Search results for: number of employees

Authors: Marliana S. Palad

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The research purpose is to view and know the influence of giving blotong against growth and production of baby corn. The research was arranged as a factorial experiment in completely randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. The first is fertilizer type: blotong (B1), blotong+EM4 (B2) and bokashi blotong (B3), while of the blotong dose assigned as the second factor: blotong 5 ton ha -1 (D1), blotong 10 ton ha-1 (D2) and blotong 15 ton ha-1 (D3). The research result indicated that bokashi blotong gives the best influence compare to blotong+EM4 against all parameters. Interaction between fertilizers does 10 ton ha-1 to the bokashi. Blotong gives the best influence to the baby corn production 4.41 ton ha-1, bokasi blotong best anyway influence on baby corn vegetative growth, that is: plant height 113.00 cm, leaves number 8 (eight) pieces and stem diameter 6.02 cm. Results of analysis of variance showed that giving of bokashi blotong (B3) showed a better effect on the growth and production of baby corn and highly significant for plant height age of 60 days after planting, leaf number aged 60 days after planting, cob length cornhusk and without cornhusk, diameter stems and cobs, cob weight with cornhusk and without cornhusk and production are converted into ton ha-1. This is due to bokashi blotong has organic content of C, N, P, and K totalling more than the maximum treatment blotong (B1) and the blotong+EM4 (B2). Based on the research result, it can be summarised that sugar factory waste called blotong can be used to make bokashi as organic fertilizer, so the baby corn can growth and production better.

Keywords: blotong, bokashi, organic fertilizer, sugar factory waste

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Authors: Jirapat Suriyachaisawat, Ekkit Surakarn

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Introduction: To improve early detection and mortality rate of in-hospital cardiac arrest, Emergency Response Team (ERT) system was planned and implemented since June 2009 to detect pre-arrest conditons and for any concerns. The ERT consisted of on duty physicians and nurses from emergency department. ERT calling criteria consisted of acute change of HR < 40 or > 130 beats per minute, systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg, respiratory rate <8 or >28 breaths per minute, O2 saturation <90%, acute change in conscious state, acute chest pain or worry about the patients. From the data on ERT system implementation in our hospital in early phase (during June 2009-2011), there was no statistic significance in difference in in-hospital cardiac arrest incidence and overall hospital mortality rate. Since the introduction of the ERT service in our hospital, we have conducted continuous educational campaign to improve awareness in an attempt to increase use of the service. Methods: To investigate outcome of ERT system in in-hospital cardiac arrest and overall hospital mortality rate, we conducted a prospective, controlled before-and after examination of the long term effect of a ERT system on the incidence of cardiac arrest. We performed chi-square analysis to find statistic significance. Results: Of a total 623 ERT cases from June 2009 until December 2012, there were 72 calls in 2009, 196 calls in 2010, 139 calls in 2011 and 245 calls in 2012. The number of ERT calls per 1000 admissions in year 2009-10 was 7.69; 5.61 in 2011 and 9.38 in 2013. The number of code blue calls per 1000 admissions decreased significantly from 2.28 to 0.99 per 1000 admissions (P value < 0.001). The incidence of cardiac arrest decreased progressively from 1.19 to 0.34 per 1000 admissions and significant in difference in year 2012 (P value < 0.001 ). The overall hospital mortality rate decreased by 8 % from 15.43 to 14.43 per 1000 admissions (P value 0.095). Conclusions: ERT system implementation was associated with progressive reduction in cardiac arrests over three year period, especially statistic significant in difference in 4th year after implementation. We also found an inverse association between number of ERT use and the risk of occurrence of cardiac arrests, but we have not found difference in overall hospital mortality rate.

Keywords: cardiac arrest, outcome, in-hospital, ERT

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Ksenija Taški-Ajdukovic, Nevena Nagl, Živko Ćurčić, Dario Danojević

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Information about genetic diversity of sugar beet parental populations is of a great importance for hybrid breeding programs. The aim of this research was to evaluate genetic diversity among and within populations and lines of diploid sugar beet pollinators, by using SSR markers. As plant material were used eight pollinators originating from three USDA-ARS breeding programs and four pollinators from Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad. Depending on the presence of self-fertility gene, the pollinators were divided into three groups: autofertile (inbred lines), autosterile (open-pollinating populations), and group with partial presence of autofertility gene. A total of 40 SSR primers were screened, out of which 34 were selected for the analysis of genetic diversity. A total of 129 different alleles were obtained with mean value 3.2 alleles per SSR primer. According to the results of genetic variability assessment the number and percentage of polymorphic loci was the maximal in pollinators NS1 and tester cms2 while effective number of alleles, expected heterozygosis and Shannon’s index was highest in pollinator EL0204. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 77.34% of the total genetic variation was attributed to intra-varietal variance. Correspondence analysis results were very similar to grouping by neighbor-joining algorithm. Number of groups was smaller by one, because correspondence analysis merged IFVCNS pollinators with CZ25 into one group. Pollinators FC220, FC221 and C 51 were in the next group, while self-fertile pollinators CR10 and C930-35 from USDA-Salinas were separated. On another branch were self-sterile pollinators ЕL0204 and ЕL53 from USDA-East Lansing. Sterile testers cms1 and cms2 formed separate group. The presented results confirmed that SSR analysis can be successfully used in estimation of genetic diversity within and among sugar beet populations. Since the tested pollinator differed considering the presence of self-fertility gene, their heterozygosity differed as well. It was lower in genotypes with fixed self-fertility genes. Since the most of tested populations were open-pollinated, which rarely self-pollinate, high variability within the populations was expected. Cluster analysis grouped populations according to their origin.

Keywords: auto fertility, genetic diversity, pollinator, SSR, sugar beet

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Authors: Eric S. Lee, Connie Bygrave, Jordan Mahar, Naina Garg, Suzanne Cottreau

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Marking exams is universally detested by lecturers. Final exams in many higher education courses often last 3.0 hrs. Do exams really need to be so long? Can we justifiably reduce the number of questions on them? Surprisingly few have researched these questions, arguably because of the complexity and difficulty of using traditional methods. To answer these questions empirically, we used a new approach based on three key elements: Use of an unusual variation of a true experimental design, equivalence hypothesis testing, and an expanded set of six psychometric criteria to be met by any shortened exam if it is to replace a current 3.0-hr exam (reliability, validity, justifiability, number of exam questions, correspondence, and equivalence). We compared student performance on each official 3.0-hr exam with that on five shortened exams having proportionately fewer questions (2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, and 0.5 hours) in a series of four experiments conducted in two classes in each of two finance courses (224 students in total). We found strong evidence that, in these courses, shortening of final exams to 2.0 hrs was warranted on all six psychometric criteria. Shortening these exams by one hour should result in a substantial one-third reduction in lecturer time and effort spent marking, lower student stress, and more time for students to prepare for other exams. Our approach provides a relatively simple, easy-to-use methodology that lecturers can use to examine the effect of shortening their own exams.

Keywords: exam length, psychometric criteria, synthetic experimental designs, test length

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Authors: Dino Carpentras, Alejandro Dinkelberg, Michael Quayle

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Opinion dynamics models use an agent-based modeling approach to model people’s opinions. Model's properties are usually explored by testing the two 'degrees of freedom': the interaction rule and the network topology. The latter defines the connection, and thus the possible interaction, among agents. The interaction rule, instead, determines how agents select each other and update their own opinion. Here we show the existence of the third degree of freedom. This can be used for turning one model into each other or to change the model’s output up to 100% of its initial value. Opinion dynamics models represent the evolution of real-world opinions parsimoniously. Thus, it is fundamental to know how real-world opinion (e.g., supporting a candidate) could be turned into a number. Specifically, we want to know if, by choosing a different opinion-to-number transformation, the model’s dynamics would be preserved. This transformation is typically not addressed in opinion dynamics literature. However, it has already been studied in psychometrics, a branch of psychology. In this field, real-world opinions are converted into numbers using abstract objects called 'scales.' These scales can be converted one into the other, in the same way as we convert meters to feet. Thus, in our work, we analyze how this scale transformation may affect opinion dynamics models. We perform our analysis both using mathematical modeling and validating it via agent-based simulations. To distinguish between scale transformation and measurement error, we first analyze the case of perfect scales (i.e., no error or noise). Here we show that a scale transformation may change the model’s dynamics up to a qualitative level. Meaning that a researcher may reach a totally different conclusion, even using the same dataset just by slightly changing the way data are pre-processed. Indeed, we quantify that this effect may alter the model’s output by 100%. By using two models from the standard literature, we show that a scale transformation can transform one model into the other. This transformation is exact, and it holds for every result. Lastly, we also test the case of using real-world data (i.e., finite precision). We perform this test using a 7-points Likert scale, showing how even a small scale change may result in different predictions or a number of opinion clusters. Because of this, we think that scale transformation should be considered as a third-degree of freedom for opinion dynamics. Indeed, its properties have a strong impact both on theoretical models and for their application to real-world data.

Keywords: degrees of freedom, empirical validation, opinion scale, opinion dynamics

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Authors: Tina Melkoshvili

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Drastic development of information and communication technologies in Georgia has led to the necessity of launching conceptually new, effective, flexible, transparent and society oriented form of government that is e-government. Through applying information technologies, the electronic system enables to raise the efficacy of state governance and increase citizens’ participation in the process. Focusing on the topic of e-government allows us to analyze success stories, attributed benefits and, at the same time, observes challenges hampering the government development process. There are number of methodologies elaborated to study the conditions in the field of electronic governance. They enable us to find out if the government is ready to apply broad opportunities of information and communication technologies and if the government is apt to improve the accessibility and quality of delivering mainly social services. This article seeks to provide comparative analysis of widely spread methodologies used for Electronic government projects’ assessment. It has been concluded that applying current methods of assessment in Georgia is related to difficulties due to inaccessible data and the necessity of involving number of experts. The article presents new indicators for e-government development assessment that reflect efficacy of e-government conception realization in the regions of Georgia and enables to provide quantitative evaluation of regional e-government projects including all significant aspects of development.

Keywords: development methodology, e-government in Georgia, information and communication technologies, regional government

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Authors: Barnali Thakuria, Labananda Choudhury

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Gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of the components of eight Millennium Development Goal (MDG).Literacy and employment are the parameters which reflect the empowerment of women. But in a developing country like India, literacy and working status among the females are not satisfactory. Both literacy and employment technically can be measured by Literate Life Expectancy (LLE) and Working Life Expectancy (WLE).One can also combine both the factors literacy and working to get a better new measure. The proposed indicator can be called literate-working life expectancy (LWLE). LLE gives an average number of years a person lives in a literate state under current mortality and literacy conditions while WLE defined as average number of years a person lives in a working state if current mortality and working condition prevails. Similarly, LWLE gives number of expected years by a person living under both literate and working state. The situation of females cannot be figured out without comparing both the sexes. In the present paper an attempt has been made to estimate LLE and WLE in India along with some selected states from various zones of India namely Assam from the North-East, Gujarat from the West, Kerala from the South, Rajasthan from the North, Uttar Pradesh from the Central and West Bengal from the East respectively for both the sexes based on 2011 census. Furthermore, we have also developed a formula for a new indicator namely Literate-Working Life Expectancy (LWLE) and the proposed index has been applied in India and the selected states mentioned above for both males and females. Data has been extracted from SRS(Sample Registration System) based Abridged Life Table and Census of India. The computation of LLE follows the method developed by Lutz while WLE has followed the method developed by Saw Swee Hock. By combining both the factors literacy and employment, the new indicator LWLE also follows the method like LLE and WLE. Contrasted results have been found in different parts of India. The result shows that LLE at birth is highest(lowest) in the state Kerala(Uttar Pradesh) with 61.66 (39.51) years among the males. A similar situation is also observed among the females with 62.58 years and 25.11 years respectively. But male WLE at birth is highest (lowest) in Rajasthan(Kerala) with 37.11 (32.64) years. Highest female WLE at birth is also observed in Rajasthan with 23.51 years and the lowest is concentrated in Uttar Pradesh with 11.76 years. It is also found that Kerala’s performance is exceptionally good in terms of LWLE at birth while the lowest LWLE at birth prevails in the state Uttar Pradesh among the males. Female LWLE at birth is highest(lowest) in Kerala(Uttar Pradesh) with 19.73(4.77)years. The corresponding value of the index increases as the number of factors involved in the life expectancy decrease. It is found that women are lagging behind in terms of both literacy and employment. Findings of the study will help the planners to take necessary steps to improve the position of women.

Keywords: life expectancy, literacy, literate life expectancy, working life expectancy

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Authors: Raman Kumar, Jasgurpreet Singh Chohan, Chander Shekhar Verma

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Today, the manufacturing industries respond rapidly to new demands and compete in this continuously changing environment, thus seeking out new methods allowing them to remain competitive and flexible simultaneously. The aim of the manufacturing organizations is to reduce manufacturing costs and wastes through system simplification, organizational potential, and proper infrastructural planning by using modern techniques like lean manufacturing. In India, large number of medium and large scale manufacturing industries has successfully implemented lean manufacturing techniques. Keeping in view the above-mentioned facts, different tools will be involved in the successful implementation of the lean approach. The present work is focused on the auto part manufacturing industry to improve the performance of the recliner assembly line. There is a number of lean manufacturing tools available, but the experience and complete knowledge of manufacturing processes are required to select an appropriate tool for a specific process. Fishbone diagrams (scrap, inventory, and waiting) have been drawn to identify the root cause of different. Effect of cycle time reduction on scrap and inventory is analyzed thoroughly in the case company. Results have shown that there is a decrease in inventory cost by 7 percent after the successful implementation of the lean tool.

Keywords: lean tool, fish-bone diagram, cycle time reduction, case study

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Authors: Simeon Adebayo Oladipo

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Institutional administrators are currently facing pressure and challenges in their daily operations. Reasons for this may include the increasing multiplicity, uncertainty and tension that permeate institutional leadership. Authentic engagement for institutional leadership is premised on the ethical foundation that the leaders in the schools are engaged. The institutional effectiveness is dependent on the relationship that exists between the leaders and employees in the workplace. Leader’s self-awareness, relational transparency, emotional control, strong moral code and accountability have a positive influence on authentic engagement which variably determines leadership effectiveness. This study therefore examined the role of authentic engagement in effective school leadership; explored the interrelationship of authentic engagement indices in school leadership. The study adopted the descriptive research of the survey type using a quantitative method to gather data through a questionnaire among school leaders in Lagos State Tertiary Institutions. The population for the study consisted of all Heads of Departments, Deans and Principal Officers in Lagos State Tertiary Institutions. A sample size of 255 Heads of Departments, Deans and Principal Officers participated in the study. The data gathered were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The findings indicated that authentic engagement plays a crucial role in increasing leadership effectiveness amongst Heads of Departments, Deans and Principal Officers. The study recommended among others that there is a need for effective measures to enhance authentic engagement of institutional leadership practices through relevant educational support systems and effective quality control.

Keywords: authentic engagement, self-awareness, relational transparency, emotional control

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Authors: Reyhaneh Saeedi

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Iran is one of the regions which are most prone for earthquakes annually having a large number of financial and mortality and financial losses. Every year around the world, a large number of people lose their home and life due to natural disasters such as earthquakes. It is necessary to provide and specify some suitable places for settling the homeless people before the occurrence of the earthquake, one of the most important factors in crisis planning and management. Some of the natural disasters can be Modeling and shown by Geospatial Information System (GIS). By using GIS, it would be possible to manage the spatial data and reach several goals by making use of the analyses existing in it. GIS has a determining role in disaster management because it can determine the best places for temporary resettling after such a disaster. In this research QuantumGIS software is used that It is an OpenSource software so that easy to access codes and It is also free. In this system, AHP method is used as decision model and to locate the best places for temporary resettling, is done based on the related organizations criteria with their weights and buffers. Also in this research are made the buffer layers of criteria and change them to the raster layers. Later on, the raster layers are multiplied on desired weights then, the results are added together. Eventually, there are suitable places for resettling of victims by desired criteria by different colors with their optimum rate in QuantumGIS platform.

Keywords: disaster management, temporary resettlement, earthquake, QuantumGIS

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Authors: Meseret Habtamu, Mekuria Argaw

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Urban forests can help to improve the microclimate and air quality. Urban forests in Addis Ababa are important sinks for GHGs as the number of vehicles and the traffic constrain is steadily increasing. The objective of this study was to characterize the vegetation types in selected public parks and to estimate the carbon stock potential of urban forests by assessing carbon in the above, below ground biomass, in the litter and soil. Species which vegetation samples were taken using a systematic transect sampling within value DBH ≥ 5cm were recorded to measure the above, the below ground biomass and the amount of C stored. Allometric models (Y= 34.4703 - 8.0671(DBH) + 0.6589(DBH2) were used to calculate the above ground and Below ground biomass (BGB) = AGB × 0.2 and sampling of soil and litter was based on quadrates. There were 5038 trees recorded from the selected study sites with DBH ≥ 5cm. Most of the Parks had large number of indigenous species, but the numbers of exotic trees are much larger than the indigenous trees. The mean above ground and below ground biomass is 305.7 ± 168.3 and 61.1± 33.7 respectively and the mean carbon in the above ground and below ground biomass is 143.3±74.2 and 28.1 ± 14.4 respectively. The mean CO2 in the above ground and below ground biomass is 525.9 ± 272.2 and 103.1 ± 52.9 respectively. The mean carbon in dead litter and soil carbon were 10.5 ± 2.4 and 69.2t ha-1 respectively. Urban trees reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) through sequestration which is important for climate change mitigation, they are also important for recreational, medicinal value and aesthetic and biodiversity conservation.

Keywords: biodiversity, carbon sequestration, climate change, urban forests

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Authors: Ahmad Shah Farhat

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Background: Prenatal asphyxia or birth asphyxia is the medical situation resulting from a newborn infant that lasts long enough during the birth process to cause physical harm, usually to the brain. Human umbilical cord blood (UCB) is a well-established source of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. These can be used clinically to care for children with malignant diseases. Low O2 can cause in proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. Method: the cord blood of 11 infants with 3-5 Apgar scores or need to cardiac pulmonary Resuscitation as an asphyxia group and ten normal infants with more than 8 Apgar scores as the normal group was collected, and after isolating hematopoietic stem cells, the cells were cultured in enriched media for 14 days to compare the numbers of colonies by microscope. Results: There was a significant difference in the number of RBC precursor colonies (red colonies) in cultured media with 107 cord blood hematopoietic stem cells of infants who were exposed to hypoxemia in two wells of palate. There was not a significant difference in the number of white cell colonies in the two groups in the two wells of the plate. Conclusion: Hypoxia in the perinatal period can cause the increase of hematopoietic stem cells of cord blood, special red precursor stem cells in vitro, like an increase of red blood cells in the body when exposed to low oxygen conditions. Thus, it will be usable.

Keywords: asphyxia, neonre, stem cell, red cell

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Asim Mehmood, Abdul Karim, Muhammad J. Jaskani, Faisal S. Awan, Muhammad W. Sajid

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Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is an important commercial fruit crop of Pakistan. It is an allogamous crop having 25-40% cross pollination which on the one hand leads to clonal degradation and on the other hand can add variations to generated new cultivars. Morpho-genetic characterization of 37 guava accessions was carried out for study of the genetic diversity among guava accessions located in province Punjab, Pakistan. For morphological analysis, 17 morphological traits were studied, and strong positive correlation was found among the 7 morphological traits which included thickness of outer flesh in relation to core diameter, fruit length, fruit width, fruit juiciness, fruit size, fruit sweetness and number of seeds. For genetic characterization, 18 microsatellites were used, and the sizes of reproducible and scorable bands ranged from 150 to 320 bp. These 18 primer pairs amplified a total of 85 alleles in P. guajava, with an average total number of 4.7 alleles per locus and no more than two displayed bands (nuclear SSR loci). The phylogenetic tree based on the morphological and genetic traits showed the diversity of these 37 guava genotypes into two major groups. These results indicated that Pakistani guava is quite diverse and a more detail study is needed to define the level of genetic variability.

Keywords: Psidium guajava L, genetic diversity, SSR markers, polymorphism, dendrogram

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Authors: Jolanta Brodowska-Szewczuk

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The article includes the results and conclusions from empirical researches that had been done. The research focuses on the impact of investments made in small and medium-sized enterprises financed from EU funds on the competitiveness of these companies. The researches includes financial results in sales revenue and net income, expenses, and many other new products/services on offer, higher quality products and services, more modern methods of production, innovation in management processes, increase in the number of customers, increase in market share, increase in profitability of production and provision of services. The main conclusions are that, companies with direct investments under this measure shall apply the modern methods of production. The consequence of this is to increase the quality of our products and services. Furthermore, both small and medium-sized enterprises have introduced new products and services. Investments were carried out, thus enabling better work organization in enterprises. Entrepreneurs would guarantee higher quality of service, which would result in better relationships with their customers, what is more, noting the rise in number of clients. More than half of the companies indicated that the investments contributed to the increase in market share. Same thing as for market reach and brand recognition of particular company. An interesting finding is that, investments in small enterprises were more effective than medium-sized enterprises.

Keywords: competitiveness, efficiency, EU funds, small and medium-sized enterprises

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Authors: Sayaka Ono, Ryutaro Imai, Tomoko Ehara, Tetsuya Matsumoto, Hajime Matsumura

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Background: Wound pH affects a number of important factors in wound healing. We previously measured the pH value of the exudates collected from second-degree burns and found that the increase in pH was observed in the burn wounds in which colonized by Staphylococcus spp., and the increase in pH was evident prior to the clinical findings of local infection. To investigate the relationship between the changes of pH value and bacterial growth, we performed in vitro study using Pseudomonas aeruginosa and liquid medium as a locally infected wound equivalent model. Methods: Pseudomonas aeruginosa standard strain (ATCCR 10145TM) was cultured at 37 °C environment in Luria Broth Miller medium. The absorbance rate which means the amount of bacteria was measured by a microplate reader 2300EnSpireTM). The pH was measured using pH-indicator strips (MColorpHastTM). The statistical analysis was performed using the product-moment correlation coefficient of Pearson's. Results: The absorbance rate and pH value were increased along with culture period. There was a positive correlation between pH value and absorbance rate (n = 27, Pearson's r = 0.985). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between pH value and the culture period (n = 18, Pearson's r = 0.901). The bacteria was well growth in the media from pH 6.6 to pH 8.0 and the pH of culture media converged at 8 -9 along with the bacterial growth. Conclusion: From these results, we conclude that pH value of the wound is correlated with the number of viable bacteria and bacterial growth periods.

Keywords: colonization, potential of hydrogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, wound

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Authors: Nor Azlina Ab.Rahman, Salwana Hassan, Zuraeda Ibrahim, Normah Omar, Jamaliah Said

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Revolution in the business environment has crucial growing changes on most globalized markets. Numerous of organizations are necessitating towards producing more proactive entrepreneurs with a dynamic teams, who can run and steer their business to victory. Revolutionizing on business strategy and entrepreneurial skills, also implementing innovation and practices to enhance its performance is necessary for these organizations to be more cost-efficient and increase their efficiency. The study aims to clarify issues of whether measurement has a positive effect on different aspects of innovation and best practices. The study contributes to the current understanding in three ways; first by presenting the important aspects of organizational innovation and best practices. Second by showing the importance of measurement in promoting different aspects of innovation and best practices. Third is to examine the link between innovation, best practices and sustainability in microfinance. The study has been executed by conducting a qualitative study toward the microfinance industry. A representative of management and employees in each company was selected through an invitation to participate in getting information for data collection purpose in the study. The study contains a comprehensive description of the impacts of measurement on different aspects of innovation and best practices towards sustainability in both microfinance industries and SMEs. Findings from this study shows that performance measurement has positive effects on issues related to innovation and best practices. The measurement for several aspects of innovation and best practices is good potential in microfinance industries. Additionally, measurement on innovation and best practices shows a positively related with each other to enhance organization performance. The study suggests that both academics and practitioners should focus on the development of new methods and practices to describe and scrutinize further understanding for measuring issues which is related to innovation and best practices, in order to better develop innovation and best practices towards sustainability. This effort would not only contribute to firm’s success, but also toward the development of the nation in the developing countries.

Keywords: best practices, innovation, microfinance, sustainability

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Authors: Andres Manuel Garcia Lamparte, Rocio Losada Iglesias, Marcos BoullóN Magan, David Miranda Barros

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The biodiversity strategy of the European Union for 2030, mentions climate change as one of the key factors for biodiversity loss and considers green infrastructure as one of the solutions to this problem. In this line, the European Commission has developed a green infrastructure strategy which commits members states to consider green infrastructure in their territorial planning. This green infrastructure is aimed at granting the provision of a wide number of ecosystem services to support biodiversity and human well-being by countering the effects of climate change. Yet, there are not too many tools available to delimit green infrastructure. The available ones consider the potential of the territory to provide ecosystem services. However, these methods usually aggregate several maps of ecosystem services potential without considering possible trade-offs. This can lead to excluding areas with a high potential for providing ecosystem services which have many trade-offs with other ecosystem services. In order to tackle this problem, a methodology is proposed to consider ecosystem services trade-offs in the objective function of a simulated annealing algorithm aimed at delimiting green infrastructure multifunctional buffer areas. To this end, the provision potential maps of the regulating ecosystem services considered to delimit the multifunctional buffer areas are clustered in groups, so that ecosystem services that create trade-offs are excluded in each group. The normalized provision potential maps of the ecosystem services in each group are added to obtain a potential map per group which is normalized again. Then the potential maps for each group are combined in a raster map that shows the highest provision potential value in each cell. The combined map is then used in the objective function of the simulated annealing algorithm. The algorithm is run both using the proposed methodology and considering the ecosystem services individually. The results are analyzed with spatial statistics and landscape metrics to check the number of ecosystem services that the delimited areas produce, as well as their regularity and compactness. It has been observed that the proposed methodology increases the number of ecosystem services produced by delimited areas, improving their multifunctionality and increasing their effectiveness in preventing climate change impacts.

Keywords: ecosystem services trade-offs, green infrastructure delineation, multifunctional buffer areas, climate change

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Authors: Mohsen Torabi, Nader Karimi, Kaili Zhang

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This work aims to provide a comprehensive study on the heat transfer and entropy generation rates of a horizontal channel partially filled with a porous medium which experiences internal heat generation or consumption due to exothermic or endothermic chemical reaction. The focus has been given to the local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model. The LTNE approach helps us to deliver more accurate data regarding temperature distribution within the system and accordingly to provide more accurate Nusselt number and entropy generation rates. Darcy-Brinkman model is used for the momentum equations, and constant heat flux is assumed for boundary conditions for both upper and lower surfaces. Analytical solutions have been provided for both velocity and temperature fields. By incorporating the investigated velocity and temperature formulas into the provided fundamental equations for the entropy generation, both local and total entropy generation rates are plotted for a number of cases. Bifurcation phenomena regarding temperature distribution and interface heat flux ratio are observed. It has been found that the exothermicity or endothermicity characteristic of the channel does have a considerable impact on the temperature fields and entropy generation rates.

Keywords: entropy generation, exothermicity or endothermicity, forced convection, local thermal non-equilibrium, analytical modelling

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Authors: Ojetunde Ojewola, Mark Morgan, Sonja Wilhelm-Stanis

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State parks and historic sites are vulnerable to extreme weather events which can affect visitor experiences, management priorities, and legislative requests for disaster relief funds. Recently, global attention has been focused on the perceptions of global warming and how the presence of extreme weather events might impact protected areas, both now and in the future. The effects of climate change are not equally distributed across the United States, leading to varied perceptions based on personal experience with extreme weather events. This study describes employee perceptions of vulnerability and resilience in Missouri State Parks & Historic Sites due to extreme weather events that occur across the state but grouped according to physiographic provinces. Using a four-point rating scale, perceptions of vulnerability and resilience were divided into high and low sub-groups, thus allowing researchers to construct a two by two typology of employee responses. Subsequently, this data was used to develop a three-point continuum of environmental concern (higher scores meant more concern). Employee scores were then compared against a statewide assessment which combined social, economic, infrastructural and environmental indicators of vulnerability and resilience. State park employees thought the system was less vulnerable and more resilient to climate change than data found in statewide assessment This result was also consistent in three out of five physiographic regions across Missouri. Implications suggest that Missouri state park should develop a climate change adaptation strategy for emergency preparedness.

Keywords: extreme weather events, resilience, state parks, vulnerability

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Authors: Gabriele Iannotta

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This paper investigates credit cycles by means of an experiment based on a Kiyotaki & Moore (1997) model with heterogeneous expectations. The aim is to examine how a credit squeeze caused by high lender-level risk perceptions affects the real prices of a collateralised asset, with a special focus on the macroeconomic implications of rising price volatility in terms of total welfare and the number of bankruptcies that occur. To do that, a learning-to-forecast experiment (LtFE) has been run where participants are asked to predict the future price of land and then rewarded based on the accuracy of their forecasts. The setting includes one lender and five borrowers in each of the twelve sessions split between six control groups (G1) and six treatment groups (G2). The only difference is that while in G1 the lender always satisfies borrowers’ loan demand (bankruptcies permitting), in G2 he/she closes the entire credit market in case three or more bankruptcies occur in the previous round. Experimental results show that negative risk-driven supply shocks amplify the volatility of collateral prices. This uncertainty worsens the agents’ ability to predict the future value of land and, as a consequence, the number of defaults increases and the total welfare deteriorates.

Keywords: Behavioural Macroeconomics, Credit Cycle, Experimental Economics, Heterogeneous Expectations, Learning-to-Forecast Experiment

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Authors: Tsoaledi D. Thobejane, Barnabas C. Okere

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Gender mainstreaming has been adopted as a strategy for promoting gender equality in institutions of higher learning Worldwide, not least in Africa. This study investigated Gender Mainstreaming at the University of Venda, in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study was based on the Feminist Theoretical Framework. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. A case study research design was adopted. The study involved a population of 60 participants and a sample of 25 male and female workers selected using the purposive sampling technique. Data were presented in pie charts, tables, themes and in textual forms. Data were analysed through descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The major findings and conclusions of the study were that the University of Venda faces enormous challenges in mainstreaming gender in the university functions. There are perceptions that most strategic higher positions in the institution are dominated by men while women are marginalized. Although the University has policies on gender, staff members do not know about them while management does not implement its policies. University of Venda makes use of the Employment Equity Act of 1998, but it is not clear whether line managers are aware of its implementation and how. In addition, favouritism, nepotism, patronage, and patriarchy played a role in gender mainstreaming. The study recommended that there should be more gender awareness activities, such as workshops, conferences, and symposia for workers and staff members in order to sensitize them about gender towards understanding. The study also recommended that deserving female staff members should be promoted, and all employees should be encouraged to read and understand gender policies. In addition, management should implement the institutions and national gender policies without fear or favour.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, gender equality, institutions, representation

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Authors: Abdelgawad, Salah El-Tahawy

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This paper aimed to establish econometrical equation models for the Nile delta region in Egypt, which will represent a basement for future predictions of Lumpy skin disease outbreaks and its pathway in relation to climate change. Data of lumpy skin disease (LSD) outbreaks were collected from the cattle farms located in the provinces representing the Nile delta region during 1 January, 2015 to December, 2015. The obtained results indicated that there was a significant association between the degree of the LSD outbreaks and the investigated climate factors (temperature, wind speed, and humidity) and the outbreaks peaked during the months of June, July, and August and gradually decreased to the lowest rate in January, February, and December. The model obtained depicted that the increment of these climate factors were associated with evidently increment on LSD outbreaks on the Nile Delta of Egypt. The model validation process was done by the root mean square error (RMSE) and means bias (MB) which compared the number of LSD outbreaks expected with the number of observed outbreaks and estimated the confidence level of the model. The value of RMSE was 1.38% and MB was 99.50% confirming that this established model described the current association between the LSD outbreaks and the change on climate factors and also can be used as a base for predicting the of LSD outbreaks depending on the climatic change on the future.

Keywords: LSD, climate factors, Nile delta, modeling

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Authors: Ayman M. El-Zahaby, Ahmed S. El-Gendy

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Aeration for wastewater is essential for the proper operation of aerobic treatment units where the wastewater normally has zero dissolved oxygen. This is due to the need of oxygen by the aerobic microorganisms to grow and survive. Typical aeration units for wastewater treatment require electric energy for their operation such as mechanical aerators or diffused aerators. The passive units are units that operate without the need of electric energy such as cascade aerators, spray aerators and tray aerators. In contrary to the cascade aerators and spray aerators, tray aerators require much smaller area foot print for their installation as the treatment stages are arranged vertically. To the extent of the authors knowledge, the design of tray aerators for the aeration purpose has not been presented in the literature. The current research concerns with an analytical study for the design of tray aerators for the purpose of increasing the dissolved oxygen in wastewater treatment systems, including an investigation on different design parameters and their impact on the aeration efficiency. The studied aerator shall act as an intermediate stage between an anaerobic primary treatment unit and an aerobic treatment unit for small scale treatment systems. Different free falling flow regimes were investigated, and the thresholds for transition between regimes were obtained from the literature. The study focused on the jetting flow regime between trays. Starting from the two film theory, an equation that relates the dissolved oxygen concentration effluent from the system was derived as a function of the flow rate, number of trays, tray area, spacing between trays, number and diameter of holes and the water temperature. A MATLab ® model was developed for the derived equation. The expected aeration efficiency under different tray configurations and operating conditions were illustrated through running the model with varying the design parameters. The impact of each parameter was illustrated. The overall system efficiency was found to increase by decreasing the hole diameter. On the other side, increasing the number of trays, tray area, flow rate per hole or tray spacing had positive effect on the system efficiency.

Keywords: aeration, analytical, passive, wastewater

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Authors: Lina Vyas

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Gender gap, unfortunately, is still prevalent in the workplace around the world. In most countries, women are less likely than men to participate in the workplace. They earn considerably less than men for doing the same work and are generally expected to prioritize family obligations over work responsibilities. Women often face more conflicts while balancing the increasingly normalized roles of both worker and mother. True gender equality in the workplace is still a long way off. In Hong Kong, no less is this true. Despite the fact that female students are outnumbered by males at universities, only 55% of women are active participants in the labour market, and for those in the workforce, the gender pay gap is 22%. This structural inequality also exacerbates the issues of confronting biases at work for choosing to be employed as a mother, as well as reinforces the societal expectation of women to be the primary caregiver at home. These pressures are likely to add up for women and contribute to increased levels of work-life conflict, which may be a further barrier for the inclusion of women into the workplace. Family-friendly policies have long been thought to be an alleviator of work-life conflict through helping employees balance the demands in both work and family. Particularly, for women, this could be a facilitator of their integration into the workplace. However, little research has looked at how family-friendly policies may also have a gender differential in effect, as opposed to traditional notions of having universal efficacy. This study investigates both how and how much the gender dimension impacts work-family conflict. In addition to disentangling the reasons for gender gaps existing in work-life conflict for women, this study highlights what can be done at an organizational level to alleviate these conflicts. Most importantly, the policies recommendations derived from this study serve as an avenue for more active participation for women in the workplace and can be considered as a pathway for promoting greater gender egalitarianism and fairness in a traditionally gender-segregated society.

Keywords: family-friendly policies, Hong Kong, work-family conflict, workplace

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Authors: Malkhan Thakur, P. Deepak Kumar, P. K. S. Dikshit

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In recent years, the hydraulic behavior of side weirs has been the subject of many investigations. Most of the studies have been in connection with specific problems and have involved models. This is perhaps understandable, since a generalized treatment is made difficult by the large number of possible variables to be used to define the problem. A variety of empirical head discharge relationships have been suggested for side weirs. These empirical approaches failed to adequately consider the actual situation, and produced equations applicable only in circumstances virtually identical to those of the experiment. The present investigation is targeted to study to a greater depth the effect of different trapezium angles of a trapezoidal side weir and study of water surface profile in spatially varied flow with decreasing discharge maintaining the main channel flow subcritical. On the basis of experiment, the relationship between upstream Froude number and coefficient of discharge has been established. All the characteristics of spatially varied flow with decreasing discharge have been studied and subsequently formulated. The scope of the present investigation has been basically limited to a one-dimensional model of flow for the purpose of analysis. A formulation has been derived using the theoretical concept of constant specific energy. Coefficient of discharge has been calculated and experimental results were presented.

Keywords: weirs, subcritical flow, rectangular channel, trapezoidal side weir

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Authors: Mohammed Abdullah Alshahrani

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The research focuses on investigating the use of partial least squares (PLS) methodology for addressing challenges associated with high-dimensional correlated data. Recent technological advancements have led to experiments producing data characterized by a large number of variables compared to observations, with substantial inter-variable correlations. Such data patterns are common in chemometrics, where near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer calibrations record chemical absorbance levels across hundreds of wavelengths, and in genomics, where thousands of genomic regions' copy number alterations (CNA) are recorded from cancer patients. PLS serves as a widely used method for analyzing high-dimensional data, functioning as a regression tool in chemometrics and a classification method in genomics. It handles data complexity by creating latent variables (components) from original variables. However, applying PLS can present challenges. The study investigates key areas to address these challenges, including unifying interpretations across three main PLS algorithms and exploring unusual negative shrinkage factors encountered during model fitting. The research presents an alternative approach to addressing the interpretation challenge of predictor weights associated with PLS. Sparse estimation of predictor weights is employed using a penalty function combining a lasso penalty for sparsity and a Cauchy distribution-based penalty to account for variable dependencies. The results demonstrate sparse and grouped weight estimates, aiding interpretation and prediction tasks in genomic data analysis. High-dimensional data scenarios, where predictors outnumber observations, are common in regression analysis applications. Ordinary least squares regression (OLS), the standard method, performs inadequately with high-dimensional and highly correlated data. Copy number alterations (CNA) in key genes have been linked to disease phenotypes, highlighting the importance of accurate classification of gene expression data in bioinformatics and biology using regularized methods like PLS for regression and classification.

Keywords: partial least square regression, genetics data, negative filter factors, high dimensional data, high correlated data

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Authors: Paridhi Agarwal, Kusum M. George

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A cynic is someone upset about the future prematurely. In today’s highly competitive workplace, cynicism has become a prominent concern. It is a controversial issue that brings about psychological disengagement and antagonism towards the management. In organizational sciences, scientific investigation of this negative work behavior is lacking, and so there is no universal definition so far. But most commonly, Organizational Cynicism (OC) has been characterized as an unfavorable attitude towards the organization, encompassing a belief that the organization has low integrity, negative affect, and depreciative behavioral tendencies. Given its prevalence, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on OC. This research examines the predictability of OC from two factors- Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) among millennials in India as well as identify contradictions in today’s scenario. Standardized Organizational Cynicism Scale comprising of three components, Perceived Organizational Support Questionnaire and Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Test are used on a convenient sample of 104 corporate sector employees in the age range 22-35 years. Correlation test elucidated the relationships, and regression analysis revealed the level of influence of the above variables on OC. Surprisingly, Emotional-Social Awareness had stronger relationships with all dimensions of OC in males as compared to females. It was also seen that EI and POS, together with predicted OC, but separately, only POS accounted for variability in OC, and this impact was much stronger for males, implying that there are other important factors that make females cynical at work. Thus, the over-emphasis on EI training for the millennial generation has also been challenged in this study. It can be said that there are avertible preconditions to the negative attitude- OC. This research has important managerial implications in areas of recruitment, training, and organizational environment.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, millennials, organizational cynicism, perceived organizational support.

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Authors: Jane Aleksoski

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The mode of inheritance and heterotic effect were studied in ten F1 crosses obtained by one-way diallel crossing between five parental genotypes: MV-1, P 76/86, Adiyaman, Basma-Djebel, and P 66 9 7. The following quantitative traits were studied: the number of leaves per stalk, length of leaves from the middle belt of the stalk, and yield of green leaf mass per stalk and per hectare. The trial was set up in the experimental field of Scientific Tobacco Institute - Prilep, using a randomized block design with four replications in the period 2018-2019. Traditional cultural practices were applied during the growing season of tobacco in the field. The aim of this work was to study the mode of inheritance of the quantitative traits, to detect heterosis in the F1 generation, and to assess its economic viability. Analysis of variance determined statistically significant differences in traits between parents and their hybrids in the two-year investigation. The most common way of trait inheritance is partial-dominant, then intermediate. The negative heterotic effect on the number of leaves per stalk has P 76/86 x P 66 9 7. The hybrids MV-1 x Adiyaman, P 76/86 x Basma-Djebel, P 76/86 x P 66 9 7, and Basma-Djebel x P 66 9 7 have a positive heterotic effect on the length of the leaves. Oriental hybrids, where one of the parents is variety P 66 9 7, have positive heterosis in the yield of green leaf mass per stalk. The investigation provides very useful guidance for future successive selection activities.

Keywords: dominance, heterosis, inheritance, tobacco.

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Authors: Marina Galakhova

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Nowadays, language variants, as well as minority languages and cultures, are of increased interest, and the desire to protect them is rising. The Maori language is defined as a vulnerable language by UNESCO. Its usage is confined to intra-family communication. It is not being utilized by the younger generation or being taught at an early age; therefore, it is being replaced by more frequently used languages. Maori loanwords are a unique part of New Zealand English. That is why it is worth our attention. The aim of this study is to investigate Maori cultural loanwords in the New Zealand media. Methods of analysis of lexical units, etymological interpretation, and linguocultural commenting were used. The results of the research show that Maori borrowings are used in the media, not only with regard to Maori people but also to the whole nation. The Maori language is often used in media texts, most often without a translation in English. Not only are words borrowed, but also cultural concepts. The language usage is limited to the following spheres: everyday life, education, religion, and media. The conclusion can also be drawn that Maori words are used to emphasize a new bicultural national identity; the revival of the Maori language and culture contributed to a large number of borrowings into New Zealand English. It has been established that the Maori language is substratum because Maori provides an intrusive language, which is English with language material. It is stated that the number of borrowings denoting Maori culture is very significant. This group is even greater than the group relating to flora and fauna. Language policy in New Zealand is designed to protect and promote the Maori language and culture. Tables of Maori loanwords are also presented.

Keywords: loanwords, Maori, minority languages, New Zealand

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Authors: Sonia Lippke, Eric Rost, Volker Cihlar

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Objective: To examine the interrelation of physical activity with work-related variables in older individuals to determine pathways to promote the maintenance of an aging workforce’s ability and motivation to work. Design/methodology/approach: An interview-study was conducted with N=5,002 community-dwelling people aged 55 to 70 years (for T1). N=2,501 (50%) were interviewed 3 years later again (T2). Correlation-, Chi²-, MANOVA and moderated mediation analyses were performed. Findings: The less people worked, the more physically active they were. Working was only related to calendar age but not to subjective age. Men and women only differed in working hours and an interaction of gender and pension regarding working hours and subjective health revealed: Controlled for calendar age, the amount of worked hours while receiving pension was about the same in men and women, however, men worked significantly more hours if they did not receive pension. The relationship between physical activity and worked hours was mediated by life investment and subjective health in women, and by subjective health in men. Practical implications: Developing good health through performing physical activity should be done as part of work-place health promotion or by work organization and HR management to enable, and motivate older individuals to work even when receiving pension. Thus, such initiates should not only offered for younger and middle aged employees. Physical activity and company-facilitated sports activities can be an integral part in this. Originality/value: This is the first study testing these mechanisms in this age group, indicating the importance of not only understanding physical activity as a time challenge to work but also the potential to protect workability and to work aside from receiving pension.

Keywords: life investment, moderated mediation, physical activity, older workers, subjective health

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