Search results for: farm resources
1141 Islamic Banking: An Ultimate Source of Financial Inclusion
Authors: Tasawar Nawaz
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Promotion of socioeconomic justice through redistribution of wealth is one of the most salient features of Islamic economic system. Islamic financial institutions known as Islamic banks are used to implement this in practice under the guidelines of Islamic Shariah law. Islamic banking systems strive to promote and achieve financial inclusion among the society by offering interest-free banking and risk-sharing financing solutions. Shariah-compliant micro finance is one of the most popular financial instruments used by Islamic banks to enhance access to finance. Benevolent loan (or Qard-al-Hassanah) is one of the popular financial tools used by the Islamic banks to promote financial inclusion. This aspect of Islamic banking is empirically examined in this paper with specific reference to firm’s resources, largely defined here as intellectual capital. The paper finds that Islamic banks promote financial inclusion by exploiting available resources especially, the human intellectual capital.
Keywords: Financial inclusion, intellectual capital, Qard-al-Hassanah, Islamic banking.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13571140 An Online Space for Practitioners in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector
Authors: Olivier Mills, Bernard McDonell, Laura A. S. MacDonald
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The increasing availability and quality of internet access throughout the developing world provides an opportunity to utilize online spaces to disseminate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) knowledge to practitioners. Since 2001, CAWST has provided in-person education, training and consulting services to thousands of WASH practitioners all over the world, supporting them to start, troubleshoot, improve and expand their WASH projects. As CAWST continues to grow, the organization faces challenges in meeting demand from clients and in providing consistent, timely technical support. In 2012, CAWST began utilizing online spaces to expand its reach by developing a series of resources websites and webinars. CAWST has developed a WASH Education and Training resources website, a Biosand Filter (BSF) Knowledge Base, a Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage Knowledge Base, a mobile app for offline users, a live chat support tool, a WASH e-library, and a series of webinar-style online training sessions to complement its in-person capacity development services. In order to determine the preliminary outcomes of providing these online services, CAWST has monitored and analyzed registration to the online spaces, downloads of the educational materials, and webinar attendance; as well as conducted user surveys. The purpose of this analysis was to find out who was using the online spaces, where users came from, and how the resources were being used. CAWST’s WASH Resources website has served over 5,800 registered users from 3,000 organizations in 183 countries. Additionally, the BSF Knowledge Base has served over 1000 registered users from 68 countries, and over 540 people from 73 countries have attended CAWST’s online training sessions. This indicates that the online spaces are effectively reaching a large numbers of users, from a range of countries. A 2016 survey of the Biosand Filter Knowledge Base showed that approximately 61% of users are practitioners, and 39% are either researchers or students. Of the respondents, 46% reported using the BSF Knowledge Base to initiate a BSF project and 43% reported using the information to train BSF technicians. Finally, 61% indicated they would like even greater support from CAWST’s Technical Advisors going forward. The analysis has provided an encouraging indication that CAWST’s online spaces are contributing to its objective of engaging and supporting WASH practitioners to start, improve and expand their initiatives. CAWST has learned several lessons during the development of these online spaces, in particular related to the resources needed to create and maintain the spaces, and respond to the demand created. CAWST plans to continue expanding its online spaces, improving user experience of the sites, and involving new contributors and content types. Through the use of online spaces, CAWST has been able to increase its global reach and impact without significantly increasing its human resources by connecting WASH practitioners with the information they most need, in a practical and accessible manner. This paper presents on CAWST’s use of online spaces through the CAWST-developed platforms discussed above and the analysis of the use of these platforms.
Keywords: Education and training, knowledge sharing, online resources, water and sanitation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16701139 Effect of Herbicides on Narrow Leaved Weeds and Yield of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
Authors: M. Yasin, A. Tanveer, Z. Iqbal, A. Ali
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This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of five herbicides on narrow leaved weeds and growth and yield of wheat. An experiment was conducted at Agronomic Research Farm, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block designee (RCBD) with three replications. Treatments studied were clodinafop (Topic-15 WG) at 37 g a.i. ha-1, clodinafop (Topaz-15 WG) at 45 g a.i. ha-1, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (Puma Super-75 EW) at 45 g a.i. ha-1, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (Gramicide-6.9 EW) at 85 g a.i. ha-1, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (Chinlima-6.9 EW) at 85 g a.i. ha-1 and weedy check. Plots treated with fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (Puma Super-75 EW) at 45 g a.i. ha-1 produced relatively less weed biomass, more plant height, number of spike bearing tillers, number of grains per spike, 1000-grain weight and grain yield (4.20 t ha-1).Keywords: clodinafop, fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, weeds, wheat
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22631138 Member Investment Willingness in Agricultural Cooperatives in Shaanxi (China)
Authors: Lijia Wang, Xuexi Huo
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This study analyzes characteristics determining member’s willingness to invest in cooperatives using ordered logit model. The data were collected in a field survey among 122 cooperative members in north-central China. The descriptive analysis of survey evidence suggests that cooperatives in China generally having poor ability to deliver the processing services related to product package, grading, and storage, performing worse in profitability, inability of providing returns to capital and obtaining agricultural loan. The regression results demonstrate that members’ farm size, their satisfaction with cooperative price preferential services, attitudes toward cooperative operational scale and development potential have statistically significant impact on willingness to invest.
Keywords: Cooperatives, investment willingness, member, ordered logit.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16901137 New Hybrid Algorithm for Task Scheduling in Grid Computing to Decrease missed Task
Authors: Z. Pooranian, A. Harounabadi, M. Shojafar, N. Hedayat
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The purpose of Grid computing is to utilize computational power of idle resources which are distributed in different areas. Given the grid dynamism and its decentralize resources, there is a need for an efficient scheduler for scheduling applications. Since task scheduling includes in the NP-hard problems various researches have focused on invented algorithms especially the genetic ones. But since genetic is an inherent algorithm which searches the problem space globally and does not have the efficiency required for local searching, therefore, its combination with local searching algorithms can compensate for this shortcomings. The aim of this paper is to combine the genetic algorithm and GELS (GAGELS) as a method to solve scheduling problem by which simultaneously pay attention to two factors of time and number of missed tasks. Results show that the proposed algorithm can decrease makespan while minimizing the number of missed tasks compared with the traditional methods.Keywords: Grid Computing, Genetic Algorithm, Gravitational Emulation Local Search (GELS), missed task
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19341136 The Growth Environment and Behavioral Response of Fattening Pigs based Eco-economy
Authors: V. Andronie, M. Pârvu, V. Simion, I. Andronie
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The aim of this study was to trace the effects of growth environment on the behaviour of fattening pigs in the farm and outside it. Behavioral manifestations of pigs reared in pens with enriched environment (A lot, n: 22) were different from those of pigs reared in pens with arid environment (B lot, n: 17) in shelter and when the movement to be loaded. Pigs of B lot spent more time on the move (31%) compared to group A pigs (13%), and manifested more aggressive behavior when they were loaded. Salivary cortisol levels also showed high values for pigs in B lot after being removed from their growth environment, as compared to its concentration for A lot pigs. The enriched environment for pigs may determine different responses of behavior. Pigs raised in arid environment, were easier to loaded than pigs reared in enriched environment, but they responded to mixing and loading stress, through increases in cortisol concentrations and impaired behavioral manifestations.
Keywords: environment shelter, pig, behavior
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14801135 Resource Allocation and Task Scheduling with Skill Level and Time Bound Constraints
Authors: Salam Saudagar, Ankit Kamboj, Niraj Mohan, Satgounda Patil, Nilesh Powar
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Task Assignment and Scheduling is a challenging Operations Research problem when there is a limited number of resources and comparatively higher number of tasks. The Cost Management team at Cummins needs to assign tasks based on a deadline and must prioritize some of the tasks as per business requirements. Moreover, there is a constraint on the resources that assignment of tasks should be done based on an individual skill level, that may vary for different tasks. Another constraint is for scheduling the tasks that should be evenly distributed in terms of number of working hours, which adds further complexity to this problem. The proposed greedy approach to solve assignment and scheduling problem first assigns the task based on management priority and then by the closest deadline. This is followed by an iterative selection of an available resource with the least allocated total working hours for a task, i.e. finding the local optimal choice for each task with the goal of determining the global optimum. The greedy approach task allocation is compared with a variant of Hungarian Algorithm, and it is observed that the proposed approach gives an equal allocation of working hours among the resources. The comparative study of the proposed approach is also done with manual task allocation and it is noted that the visibility of the task timeline has increased from 2 months to 6 months. An interactive dashboard app is created for the greedy assignment and scheduling approach and the tasks with more than 2 months horizon that were waiting in a queue without a delivery date initially are now analyzed effectively by the business with expected timelines for completion.
Keywords: Assignment, deadline, greedy approach, hungarian algorithm, operations research, scheduling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11801134 Collaborative and Content-based Recommender System for Social Bookmarking Website
Authors: Cheng-Lung Huang, Cheng-Wei Lin
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This study proposes a new recommender system based on the collaborative folksonomy. The purpose of the proposed system is to recommend Internet resources (such as books, articles, documents, pictures, audio and video) to users. The proposed method includes four steps: creating the user profile based on the tags, grouping the similar users into clusters using an agglomerative hierarchical clustering, finding similar resources based on the user-s past collections by using content-based filtering, and recommending similar items to the target user. This study examines the system-s performance for the dataset collected from “del.icio.us," which is a famous social bookmarking website. Experimental results show that the proposed tag-based collaborative and content-based filtering hybridized recommender system is promising and effectiveness in the folksonomy-based bookmarking website.
Keywords: Collaborative recommendation, Folksonomy, Social tagging
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22331133 The Cloud Systems Used in Education: Properties and Overview
Authors: Agah Tuğrul Korucu, Handan Atun
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Diversity and usefulness of information that used in education are have increased due to development of technology. Web technologies have made enormous contributions to the distance learning system especially. Mobile systems, one of the most widely used technology in distance education, made much easier to access web technologies. Not bounding by space and time, individuals have had the opportunity to access the information on web. In addition to this, the storage of educational information and resources and accessing these information and resources is crucial for both students and teachers. Because of this importance, development and dissemination of web technologies supply ease of access to information and resources are provided by web technologies. Dynamic web technologies introduced as new technologies that enable sharing and reuse of information, resource or applications via the Internet and bring websites into expandable platforms are commonly known as Web 2.0 technologies. Cloud systems are one of the dynamic web technologies that defined as a model provides approaching the demanded information independent from time and space in appropriate circumstances and developed by NIST. One of the most important advantages of cloud systems is meeting the requirements of users directly on the web regardless of hardware, software, and dealing with install. Hence, this study aims at using cloud services in education and investigating the services provided by the cloud computing. Survey method has been used as research method. In the findings of this research the fact that cloud systems are used such studies as resource sharing, collaborative work, assignment submission and feedback, developing project in the field of education, and also, it is revealed that cloud systems have plenty of significant advantages in terms of facilitating teaching activities and the interaction between teacher, student and environment.
Keywords: Cloud systems, cloud systems in education, distance learning, e-learning, integration of information technologies, online learning environment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10121132 Optimal Water Allocation: Sustainable Management of Dam Reservoir
Authors: Afshin Jahangirzadeh, Shatirah Akib, Babak Kamali, Sadia Rahman
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Scarcity of water resources and huge costs of establishing new hydraulic installations necessitate optimal exploitation from existing reservoirs. Sustainable management and efficient exploitation from existing finite water resources are important factors in water resource management, particularly in the periods of water insufficiency and in dry regions, and on account of competitive allocations in the view of exploitation management. This study aims to minimize reservoir water release from a determined rate of demand. A numerical model for water optimal exploitation has been developed using GAMS introduced by the World Bank and applied to the case of Meijaran dam, northern Iran. The results indicate that this model can optimize the function of reservoir exploitation while required water for lower parts of the region will be supplied. Further, allocating optimal water from reservoir, the optimal rate of water allocated to any group of the users were specified to increase benefits in curve dam exploitation.Keywords: Water resource management, water reservoirs, water allocation, GAMS, Meijaran dam
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26871131 Risk Assessment Results in Biogas Production from Agriculture Biomass
Authors: Sandija Zeverte-Rivza, Irina Pilvere, Baiba Rivza
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The use of renewable energy sources incl. biogas has become topical in accordance with the increasing demand for energy, decrease of fossil energy resources and the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as to increase energy independence from the territories where fossil energy resources are available.
As the technologies of biogas production from agricultural biomass develop, risk assessment and risk management become necessary for farms producing such a renewable energy. The need for risk assessments has become particularly topical when discussions on changing the biogas policy in the EU take place, which may influence the development of the sector in the future, as well as the operation of existing biogas facilities and their income level.
The current article describes results of the risk assessment for farms producing biomass from agriculture biomass in Latvia, the risk assessment system included 24 risks, that affect the whole biogas production process and the obtained results showed the high significance of political and production risks.
Keywords: Biogas production, risks, risk assessment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32511130 Redesigning Business Processes: A Method Based on Simulation and Process Mining Techniques
Authors: Zahra Mohammadnazari, Fateme Rostambeygi, Fatemeh Dehrouyeh, Hwang Ki-Soon, Amir Aghsami
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Corporations have always prioritized efforts to examine and improve processes. Various metrics, such as the cost and time required to implement the process and can be specified in this regard. Process improvement can be defined as an improvement of these indicators. This is accomplished by looking at prospective adjustments to the current executive process model or the resources allotted to it. Research has been conducted in this paper to the improve the procurement process and aims to explore assessment prospects in the project using a combination of process mining and simulation (benefiting from Play-In and Play-Out methodologies). To run the simulation, we will need to complete the control flow diagram, institution settings, resource settings, and activity settings. The process of mining event logs yields the process control flow. However, both the entry of institutions and the distribution of resources must be modeled. The rate of admission of institutions and the distribution of time for the implementation of activities will be determined in the next step.
Keywords: Business reengineering, Petri net, process-based simulation, process mining.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4611129 Awareness of Value Addition of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) In Osun State, Nigeria
Authors: A. M. Omoare, E. O. Fakoya, O. E. Fapojuwo, W. O. Oyediran
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Awareness of value addition of sweet potato has received comparatively little attention in Nigeria despite its potential to reduce perishability and enhanced utilization of the crop in diverse products forms. This study assessed the awareness of value addition of sweet potato in Osun State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents for the study. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Findings showed that most (75.00%) of the respondents were male with mean age of 42.10 years and 96.70% of the respondents had formal education. The mean farm size was 2.30 hectares. Majority (75.00%) of the respondents had more than 10 years farming experience. Awareness of value addition of sweet potato was very low among the respondents. It was recommended that sweet potato farmers should be empowered through effective and efficient extension training on the use of modern processing techniques in order to enhance value addition of sweet potato.
Keywords: Awareness, value addition, sweet potato, perishability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29191128 Competence-Based Human Resources Selection and Training: Making Decisions
Authors: O. Starineca, I. Voronchuk
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Human Resources (HR) selection and training have various implementation possibilities depending on an organization’s abilities and peculiarities. We propose to base HR selection and training decisions about on a competence-based approach. HR selection and training of employees are topical as there is room for improvement in this field; therefore, the aim of the research is to propose rational decision-making approaches for an organization HR selection and training choice. Our proposals are based on the training development and competence-based selection approaches created within previous researches i.e. Analytic-Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Linear Programming. Literature review on non-formal education, competence-based selection, AHP form our theoretical background. Some educational service providers in Latvia offer employees training, e.g. motivation, computer skills, accounting, law, ethics, stress management, etc. that are topical for Public Administration. Competence-based approach is a rational base for rational decision-making in both HR selection and considering HR training.Keywords: Competence-based selection, human resource, training, decision-making.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10971127 Modelling of Energy Consumption in Wheat Production Using Neural Networks “Case Study in Canterbury Province, New Zealand“
Authors: M. Safa, S. Samarasinghe
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An artificial neural network (ANN) approach was used to model the energy consumption of wheat production. This study was conducted over 35,300 hectares of irrigated and dry land wheat fields in Canterbury in the 2007-2008 harvest year.1 In this study several direct and indirect factors have been used to create an artificial neural networks model to predict energy use in wheat production. The final model can predict energy consumption by using farm condition (size of wheat area and number paddocks), farmers- social properties (education), and energy inputs (N and P use, fungicide consumption, seed consumption, and irrigation frequency), it can also predict energy use in Canterbury wheat farms with error margin of ±7% (± 1600 MJ/ha).
Keywords: Artificial neural network, Canterbury, energy consumption, modelling, New Zealand, wheat.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14061126 Issues in Organizational Assessment: The Case of Frustration Tolerance Measurement in Mexico
Authors: David Ruiz, Carlos Nava, Roberto Carbajal
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The psychological profile has become one of the most important sources of information when it comes to individual selection and the hiring process in any organization. Psychological instruments are used to collect data about variables that are considered critically important for performance in work. However, because of conceptual chaos in organizational psychology, most of the information provided by psychological testing is not directly useful for Mexican human resources professionals to take hiring decisions. The aims of this paper are 1) to underline the lack of conceptual precision in theoretical testing foundations in Mexico and 2) presenting a reliability and validity analysis of a frustration tolerance instrument created as an alternative to a heuristically conduct individual assessment in organizations. First, a description of assessment conditions in Mexico is made. Second, an instrument and a theoretical framework is presented as an alternative to the assessment practices in the country. A total of 65 Psychology Iztacala Superior Studies Faculty students were assessed. Cronbach´s alpha coefficient was calculated and an exploratory factor analysis was carried out to prove the scale unidimensionality. Reliability analysis revealed good internal consistency of the scale (Cronbach’s α = 0.825). Factor analysis produced 4 factors for the scale. However, factor loadings and explained variation give proof to the scale unidimensionality. It is concluded that the instrument has good psychometric properties that will allow human resources professionals to collect useful data. Different possibilities to conduct psychological assessment are suggested for future development.
Keywords: Psychological assessment, frustration tolerance, human resources, organizational psychology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18991125 Adoption of Appropriate and Cost Effective Technologies in Housing: Indian Experience
Authors: A. K. Jain, M. C. Paliwal
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Construction cost in India is increasing at around 50 per cent over the average inflation levels. It have registered increase of up to 15 per cent every year, primarily due to cost of basic building materials such as steel, cement, bricks, timber and other inputs as well as cost of labour. As a result, the cost of construction using conventional building materials and construction is becoming beyond the affordable limits particularly for low-income groups of population as well as a large cross section of the middle - income groups. Therefore, there is a need to adopt cost-effective construction methods either by up-gradation of traditional technologies using local resources or applying modern construction materials and techniques with efficient inputs leading to economic solutions. This has become the most relevant aspect in the context of the large volume of housing to be constructed in both rural and urban areas and the consideration of limitations in the availability of resources such as building materials and finance. This paper makes an overview of the housing status in India and adoption of appropriate and cost effective technologies in the country.Keywords: Appropriate, Cost Effective, Ekra, Five year plan, Poverty
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 49641124 Economics of Open and Distance Education in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Authors: Babatunde Kasim Oladele
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One of the major objectives of the Nigeria national policy on education is the provision of equal educational opportunities to all citizens at different levels of education. With regards to higher education, an aspect of the policy encourages distance learning to be organized and delivered by tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This study therefore, determines how much of the Government resources are committed, how the resources are utilized and what alternative sources of funding are available for this system of education. This study investigated the trends in recurrent costs between 2004/2005 and 2013/2014 at University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre (DLC). A descriptive survey research design was employed for the study. Questionnaire was the research instrument used for the collection of data. The population of the study was 280 current distance learning education students, 70 academic staff and 50 administrative staff. Only 354 questionnaires were correctly filled and returned. Data collected were analyzed and coded using the frequencies, ratio, average and percentages were used to answer all the research questions. The study revealed that staff salaries and allowances of academic and non-academic staff represent the most important variable that influences the cost of education. About 55% of resources were allocated to this sector alone. The study also indicates that costs rise every year with increase in enrolment representing a situation of diseconomies of scale. This study recommends that Universities who operates distance learning program should strive to explore other internally generated revenue option to boost their revenue. University of Ibadan, being the premier university in Nigeria, should be given foreign aid and home support, both financially and materially, to enable the institute to run a formidable distance education program that would measure up in planning and implementation with those of developed nation.
Keywords: Open education, distance education, University of Ibadan, cost of education, Nigeria.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9241123 Experimental Comparison of Combustion Characteristic and Pollutant Emission of Gas Oil and Biodiesel
Authors: S. Baghdar Hosseini, K. Bashirnezhad, A. R. Moghiman, Y. Khazraii, N. Nikoofal
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The increasing industrialization and motorization of the world has led to a steep rise for the demand of petroleum-based fuels. Petroleum-based fuels are obtained from limited reserves. These finite reserves are highly concentrated in certain regions of the world. Therefore, those countries not having these resources are facing energy/foreign exchange crisis, mainly due to the import of crude petroleum. Hence, it is necessary to look for alternative fuels which can be produced from resources available locally within the country such as alcohol, biodiesel, vegetable oils etc. Biodiesel is a renewable, domestically produced fuel that has been shown to reduce particulate, hydrocarbon, and carbon monoxide emissions from combustion. In the present study an experimental investigation on emission characteristic of a liquid burner system operating on several percentage of biodiesel and gas oil is carried out. Samples of exhaust gas are analysed with Testo 350 Xl. The results show that biodiesel can lower some pollutant such as CO, CO2 and particulate matter emissions while NOx emission would increase in comparison with gas oil. The results indicate there may be benefits to using biodiesel in industrial processes.
Keywords: Biodiesel, combustion, gas oil, pollutant.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23441122 Designing an Editorialization Environment for Repeatable Self-Correcting Exercises
Authors: M. Kobylanski, D. Buskulic, P.-H. Duron, D. Revuz, F. Ruggieri, E. Sandier, C. Tijus
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In order to design a cooperative e-learning platform, we observed teams of Teacher [T], Computer Scientist [CS] and exerciser's programmer-designer [ED] cooperating for the conception of a self-correcting exercise, but without the use of such a device in order to catch the kind of interactions a useful platform might provide. To do so, we first run a task analysis on how T, CS and ED should be cooperating in order to achieve, at best, the task of creating and implementing self-directed, self-paced, repeatable self-correcting exercises (RSE) in the context of open educational resources. The formalization of the whole process was based on the “objectives, activities and evaluations” theory of educational task analysis. Second, using the resulting frame as a “how-to-do it” guide, we run a series of three contrasted Hackathon of RSE-production to collect data about the cooperative process that could be later used to design the collaborative e-learning platform. Third, we used two complementary methods to collect, to code and to analyze the adequate survey data: the directional flow of interaction among T-CS-ED experts holding a functional role, and the Means-End Problem Solving analysis. Fourth, we listed the set of derived recommendations useful for the design of the exerciser as a cooperative e-learning platform. Final recommendations underline the necessity of building (i) an ecosystem that allows to sustain teams of T-CS-ED experts, (ii) a data safety platform although offering accessibility and open discussion about the production of exercises with their resources and (iii) a good architecture allowing the inheritance of parts of the coding of any exercise already in the data base as well as fast implementation of new kinds of exercises along with their associated learning activities.
Keywords: Distance open educational resources, pedagogical alignment, self-correcting exercises, teacher’s involvement, team roles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5021121 Study of Microbial Critical Points of Saffron from Farm to Factory in Iran
Authors: N. Khazaei, M. Jouki, A. Kalbasi, H. Tavakolipour, S. Rajabifar, F. Motamedi. Sedeh, A. Jouki
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In this research saffron samples were prepared from farms and sampling was done in four states contain : sampling from fresh saffron of petal with forceps , sampling from fresh saffron of petal by hands, sampling from dried sample by warm air in shadow, sampling from dried sample which dried by dryer. Samples collected and kept in sterile tubes and containers and carried to laboratory and maintained until experiment. Microbial experiments were performed to determine microbial load such as total count, Staphylococcus aureus, coli form, E.coli, mold and yeast. Results showed that in picking and drying stages the contamination amount increases in saffron samples. There was a significant difference between the microbial load of picked up saffron by forceps and by hands, and also between dried saffron by warm air in shadow and by dryer.Keywords: saffron; contaminations; preparation method
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21111120 The Effects of Plant Density and Row Spacing on the Height of Maize Hybrids of Different Vegetation Time and Genotype
Authors: E. Murányi, P. Pepó
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The small plot experiment was set in 2013 at the RISFLátókép Experimental Farm of the Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences of the University of Debrecen, on lime-coated chernozem soil in four replications. The final heights of the maize hybrids were studied at three plant densities (50, 70, and 90 thousand ha-1) and two row spacing (45 and 76cm). During the experiment, we have investigated the development of the final plant heights of five maize hybrids of different vegetation time and genotype: Sarolta, DKC 4025, P 9175, Reseda/P 37M81, and SY Affinity. In the development of the plant heights, the tiller number and the hybrid were the decisive factors. The increasing stock density resulted in significant difference in the plant height values, while the row spacing did not. With the increase of plant density and the length of vegetation time, the heights of the individual plants increased.
Keywords: Maize, plant density, row spacing, plant height, genotype.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 36741119 Implementation of Virtual Reality in the Conceptual Design of a Tractor Trailer
Authors: Arunesh Chandra, Pankaj Chandna
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Virtual reality (VR) is a rapidly emerging computer interface that attempts to immerse the user completely within an experimental recreation; thereby, greatly enhancing the overall impact and providing a much more intuitive link between the computer and the human participants. The main objective of this study is to design tractor trailer capable of meeting the customers’ requirements and suitable for rough conditions to be used in combination with a farm tractor in India. The final concept is capable of providing arrangements for attaching the trailer to the tractor easily by pickup hitch, stronger and lighter supporting frame, option of spare tyre etc. Furthermore, the resulting product design can be sent via the Internet to customers for comments or marketing purposes. The virtual prototyping (VP) system therefore facilitates advanced product design and helps reduce product development time and cost significantly.
Keywords: Conceptual design, Trailer, Virtual prototyping, Virtual reality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22081118 Maximum Wind Power Extraction Strategy and Decoupled Control of DFIG Operating in Variable Speed Wind Generation Systems
Authors: Abdellatif Kasbi, Abderrafii Rahali
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This paper appraises the performances of two control scenarios, for doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) operating in wind generation system (WGS), which are the direct decoupled control (DDC) and indirect decoupled control (IDC). Both control scenarios studied combines vector control and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) control theory so as to maximize the captured power through wind turbine. Modeling of DFIG based WGS and details of both control scenarios have been presented, a proportional integral controller is employed in the active and reactive power control loops for both control methods. The performance of the both control scenarios in terms of power reference tracking and robustness against machine parameters inconstancy has been shown, analyzed and compared, which can afford a reference to the operators and engineers of a wind farm. All simulations have been implemented via MATLAB/Simulink.
Keywords: DFIG, WGS, DDC, IDC, vector control, MPPT.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6951117 The Potential of Strain M Protease in Degradations of Protein in Natural Rubber Latex
Authors: Norlin Pauzi, Ahmad R.M. Yahya, Zairossani Nor, Amirul A. Abdullah
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Strain M was isolated from the latex of Hevea brasiliensis that grow in the rubber farm area of Malaysia Rubber Board. Strain M was tentatively identified as Bacillus sp. Strain M demonstrated high protease production at pH 9, and this was suitable to be applied in rubber processing that was in alkaline conditions. The right and suitable proportion to be used in applying supernatant into the latex was two parts of latex and one part of enzyme. In this proportion, the latex was stable throughout the 72 hours of treatment. The potential of strain M to degrade protein in the natural rubber latex was proven with the reduction of 79.3% nitrogen in 24 hours treatment. Centrifugation process of the latex before undergoing the treatment had increased the protein degradation in latex. Although the centrifugation process did not achieve zero nitrogen content, it had improved the performance of protein denaturing in the natural rubber.
Keywords: Hevea brasiliensis, Bacillus sp., protease, latex.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23861116 Communication Design in Newspapers: A Comparative Study of Graphic Resources in Portuguese and Spanish Publications
Authors: Fátima Gonçalves, Joaquim Brigas, Jorge Gonçalves
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As a way of managing the increasing volume and complexity of information that circulates in the present time, graphical representations are increasingly used, which add meaning to the information presented in communication media, through an efficient communication design. The visual culture itself, driven by technological evolution, has been redefining the forms of communication, so that contemporary visual communication represents a major impact on society. This article presents the results and respective comparative analysis of four publications in the Iberian press, focusing on the formal aspects of newspapers and the space they dedicate to the various communication elements. Two Portuguese newspapers and two Spanish newspapers were selected for this purpose. The findings indicated that the newspapers show a similarity in the use of graphic solutions, which corroborate a visual trend in communication design. The results also reveal that Spanish newspapers are more meticulous with graphic consistency. This study intended to contribute to improving knowledge of the Iberian generalist press.
Keywords: Communication design, graphic resources, Iberian Press, visual journalism.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12111115 The Effects of Crop Rotation and Nutrient Supply on the Leaf Area Values of Winter Wheat in a Long-Term Experiment
Authors: Gergely Szilágyi, Péter Pepó
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Our field experiments were set at the RISF Látókép Experimental Farm of the Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences of the University of Debrecen, on lime-coated chernozem soil. During our studies, we have investigated two winter wheat varieties (GK Öthalom, Mv Csárdás) of different genotypes. The preceding crops were sunflower and grain maize. We examined wheat leaf area index (LAI) five times during by BBCH scale. We have found that during the different stages of the vegetation period, the LAI values were different depending on the preceding crop, variety and nutrient levels. According to our results, the lowest LAI values were experienced in the control treatment, in the case of both preceding crops. According to our studies we can conclude that crop rotation and fertilizer treatment influenced the studied physiological trait to different extents.
Keywords: Winter wheat, crop rotation, fertilization, genotype, LAI.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21391114 Secure Resource Selection in Computational Grid Based on Quantitative Execution Trust
Authors: G.Kavitha, V.Sankaranarayanan
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Grid computing provides a virtual framework for controlled sharing of resources across institutional boundaries. Recently, trust has been recognised as an important factor for selection of optimal resources in a grid. We introduce a new method that provides a quantitative trust value, based on the past interactions and present environment characteristics. This quantitative trust value is used to select a suitable resource for a job and eliminates run time failures arising from incompatible user-resource pairs. The proposed work will act as a tool to calculate the trust values of the various components of the grid and there by improves the success rate of the jobs submitted to the resource on the grid. The access to a resource not only depend on the identity and behaviour of the resource but also upon its context of transaction, time of transaction, connectivity bandwidth, availability of the resource and load on the resource. The quality of the recommender is also evaluated based on the accuracy of the feedback provided about a resource. The jobs are submitted for execution to the selected resource after finding the overall trust value of the resource. The overall trust value is computed with respect to the subjective and objective parameters.Keywords: access control, feedback, grid computing, reputation, security, trust, trust parameter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14761113 Smart Grids in Morocco: An Outline of the Recent Developments, Key Drivers, and Recommendations for Future Implementation
Authors: M. Laamim, A. Benazzouz, A. Rochd, A. Ghennioui, A. El Fadili, M. Benzaazoua
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Smart grids have recently sparked a lot of interest in the energy sector as they allow for the modernization and digitization of the existing power infrastructure. Smart grids have several advantages in terms of reducing the environmental impact of generating power from fossil fuels due to their capacity to integrate large amounts of distributed energy resources. On the other hand, smart grid technologies necessitate many field investigations and requirements. This paper focuses on the major difficulties that governments face around the world and compares them to the situation in Morocco. Also presented in this study are the current works and projects being developed to improve the penetration of smart grid technologies into the electrical system. Furthermore, the findings of this study will be useful to promote the smart grid revolution in Morocco, as well as to construct a strong foundation and develop future needs for better penetration of technologies that aid in the integration of smart grid features.
Keywords: Smart grids, microgrids, virtual power plants, digital twin, distributed energy resources, vehicle-to-grid, advanced metering infrastructure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7301112 Effect of Butachlor on the Microbial Population of Direct Sown Rice
Authors: Kalyanasundaram.D., Kavitha. S
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Field experiments were conducted at Annamalai University Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy; to device suitable weed control measures for direct seeded puddled rice and to study the effect of the weed control measures on the soil microbial population. The treatments comprised of incorporation of pressmud @ 6.25 t ha-1 and application of herbicide butachlor @1.5 kg a. i. ha- 1 with and without safener 4 days after sowing (DAS), 8 DAS alone and also in conjunction with hand weeding at 30 DAS. Hand weeding twice and a weedy check were also maintained. At maximum tillering stage, the population of bacteria was significantly reduced by butachlor application. The injury to microbes caused by herbicide disappeared with the advancement of crop's age and at flowering stage of crop, there was no significant difference among the treatments. The fungal and actinomycetes population remained unaltered by weed control treatments at both the stages of observation.
Keywords: Butachlor, Herbicide, Direct sown rice, Microbial population
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1785