Household Usage Research Articles

Threshold effects of ICT access and usage in Burkinabe and Ghanaian households

ABSTRACT Information and communication technology (ICT) has a crucial role in the individual, businesses, and cooperative lives of citizens. Many studies on ICT access tend to concentrate on the supply side of improving access to ICTs; however, limited efforts have been made to examine the households’ demand side. Thus, this study contributes to the extant literature by investigating the demand side of ICT access by households. It also examines the socioeconomic characteristics that affect the households’ access and usage of ICTs, which create a somewhat digital divide between ‘ICT have’ and ‘have not’ in Burkina Faso and Ghana. It employs Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for both Burkina Faso and Ghana 2014 in achieving its objectives. The results, among others, underscore different threshold effects in access to ICTs’ Burkinabe and Ghanaian households. Thus, to enhance the households’ ICT access, and consequently, usage of the features of the households should be taken into consideration when developing ICT access policies.

Subjective probabilistic expectations, household air pollution, and health: Evidence from cooking fuel use patterns in West Bengal, India

An increasing number of empirical studies have investigated the determinants of cooking fuel choice in developing countries, where health risks from household air pollution are one of the most important issues. We contribute to this stream of literature by examining individuals’ subjective probabilistic expectations about health risks when using different types of fuel and their role in cooking fuel usage patterns. We also explore how these patterns, in turn, are associated with health status. Using data collected from 557 rural Indian households, we find that subjective probabilistic expectations of becoming sick from dirty fuel usage are negatively and significantly associated with the fraction of days of dirty fuel usage in households. Concurrently, dirty fuel usage and self-reported health status of the individual being sick are also significantly correlated. We then conduct a policy simulation of information provision regarding the health risks of dirty fuel usage. Our simulation demonstrates that although the provision of information results in statistically significant changes in households’ cooking fuel usage patterns and in individuals’ health status, these changes may be small in size.

Identifying High Influence Parameters using Genetic Algorithm (GA) Chromosomes for Water Consumption

Severe uncertainties climate changes course flood and droughts disaster have made clean water precious for domestic consumption. Thus, securing clean water is important. Wastage of water comes from water consumption such as from household usage. However, monitoring water consumption from household usage is tedious and time consuming. This work utilized Genetic Algorithm (GA) to optimize the coefficient of micro-components of water consumption (CMWC) values to determine high influential household routine parameters. Nine household parameters have been investigated namely, bath/shower, personal hygiene, flush toilet, wash cloth by hand, wash cloth by washing machine, food preparation, water plant, washing car and miscellaneous. These parameters are encoded as a chromosome data in GA to incorporate the CMWC values. The aim is to minimize the residential water consumption estimation error rates and subsequently enabling increased accuracy towards estimating and classifying the amount of residential water consumption. Data average monthly water consumption were collected from 80 households in Seremban. Water consumption has been categorized into three groups of low (L-PDWC), medium (M-PDWC) and high (H-PDWC). Comparison was made between per capita water consumption (PCC) and Domestic Water Consumption via Genetic Algorithm (DWC-GA) error rate’s values. The results are as follows; PCC method’s error rates of 9.49 and DWC-GA error rate is 1.05.

Does Paying for Aquatic Resources Matter? A Case of an African Riverine Ecosystem

Valuation of environmental goods and services has an important role to play in the protection and conservation of riverine resources. However, the literature shows a dearth of information regarding factors that influence people’s willingness to pay (WTP) for riverine resources. This research study was undertaken to find out key factors that affect the willingness of people to pay for the conservation of aquatic resources in the lower section of the Linthipe River in Malawi. Data was collected through household interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and contingent valuation (CV) surveys. The study noted that communities were willing to offer $3.51 per year for the conservation of aquatic resources in the river. This study established that the people’s WTP is a function of education level, household usage of the goods and services, community support in the management of the resources, household income, and distance of the household from the river ecosystem. The study further discovered that the pay-out level of the users along the Linthipe River was driven by household usage of resources from the river, period of stay in the area, and level of household income. Our recommendation is that government and development partners should popularize the important role played by rivers and streams to surrounding communities and beyond to appeal for more support from users. The authorities must further empower the communities along the rivers and streams to sustainably manage the aquatic resources for the continued appreciation of aquatic resources by future generations.

Modelling and efficiency assessment of the up flow fixed bed process packed with Moringa oleifera for continuous Cd(II) removal from drinking water

The biosorption ability of ‘Moringa oleifera ‘seed powder for the expulsion of cadmium from wastewater was investigated by performing packed column tests. Column tests were conducted as a function of biosorbent dose, influent flow rate and feed sorbate concentration. The findings from column operations revealed that values of maximum cadmium uptake, exhaustion and breakthrough time enhances with rise in bed depth, reduces with rise in feed volumetric flowrate and initial cadmium concentration. At 6 g of Moringa oleifera dose, 2 mL/min of flow rate and 300 µg/L of influent cadmium, the cadmium uptake capacity was found to be 65.44, µg/g. The continuous packed column data for cadmium were well fitted to the Thomas model with the regression coefficient ranges 0.966–0.993. Moreover, the qth values obtained from Thomas model are similar to the experimental breakthrough capacities qexp. The FTIR results reveals that the Moringa oleifera seed contains various active functional groups which are appears to be played a significant role in biosorption of cadmium ions. From practical view, the Moringa oleifera seed could be utilized as safe, inexpensive, sustainable and eco-friendly biosorbent for the elimination of cadmium from drinking water using continuous column mode and also this technology could be considered as an ideal for household usage in rural communities.

Popular Religion in Early Republican China Based on Vasilii Alekseev’s Materials from to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography RAS (fund No. 2054)

One of the founding fathers of Russian sinology Vasiliy Mikhailovich Alekseev (18811951) had acquired an impressive collection during his ethnographic expedition to the southern regions of China (May 4 August 19, 1912), which was organized by the Russian Committee for Middle and East Asia Exploration and initiated by the Committee`s head, founder academician Vasilii Vasilievich Radlov (18371918). Alekseevs expedition stated from Vladivostok and passed through Harbin, Shanghai, Ningbo, Putuoshan, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Shantou, Guangzhou and ended up in Hong Kong. Alekseev has collected about 1083 artifacts making up a collection exclusively on popular Buddhist and Daoist religion, items of household usage, daily life and cult, as well as revolutionary leaflets and posters of 1912, now this collection is kept at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE, RAS) with registration No.2054. During his earlier studies in China in 19061909 Alekseev acquired large collections of ethnographic materials and folk art (mainly popular woodblock prints nianhua 年畫) from the northern regions of China, which had later for the most part entered collections of the State Hermitage and the State Museum of the History of Religion (GMIR) in St.Petersburg. For his expedition of 1912 Alekseev had lined out a plan based on his observations of northern religious practices, e.g. he was particularly interested in the worship of City God chenghuang, child giving goddesses niangniang and God of Wealth caishen, but he quickly realized how different was the southern religious terrain and focused on local specifics.
 This paper discusses a large portion of printed ritual texts used for religious purposes in Fujian and Guangdong provinces and dated by the early 20thc. Our survey of several dozens of printed materials from fund No.2054 reveals prevalence of documents used by ritual specialists Daoists for funerary rituals and ancestor worship, funeral various types of talismans occupy a central place. Apparently, the form and content of these texts have been preserved in the local religious practice up to present days.

Tracing the Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Car Usage in Germany - an Analysis of the German Mobility Panel

Being a vast external influence, the COVID-19 pandemic causes major changes in travel behavior on the individual level. This exceptional situation and the political measures such as the lockdown lead to decreased overall travel demand and shifts in mode choice. To understand these effects, the analysis of car usage in private households offers explanatory insights. To this aim, this study provides a differentiation of car usage before and during the COVID -19 pandemic in spring 2020. Furthermore, insights into structural changes of car usage in private households based on German Mobility Panel data are presented. The results show that during the COVID -19 pandemic car usage was affected, and overall mileage decreased. Especially newer cars with large cubic capacity show a large decrease in mileage by 39 % between 2019 and 2020. In addition, we see that the type of car usage (business/private) and the household characteristics are related to different magnitudes of change in car usage. Overall, it becomes evident that examining identical households and cars before and during the pandemic allows for a deeper understanding of the impacts of the COVID -19 pandemic.

Durability, household usage and washing pattern of DuraNet© and Interceptor® long-lasting insecticidal nets in long-term field trials in India.

Universal coverage of population with long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) living in endemic areas inhabited by ethnic tribal communities or in difficult to reach areas was found effective for disease control where other interventions such as indoor residual spraying have limited success because of operational issues. Evaluation of different LLINs with varied insecticides and fabrics are being evaluated to meet the demand of new products. This study was undertaken on two brands of LLINs, DuraNet© and Interceptor® that varied in fabric and manufacturing technologies to assess the usability in field conditions for atleast three years. In large-scale field trials DuraNet©, alpha cypermethrin incorporated polyethylene net, was evaluated in Odisha state while, Interceptor® net, alpha cypermethrin coated polyester net was evaluated in Chhattisgarh and Gujarat states for a period of three years following WHO guidelines. Durability, usage pattern and washing behavior were monitored through periodic surveys and physical examination of nets. Survivorship of both the nets was 84-100% and every night usage rate was >62% in all seasons. Washing frequency was largely within the prescribed limits. The proportion of DuraNet© with holes was 26.7% in year one 74% in year three. In Gujarat, proportion of Interceptor® nets with holes at six months was 33.3% increased to 87% in year three and in Chhattisgarh, 6.7% after six months to 93.3% after three years of use respectively. Both the nets revealed a useful life of three years under the field condition.

LPG Usage in Rural Households

Cooking with strong biomass powers, a typical practice in the creating scene, is related with various issues. Consequently strategy creators wish to work with families to change to more present day fills. To all the more likely comprehend the potential for strategy intercessions, an upgraded comprehension of family fuel decisions and the interaction of fuel exchanging is foremost.

Experimental and numerical optimal design of a household solar fruit and vegetable dryer

In the present study, a low-cost solar fruit and vegetable dryer was designed, constructed, and tested for small-scale production, especially in households. An optimizing procedure was performed to convert a typical widely-used direct cabinet dryer into a new indirect dryer using experimental data and numerical simulations. Several well-designed experiments accompanied by CFD simulations using finite volume method were carried out. It was concluded that the proposed conversion procedure could be achieved utilizing a blackened absorber plate, an air circulating unit, and a honeycomb air manifold. The drying capacity of the dryer could be increased by more than 50% in comparison with the direct type by adding a new tray to the optimized dryer. The thermal efficiency of the proposed solar dryer was estimated 16.4%, indicating that the desirable energy performance of the dryer was superior to some available designs of solar dryers. Besides, it was observed that the proposed numerical approach was able to produce a reliable qualitative and quantitative insight into both the thermal and fluid mechanical behavior of the dryer. Finally, it was claimed that not only was the developed apparatus suitable and efficient for the household usage, but also the optimized version of the dryer could be inspiring for those who are currently using typical direct cabinet dryers to convert their dryers into indirect ones.

Modelling Dishwashers’ Resource Consumption in Domestic Usage in European Households and its Relationship to a Reference Dishwasher

Abstract The 'Recommendations for the Quality Assessment of the Cleaning Performance of Dishwasher Detergents" provide detailed procedures to assess the performance of a household dishwasher detergent using a standard test programme of a standard dishwasher. As such, they are a de facto standard for a whole industry. Consequently, it is relevant to ensure that the conditions under which the tests are carried out represent the relevant market: the automatic dishwashing machines installed and used in households in Europe. But no data are available by now describing the situation in the households. The task here is to model the distribution of total energy, water consumption and programme duration of the automatic dishwashing machines installed and used in private households in Europe when used by the consumer. Those data are then compared to the data of the reference dishwasher and, thus, the relevance of the reference system to the dishwashers installed in private households is assessed.

PATTERN OF WATER SUPPLY IN RELATION TO DIFFERENT WATER SOURCES IN METROPOLITAN KANO

The study carried out on pattern of water supply in relation to different water sources in metropolitan Kano was aimed to assess the pattern of water supply in the area. Eight local government areas were found in the area but six local government areas were selected in conducting the research work. The selected local government areas included dala, Fagge, Kano Municipal, Gwale, Tarauni, Nassarawa. The research work was conducted through the following methods of data collection, (questionnaire and interview). Krecjie and morgan sampling techniques was adopted in administering the questionnaire, because it was the best sampling techniques that suited the study. The result of the findings indicated that ground water sources are now the major sources of water used in the study area, pipe borne water was generally inadequate. Dala, Kano Municipal, Fagge and Gwale were the areas mostly affected with scarcity of pipe borne water. Other sources of water for household usage included water from vendors and water supply Tankers. Some sources of water were founded inactive (that is sources of water producing less or no water due to some problems). Most people in the area depend on sachet water as their source of drinking water. Finally, in order to overcome some of the problems of water is their source of drinking water. Finally, in order to overcome some of the problems of water supply it was recommended that there should be alternative sources of power, regular maintenance, train of manpower, and effective management of water supply systems.

Development of Integrated Solar Water Heater Using Phase Change Material

Main barriers for installation of conventional solar water heating system (SWHS) are requirement of large installation area and heavy weight of the heat storage tank consisting water. A storage tank with minimum capacity of 230 liters are needed for household usage and this tank when empty can weigh up to 100 kg while a filled tank could weigh up to 400 kg. In reality, installation of this conventional system require more space and heavy structural support on the roof, which is not available in most houses. As a solution, a form stable light harvesting phase change material (FSLHPCM) integrated compact system is proposed. This new SWHS consists of glass – topped collector cum storage tank filled with FSLHPCM. This new FSLHPCM is form stable, does not leak and exhibit stable latent heat when tested to 1000 thermal cycles. It is capable to not only store heat but can improve the collector efficiency by harvesting the visible light and converting it to heat. The additional light to heat conversion efficiency was 22%. In the new system a maximum 75 liters’ glass-topped collector tank is sufficient to substitute a 230-liter tank. This will reduce installation, renovation and maintenance costs for the SWHS.

An assessment of hydrologic factors that influence contaminant concentrations determined from domestic well-water samples

Open borehole wells in fractured crystalline rock are commonly used for domestic water supply. Concentrations of contaminants present in the well water, typically collected from the tap after some degree of purging, are weighted average concentrations. In this study, factors which influence sample concentrations collected from domestic wells are evaluated through the use of conceptual models and confirmatory field tests. Focus is on the extent of drawdown during sampling, distance between the pump inlet and contaminated fractures, relative fracture transmissivity, fracture discharge rate into the borehole, and the hydraulic head distribution of the fractures. Simplified spreadsheet models were developed to assess the relation between these factors and sample concentrations. The models show that in addition to fracture transmissivities, drawdown in relation to fracture head plays a significant role in how much water recharges a well from each fracture, yet it is rarely measured when sampling domestic wells. To evaluate the extent of drawdown that may occur under typical household usage, water levels were monitored in three domestic wells. Pumping tests were conducted in three wells to measure changes in concentration as a function of pumping duration. Downhole profiling was conducted to examine how pumping induces changes to water quality within the wellbore. The results indicate that these factors can have a strong influence on contaminant concentrations in samples collected from these wells. As such, the weighted averaging factors should be considered in sample collection, in data interpretation, in assessing exposure risk and in mapping contaminant distributions.

Energy Audit in Households using Machine Learning

Maintaining the energy usage with minimal power loss throughout the supply chain is of the major issues faced in many small-scale sectors or even in households of today’s world. Even though Power transmission can play a cardinal role in the supply chain, monitoring the transmission lines for energy leakage or any faulty connections is critically important. There have been several measures taken to come up with a better solution but, the problem of finding a consistent method for monitoring the power leakage is still at peril. There are actually many ways of saving the energy by mitigating the usage and preventing the loss of energy due to over usage and wastages, for this a thorough monitoring and study of the usage should be done. If the electricity usage pattern of the concerned is identified, then it will be facile to come up with a solution for the problem at hand. The electricity wastage constituted by all the countries aggregated is found out to be around 8.25%, which is considerately large given that many places around the world does not even have access to electricity. So, there is a need to find a better solution for this problem. After conducting a thorough study on the electricity usage pattern of several households we are proposing a method which is an ensemble of machine learning algorithms, Internet of Things, sensors, Embedded systems. Using an IoT device we’ve designed we monitoring and collecting electricity usage in households in a time based manner. These collected data is stored in the database and is processed and fed into machine learning algorithm to predict the upcoming month’s electricity usage. This predicted data is then fed into another algorithm to provide recommendations to the user to reduce the electricity consumption according to their usage interests. Thus reducing the cost significantly.

Multi-core-, multi-thread-based optimization algorithm for large-scale traveling salesman problem

With the rapid development of general hardware technology, microcomputers with multi-core CPUs have been widely applied in commercial services and household usage in the last ten years. Multi-core chips could, theoretically, lead to much better performance and computational efficiency than single-core chips. But so far, they have not shown general advantages for users, other than for operating systems and some specialized software. It is not easy to transform traditional single-core-based algorithms into multi-core-, multi-thread-based algorithms that can greatly improve efficiency, because of difficulties in computation and scheduling of hardware kernels, and because some programming languages cannot support multi-core, multi-thread programming. Therefore, a kind of multi-core-, multi-thread-based fast algorithm was designed and coded with Delphi language for the medium- and large-scale traveling salesman problem instances from TSPLIB, which can fully speed up the searching process without loss of quality. Experimental results show that the algorithm proposed can, under the given hardware limitations, take full advantage of multi-core chips and effectively balance the conflict between increasing problem size and computational efficiency and thus acquire satisfactory solutions.

ICT Security Measures for the Companies within European Union Member States – Perspectives in COVID-19 Context

Abstract The development of ICT usage in households, by individuals or in enterprises is submitted to the requirements of security. This paper aims a statistical analysis of ICT security aspects from several perspectives: ICT policies, staff awareness of ICT security related issues, ICT security related activities. The methodology used for testing the hypotheses is based on descriptive statistics, chart case study, correlation and factor analysis. The results emphasize the importance of investing resources in cyber security, moreover, in the current pandemic situation generated by COVID-19.

Variation of Cowpea Production and Usage in Rural Households: A Comparison between Northern and Southern Burkina Faso

Variation of Cowpea Production and Usage in Rural Households: A Comparison between Northern and Southern Burkina Faso

Energy consumption behavior: A data-based analysis of urban Indian households

Counted among the top three energy consuming nations globally, India is working towards reducing its carbon emissions. Energy efficiency interventions offers a low-cost opportunity to achieve its climate goals. Though the Indian government has rolled out several energy efficiency schemes, the rate of decrease in energy intensity is lower than expectations. One of the desirable areas for intervention is influencing energy usage in households, which consumes a quarter of the total energy generated in India. The study analyzes energy usage behavior in households, using a mix of primary and secondary techniques. Key findings include seasonal consumption trends correlating with climatic parameters, use of inefficient equipment and rebound effect. Policy prescriptions include peak load clipping techniques like weatherization of homes, display of real-time consumption, rationalization of tariffs and expanded criteria for selecting equipment under ‘Star Rating Scheme’. The findings may be considered to improve energy policies towards influencing consumer behavior in India.

Digital trade facilitation and bilateral trade in selected Asian countries

PurposeDigital technology is gaining attention among many scholars as a way to facilitate trade. This study aims to investigate three important digital dimensions (DD), namely, digital infrastructure, digital usage and digital security on trade using selected Asian countries and 20 selected trade partners. Digital infrastructure focussed on the availability and accessibility of digital infrastructure in exporting and importing countries. The second dimension, digital usage, highlights the importance of household usage of mobile phones, broadband data and the internet. Finally, the third dimension focusses on digital security as many online transactions occur across the globe.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the gravity model to investigate the impact of DD as tools to facilitate trade in selected Asian countries with selected trading partners between 2003 and 2017. The Hausman test is used to determine whether to use the random effect model or fixed effect model. However, for robustness, the Hausman and Taylor estimation is used to allow the time-invariant model to be included and at the same time to remove correlations between the error terms.FindingsThe result of this study confirmed that having digital infrastructure is not sufficient for trade facilitation, but it must be supported with an intensity of use by businesses and consumers and be accompanied by strong internet security for trade. The study also revealed that a narrowing digital divide in terms internet users and security will be a benefit to both trade partners in a transaction through better and efficient trade facilitation.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature in three ways. First, the classification of DD is used to identify which dimensions need to be addressed for policymakers. Most studies focussed on the first two dimensions without including security dimensions. Second, the authors estimate digital trade facilitation variables for both exporters and importers to ensure unbiased results between two trade partners. Finally, this study introduces new variables in the analysis of the digital user gap and the digital security gap as indicators for the digital divide.