhammad Saufi Mohd Kassim

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Seed singulation and accuracy in seed spacing are the major challenges associated with the adoption of mechanical seeder for system of rice intensification. In this research the metering system of a pneumatic planter was modified and automated for increase precision to meet the demand of system of rice intensification SRI. The chain and sprocket mechanism of a conventional vacuum planter were now replaced with an electro mechanical system made up of a set of servo motors, limit switch, micro controller and a wheel divided into 10 equal angles. The circumference of the planter wheel was determined based on which seed spacing was computed and mapped to the angles of the metering wheel. A program was then written and uploaded to arduino micro controller and it automatically turns the seed plates for seeding upon covering the required distance. The servo motor was calibrated with the aid of labVIEW. The machine was then calibrated using a grease belt and varying the servo rpm through voltage variation between 37 rpm to 47 rpm until an optimum value of 40 rpm was obtained with a forward speed of 5 kilometers per hour. A pressure of 1.5 kpa was found to be optimum under which no skip or double was recorded. Precision in spacing (coefficient of variation), miss index, multiple index, doubles and skips were investigated. No skip or double was recorded both at laboratory and field levels. The operational parameters under consideration were both evaluated at laboratory and field. Even though there was little variation between the laboratory and field values of precision in spacing, multiple index and miss index, the different is not significant as both laboratory and field values fall within the acceptable range.

Keywords: automation, calibration, pneumatic seed planter, system of rice intensification

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Authors: Louk Aourelien Andrianos, Edward Dommen, Athena Peralta

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Greed, as epitomized by overconsumption of natural resources, is at the root of ecological destruction and unsustainability of modern societies. Presently economies rely on unrestricted structural greed which fuels unlimited economic growth, overconsumption, and individualistic competitive behavior. Structural greed undermines the life support system on earth and threatens ecological integrity, social justice and peace. The World Council of Churches (WCC) has developed a program on ecological and economic justice (EEJ) with the aim to promote an economy of life where the economy is embedded in society and society in ecology. This paper aims at analyzing and assessing the economy of life (EcoLife) by offering an empirical tool to measure and monitor the root causes and effects of unsustainability resulting from human greed on global, national, institutional and individual levels. This holistic approach is based on the integrity of ecology and economy in a society founded on justice. The paper will discuss critical questions such as ‘what is an economy of life’ and ‘how to measure and control it from the effect of greed’. A model called GLIMS, which stands for Greed Lines and Indices Measurement System is used to clarify the concept of greed and help measuring the economy of life index by fuzzy logic reasoning. The inputs of the model are from statistical indicators of natural resources consumption, financial realities, economic performance, social welfare and ethical and political facts. The outputs are concrete measures of three primary indices of ecological, economic and socio-political greed (ECOL-GI, ECON-GI, SOCI-GI) and one overall multidimensional economy of life index (EcoLife-I). EcoLife measurement aims to build awareness of an economy life and to address the effects of greed in systemic and structural aspects. It is a tool for ethical diagnosis and policy making.

Keywords: greed line, sustainability indicators, fuzzy logic, eco-justice, World Council of Churches (WCC)

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Authors: Shitu Sani

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The paper is advanced on the historical background of the effects of excess work load on lecturers in higher institutions of learning which will assess the socio-economic and psychological disposition of lecturers in the realm of quality production. The paper further discusses the significant roles played by excess work load in general transformation of higher education, which will give the management and stake holders input for successful development of higher education. Even though all forms of work and organizational procedures are potential source of stress and stressors. In higher institution of leaning, lecturers perform many responsibilities such as lecturing, carrying out research and engaging in community services. If these multiple roles could not be handle property it would have result in stress which may have negative impact on job performance, and it’s relation with instructional technology. A sample 191 lecturers were randomly selected from the higher institutions in the northern west zone in Nigerian using two instruments i.e. work load stress management question and job performance Approval, data were collected on lecturers of socio-economic and physiological stress and job performances. Findings of the study shows that lecture experienced excess work load in academic activities. Lecturer’s job performance was negatively influences by socio-economic and psychological work stress. Among the recommendation made were the need for organizing regular induction courses for lecturers on stress, and enhance interpersonal relations among the lecturers as well as provision of electronic public address system to reduce the stress.

Keywords: effect, excess, lecturers, workload

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Authors: Ghanima Al-Sharrah, Haitham M. Lababidi, Yusuf I. Ali

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The main objective of the current work is to introduce sustainability factors in optimizing the supply chain model for process industries. The supply chain models are normally based on purely economic considerations related to costs and profits. To account for sustainability, two additional factors have been introduced; environment and risk. A supply chain for an entire petroleum organization has been considered for implementing and testing the proposed optimization models. The environmental and risk factors were introduced as indicators reflecting the anticipated impact of the optimal production scenarios on sustainability. The aggregation method used in extending the single objective function to multi-objective function is proven to be quite effective in balancing the contribution of each objective term. The results indicate that introducing sustainability factor would slightly reduce the economic benefit while improving the environmental and risk reduction performances of the process industries.

Keywords: environmental indicators, optimization, risk, supply chain

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Authors: Kollie B. Dogba, Willis Oluoch-Kosura, Chepchumba Chumo

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In Liberia, many of the agricultural households cultivate cassava for either sustenance purposes, or to generate farm income. Many of the concentrated cassava farmers reside in Nimba, a north-eastern County that borders two other economies: the Republics of Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea. With a high demand for cassava output and products in emerging Asian markets coupled with an objective of the Liberia agriculture policies to increase the competitiveness of valued agriculture crops; there is a need to examine the level of resource-use efficiency for many agriculture crops. However, there is a scarcity of information on the efficiency of many agriculture crops, including cassava. Hence the study applying an output-oriented method seeks to assess the economic efficiency of cassava farmers in Nimba County, Liberia. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to generate a sample for the study. From 216 cassava farmers, data related to on-farm attributes, socio-economic and institutional factors were collected. The stochastic frontier models, using the Translog functional forms, of production and revenue, were used to determine the level of revenue efficiency and its determinants. The result showed that most of the cassava farmers are male (60%). Many of the farmers are either married, engaged or living together with a spouse (83%), with a mean household size of nine persons. Farmland is prevalently obtained by inheritance (95%), average farm size is 1.34 hectares, and most cassava farmers did not access agriculture credits (76%) and extension services (91%). The mean cassava output per hectare is 1,506.02 kg, which estimates average revenue of L$23,551.16 (Liberian dollars). Empirical results showed that the revenue efficiency of cassava farmers varies from 0.1% to 73.5%; with the mean revenue efficiency of 12.9%. This indicates that on average, there is a vast potential of 87.1% to increase the economic efficiency of cassava farmers in Nimba by improving technical and allocative efficiencies. For the significant determinants of revenue efficiency, age and group membership had negative effects on revenue efficiency of cassava production; while farming experience, access to extension, formal education, and average wage rate have positive effects. The study recommends the setting-up and incentivizing of farmer field schools for cassava farmers to primarily share their farming experiences with others and to learn robust cultivation techniques of sustainable agriculture. Also, farm managers and farmers should consider a fix wage rate in labor contracts for all stages of cassava farming.

Keywords: economic efficiency, frontier production and revenue functions, Nimba County, Liberia, output-oriented approach, revenue efficiency, sustainable agriculture

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Authors: Nazia Jabeen, Denis Hyams-Ssekasi

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The study focuses on the determinants of food waste management (FWM) in one of the urban areas of Pakistan. One hundred and two households from the urban areas of Pakistan took part in the study via self-completed questionnaires, and data were analyzed. The research findings indicate that food waste management is a recurring issue, and households must do more to minimize or create business opportunities. Most households agree that food waste has significant implications for the community if not utilized and managed correctly. The value creation deriving from this zero-value resource provides a platform where householders see the benefit of food waste management. Based on the findings, this study acknowledges that food waste has significant economic and social impacts on the community. It concludes that minimization and optimum utilization of food waste create a pathway to business opportunities in urban areas.

Keywords: economic, social, food waste management, business opportunities, value creation

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Authors: Modestus Queen

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As we know, diplomatic languages carry the political ideology and cultural stance of the country. Knowing that China's diplomatic discourse is complicated and is heavily flavored with Chinese characteristics, one of the core goals of President Xi's administration is to properly tell the story of China. This cannot be done without proper translation or interpretation of major Chinese diplomatic concepts. Therefore, this research seeks to interpret the relevance of "Yi" as used in "Zhèngquè Yì Lì Guān". The author argues that it is not enough to translate a document but that it must be properly interpreted to portray it as political, economic, cultural and diplomatic relevant to the target audience, in this case, African people. The first finding in the current study indicates that literal translation is a bad strategy, especially in Chinese diplomatic discourses. The second finding indicates that "Yi" can be used as a framework to analyze Sino-Africa relations from economic, social and political perspectives, and the third finding indicates that "Yi" is the guiding principle of China's foreign policy towards Africa.

Keywords: Yi, justice, China-Africa, interpretation, diplomatic discourse, discourse reconstruction

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Authors: Changhwan Choi, Yongwan Park

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In this paper, we propose a method that allows faster and more accurate detection of traffic lights by a vision sensor during driving, DGPS is used to obtain physical location of a traffic light, extract from the image information of the vision sensor only the traffic light area at this location and ascertain if the sign is in operation and determine its form. This method can solve the problem in existing research where low visibility at night or reflection under bright light makes it difficult to recognize the form of traffic light, thus making driving unstable. We compared our success rate of traffic light recognition in day and night road environments. Compared to previous researches, it showed similar performance during the day but 50% improvement at night.

Keywords: traffic light, intelligent vehicle, night, detection, DGPS

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Authors: S. Brain, P. J. Storer, H. Strydom, Z. M. Solaiman

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Increasing farmer awareness of soil health, the impact of agricultural management practices, and the requirement for high-quality agricultural produce are major factors driving the rapid adoption of biological seed treatments - currently valued globally at USD 1.5 billion. Biological seed coatings with multistrain plant beneficial microbial technology have the capability to affect plant establishment, growth, and development positively. These beneficial plant microbes can potentially increase soil health, plant yield, and nutrition – acting as bio fertilisers, rhizoremediators, phytostimulators, and stress modulators, and can ultimately reduce the overall use of agrichemicals. A field trial was conducted on MACE wheat in the central wheat belt of Western Australia to evaluate a proprietary seed coating technology (Langleys Bio-EnergeticTM Microbe blend (BMB)) on a conventional program (+/- BMB microbes) and a Regenerative Biomineral fertiliser program (+/- BMB microbes). The Conventional (+BMB) and Biomineral (+BMB) treated plants had no fungicide treatments and had no disease issues. Control (No fertiliser, No microbes), Conventional (No Microbes), and Biomineral (No Microbes) were treated with fungicides (seed dressing and foliar). From the research findings, compared to control and no microbe treatments, both the Conventional (+ BMB) and Biomineral (+ BMB) showed significant increases in Soil Carbon (SOC), Seed germination, nutrient use efficiency (NUE) of nitrogen, phosphate and mineral nutrients, grain mineral nutrient uptake, protein %, hectolitre weight, and fewer screenings, yield, and gross margins.

Keywords: biological seed coating, biomineral fertiliser, plant nutrition, regenerative and conventional agriculture

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Authors: El Andari Chifaa, Bouaziz Rached

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The central focus of this paper was to check whether the Okun’s law in Tunisia is valid or not. For this purpose, we have used quarterly time series data during the period 1990Q1-2014Q1. Firstly, we applied the error correction model instead of the difference version of Okun's Law, the Engle-Granger and Johansen test are employed to find out long run association between unemployment, production, and how error correction mechanism (ECM) is used for short run dynamic. Secondly, we used the gap version of Okun’s law where the estimation is done from three band pass filters which are mathematical tools used in macro-economic and especially in business cycles theory. The finding of the study indicates that the inverse relationship between unemployment and output is verified in the short and long term, and the Okun's law holds for the Tunisian economy, but with an Okun’s coefficient lower than required. Therefore, our empirical results have important implications for structural and cyclical policymakers in Tunisia to promote economic growth in a context of lower unemployment growth.

Keywords: Okun’s law, validity, unit root, cointegration, error correction model, bandpass filters

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Authors: A. Bentley, A. Prost, N. Daruwalla, D. Osrin

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Background: This study aims to investigate the relationship between experiences of violence against women in the family, and levels of self-esteem in women residing in informal settlement (slum) areas of Mumbai, India. The authors hypothesise that violence against women in Indian households extends beyond that of intimate partner violence (IPV), to include other members of the family and that experiences of violence are associated with lower levels of self-esteem. Methods: Experiences of violence were assessed through a cross-sectional survey of 598 women, including questions about specific acts of emotional, economic, physical and sexual violence across different time points, and the main perpetrator of each. Self-esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire. A global score for self-esteem was calculated and the relationship between violence in the past year and Rosenberg self-esteem score was assessed using multivariable linear regression models, adjusted for years of education completed, and clustering using robust standard errors. Results: 482 (81%) women consented to interview. On average, they were 28.5 years old, had completed 6 years of education and had been married 9.5 years. 88% were Muslim and 46% lived in joint families. 44% of women had experienced at least one act of violence in their lifetime (33% emotional, 22% economic, 24% physical, 12% sexual). Of the women who experienced violence after marriage, 70% cited a perpetrator other than the husband for at least one of the acts. 5% had low self-esteem (Rosenberg score < 15). For women who experienced emotional violence in the past year, the Rosenberg score was 2.6 points lower (p < 0.001). It was 1.2 points lower (p = 0.03) for women who experienced economic violence. For physical or sexual violence in the past year, no statistically significant relationship with Rosenberg score was seen. However, for a one-unit increase in the number of different acts of each type of violence experienced in the past year, a decrease in Rosenberg score was seen (-0.62 for emotional, -0.76 for economic, -0.53 for physical and -0.47 for sexual; p < 0.05 for all). Discussion: The high prevalence of violence experiences across the lifetime was likely due to the detailed assessment of violence and the inclusion of perpetrators within the family other than the husband. Experiences of emotional or economic violence in the past year were associated with lower Rosenberg scores and therefore lower self-esteem, but no relationship was seen between experiences of physical or sexual violence and Rosenberg score overall. For all types of violence in the past year, a greater number of different acts were associated with a decrease in Rosenberg score. Emotional violence showed the strongest relationship with self-esteem, but for all types of violence the more complex the pattern of perpetration with different methods used, the lower the levels of self-esteem. Due to the cross-sectional nature of the study causal directionality cannot be attributed. Further work to investigate the relationship between severity of violence and self-esteem and whether self-esteem mediates relationships between violence and poorer mental health would be beneficial.

Keywords: family violence, India, informal settlements, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, self-esteem, violence against women

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Authors: Haidy S. Ghali, Engy Serag, A. Samer Ezeldin

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Copper is an essential raw material used in the construction industry. During the year 2021 and the first half of 2022, the global market suffered from a significant fluctuation in copper raw material prices due to the aftermath of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, which exposed its consumers to an unexpected financial risk. Thereto, this paper aims to develop two ANN-LSTM price prediction models, using Python, that can forecast the average monthly copper prices traded in the London Metal Exchange; the first model is a multivariate model that forecasts the copper price of the next 1-month and the second is a univariate model that predicts the copper prices of the upcoming three months. Historical data of average monthly London Metal Exchange copper prices are collected from January 2009 till July 2022, and potential external factors are identified and employed in the multivariate model. These factors lie under three main categories: energy prices and economic indicators of the three major exporting countries of copper, depending on the data availability. Before developing the LSTM models, the collected external parameters are analyzed with respect to the copper prices using correlation and multicollinearity tests in R software; then, the parameters are further screened to select the parameters that influence the copper prices. Then, the two LSTM models are developed, and the dataset is divided into training, validation, and testing sets. The results show that the performance of the 3-Month prediction model is better than the 1-Month prediction model, but still, both models can act as predicting tools for diverse economic situations.

Keywords: copper prices, prediction model, neural network, time series forecasting

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Authors: Karin Schoenpflug, Christine M. Klapeer

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In a large study for the Vienna City Council’s Antidiscrimination unit (WASt) an interdisciplinary team (in the fields of economics, sociology and political science) working with urban economics, critical citizenship studies, the sociology of work & inequality and urban political/human geography conducted an online survey asking LGBTIs (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex people) in Vienna detailed questions on their quality-of-life, happiness and well-being. 3.161 persons responded and provided us with a rich data set concerning: 1) Labor market structures, discrimination, working conditions and employment practices (economic citizenship); 2) access to health care, welfare, education and safety in public spaces (social citizenship); 3) political participation as well as access to legal institutions (political citizenship). All those fields are important dimensions in regards to “full” citizenship and the well-being of the LGBTI population, but are also constitutive for the inclusion of sexual and gender minorities into the city population(s) of Vienna. Our data also allows us to map the sexual geography of Vienna as LGBTI communities are more likely to live in certain districts; some places are considered safe(r) and “friendlier”. In this way our work helps to fill a research gap connecting (urban) spaces and sexuality, and it produces new data and insights on the quality-of-life of this subpopulation. Our findings allow for urban (policy) planning and limiting violence and discrimination and improving the collective wellbeing and social cohesion.

Keywords: urban sexual geographies, LGBTI, socio-economic status, Vienna, sitizenship status

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Authors: Rajendra Kumar Kanojia

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Background; Massive bone gaps are common following road side accidents and injury to the tibia, specially open grade three fractures. It has been seen that the diaphyseal fractures in the tibia are prone to non-union, there are certain reasons known very well, like less soft tissues around the lower third tibia, less vascularity, less options of fixation of the fractures after trauma and prolonged surgical time, operation theatre time and special surgical means. Aim of study; To know the suitability of the ilizarov ring fixators in staged treatment of the fracture of the both bones leg, including tibia, we wish to see the role of ilizarov in management of open grade three fractures which have been operated and debrided, for getting the length use of ilizaorv ring in a tertiary canter is the aim of the study.

Keywords: open fracture, staged management, ilizarov, bone grafting, lengthening

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Authors: Lillie Lum

Abstract:

Focusing on the role of official language in immigrant integration, this paper will first report the results of a literature review and demonstrate that there is no doubt on the necessity of adequate language skills for newcomers to successfully settle, adapt, and integrate socially, culturally and economically in Canada. This paper attempts to synthesize the literature in order to shed light on the language policy terrain which is not easy to navigate. Then, by outlining what is currently available in the language policy environment, it will ask if the current state of language training in Canada is adequate to assist newcomers in their language acquisition process. At a deeper level, it aims to continue to raise questions in this policy area. Are current policy responses likely to improve linguistic capabilities in the future, particularly for immigrant workers with poor language proficiency? This paper is timely given the magnitude of the language issue and the value of immigrants for Canada’s economic, social, and political vitality.

Keywords: official language education, immigrant integration into Canada, economic factors, policy implications

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Authors: Obaid AlOtaibi, Salman Hussain

Abstract:

Wind energy is associated with many geographical factors including wind speed, climate change, surface topography, environmental impacts, and several economic factors, most notably the advancement of wind technology and energy prices. It is the fastest-growing and least economically expensive method for generating electricity. Wind energy generation is directly related to the characteristics of spatial wind. Therefore, the feasibility study for the wind energy conversion system is based on the value of the energy obtained relative to the initial investment and the cost of operation and maintenance. In Kuwait, wind energy is an appropriate choice as a source of energy generation. It can be used in groundwater extraction in agricultural areas such as Al-Abdali in the north and Al-Wafra in the south, or in fresh and brackish groundwater fields or remote and isolated locations such as border areas and projects away from conventional power electricity services, to take advantage of alternative energy, reduce pollutants, and reduce energy production costs. The study covers the State of Kuwait with an exception of metropolitan area. Climatic data were attained through the readings of eight distributed monitoring stations affiliated with Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). The data were used to assess the daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual available wind energy accessible for utilization. The researchers applied the Suitability Model to analyze the study by using the ArcGIS program. It is a model of spatial analysis that compares more than one location based on grading weights to choose the most suitable one. The study criteria are: the average annual wind speed, land use, topography of land, distance from the main road networks, urban areas. According to the previous criteria, the four proposed locations to establish wind farm projects are selected based on the weights of the degree of suitability (excellent, good, average, and poor). The percentage of areas that represents the most suitable locations with an excellent rank (4) is 8% of Kuwait’s area. It is relatively distributed as follows: Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdeba, Al-Salmi (5.22%), Al-Abdali (1.22%), Umm al-Hayman (0.70%), North Wafra and Al-Shaqeeq (0.86%). The study recommends to decision-makers to consider the proposed location (No.1), (Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdaba, and Al-Salmi) as the most suitable location for future development of wind farms in Kuwait, this location is economically feasible.

Keywords: Kuwait, renewable energy, spatial analysis, wind energy

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Authors: Jinhoa Lee

Abstract:

The relationships between environmental quality, energy use and economic output have created growing attention over the past decades among researchers and policy makers. Focusing on the empirical aspects of the role of CO2 emissions and energy use in affecting the economic output, this paper is an effort to fulfil the gap in a comprehensive case study at a country level using modern econometric techniques. To achieve the goal, this country-specific study examines the short-run and long-run relationships among energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) for Oman using time series analysis from the year 1980-2010. To investigate the relationships between the variables, this paper employs the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test for stationary, Johansen maximum likelihood method for co-integration and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for both short- and long-run causality among the research variables for the sample. All the variables in this study show very strong significant effects on GDP in the country for the long term. The long-run equilibrium in the VECM suggests positive long-run causalities from CO2 emissions to GDP. Conversely, negative impacts of energy consumption on GDP are found to be significant in Oman during the period. In the short run, there exist negative unidirectional causalities among GDP, CO2 emissions and energy consumption running from GDP to CO2 emissions and from energy consumption to CO2 emissions. Overall, the results support arguments that there are relationships among environmental quality, energy use and economic output in Oman over of period 1980-2010.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, energy consumption, GDP, Oman, time series analysis

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Authors: Khaled Shaaban

Abstract:

Schools and hospitals are supposed to be located in silent zones. In these areas, it is expected to maintain low noise levels in order to promote a peaceful environment for studying or recovering. However, many of these facilities are located in urban areas and are subject to high levels of noise. In this study, an evaluation of traffic noise around schools and hospitals was conducted during different periods of the day. The results indicated that the noise is positively correlated with the traffic volume around these facilities. Locations with higher traffic volumes tend to have higher noise levels. The results also showed that the noise levels exceed the recommended values by the World Health Organization. Several solutions were suggested as potential courses of action to decrease the excessive level of noise around these facilities.

Keywords: traffic noise, road traffic, noise levels, traffic volume

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Authors: Olaniyi Awe, Adelana R. Adetunji, Abraham Adeleke

Abstract:

Field observation revealed a lot of artisanal gold mining activities in Ilesa gold belt of southwestern Nigeria. The possibility of alluvial and lode gold deposits in commercial quantities around this location is very high, as there are many resident artisanal gold miners who have been mining and trading alluvial gold ore for decades and to date in the area. Their major process of solid gold recovery from its ore is by gravity concentration using the convectional panning method. This method is simple to learn and fast to recover gold from its alluvial ore, but its effectiveness is based on rules of thumb and the artisanal miners' experience in handling gold ore panning tool while processing the ore. Research samples from five alluvial gold ore tailings dumps were collected and studied. Samples were subjected to particle size analysis and mineralogical and elemental characterization using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) methods, respectively. The results showed that the tailings were of major quartz in association with albite, plagioclase, mica, gold, calcite and sulphide minerals. The elemental composition analysis revealed a 15ppm of gold concentration in particle size fraction of -90 microns in one of the tailings dumps investigated. These results are significant. It is recommended that heaps of panning tailings should be further reprocessed using other gold recovery methods such as shaking tables, flotation and controlled cyanidation that can efficiently recover fine gold particles that were previously lost into the gold panning tailings. The tailings site should also be well controlled and monitored so that these heavy minerals do not find their way into surrounding water streams and rivers, thereby causing health hazards.

Keywords: gold ore, panning, PIXE, tailings, XRD

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Authors: Sabiu Abdullahi Yau

Abstract:

Nigeria is a high fertility country that experiences eye-popping population growth, with no end in sight. However, there is evidence that its large population inhibits government’s efforts in meeting the basic needs of the people. Moreover, past and present governments of Nigeria have been committing huge amount of financial resources to meet the basic infrastructural requirements capable of propelling growth and development. Despite the country’s large population and abundant natural resources, poverty, unemployment, rural-urban migration, deforestation and inadequate infrastructural facilities have been persistently on the increase resulting in consistent failure of government policies to impact positively on the economy. This paper, however, identifies and critically analyses the major development challenges caused by population growth in Nigeria using secondary data. The paper concludes that for the Nigeria’s economy to develop, all the identified challenges posed by rapid population growth must be promptly and squarely addressed.

Keywords: economic development, population, growth, Nigeria

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Authors: Jerzy Bański

Abstract:

Central and Eastern European agriculture is characterized by large spatial variations in the structure of agricultural land and the structure of crops on arable land. In general, field crops predominate among the land used for agriculture. In the southern part of the study area, permanent crops have a relatively large share, which is due to favorable climatic conditions. Clear differences between the north and south of the region concern the structure of crop cultivation. In the north, the cultivation of cereals, mainly wheat, definitely prevails. In the south of the region, on the other hand, the structure of crops is more diverse, as more industrial crops are grown in addition to cereals. The primary cognitive objective of the study is to diagnose and identify the directions of changes in the structure of agricultural land use in the CEE region. Particular attention was paid to the spatial differentiation of this structure and its importance in its formation of various conditions. The analysis included the basic elements of the structure of agricultural land use and the structure of crops on arable land. The decrease in the area of arable land is characteristic of the entire region and is the result of the territorial growth of cities, the development of communications infrastructure (rail and road), and the increase in the rationality of crop production involving, among other things, the exclusion from the cultivation of land with the lowest agro-ecological values and their afforestation. It can be summarized that the directions of changes in the basic categories of agricultural land are related to agro-ecological conditions, which indicates an increase in the rationality of crop production. In countries with lower-quality of agricultural production space, the share of grassland generally increased, while in countries with favorable conditions -mainly soil- the share of arable land increased. As for the structure of field crops, the direction of its changes seems to be mainly due to economic and social reasons. Ownership changes shaping an unfavorable agrarian structure (fragmentation and fragmentation of arable fields) and the process of aging of the rural population resulted in the abandonment of resource- and labor-intensive crops. As a result, the importance of growing fruits and vegetables, and potatoes has declined. The structure of vegetable crops has been greatly influenced by the accession of Central and Eastern European countries to the European Union. This is primarily the increase in the importance of oil crops (rapeseed and sunflower) related to biofuel production. In the case of cereal crops, the main direction of change was the increase in the share of wheat at the expense of other cereal species.

Keywords: agriculture, land use, Central and Eastern Europe, crops, arable land

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