Poor Link Research Articles

Innovation capacity, food system development, and the size of the agricultural research system

IntroductionThis article contributes to a better understanding of the context in which agricultural R&D investment takes place in low- and middle-income countries, and how innovation capacity, the development of the food system, and the size of the research system affect R&D investment.MethodsA three-step methodology is proposed where the first step consists of creating an index of the development of a food system using indicators of the technological transformation of the food supply chain and the changes in diets on the demand side. The second step involves developing a measure of innovation capacity at the country level, while the final step consists of systematic comparisons of countries with large and small agricultural research systems to find the relationship between the size of a country's research system, the level of development of its food system, and its overall capacity to innovate.ResultsThe results reveal that there is a high and positive correlation between innovation capacity and the development of the food system and a negative correlation between these two indicators and the size of the agricultural research system in low- and middle-income countries. The lower overall quality and level of development of the education and scientific research systems in countries with small agricultural research systems are important factors contributing to reduced innovation capacity. In addition, countries with small agricultural research systems are challenged with a comparatively poor innovation environment, poor market development, a weak private sector, a lack of competition in domestic markets, and a largely rural population with poor links to markets.DiscussionThe results of the analysis stress the need to increase the efficiency and productivity of agricultural research by implementing policies that get the most out of available resources while minimizing the negative effect of small-scale research operations. Increased coordination and integration of agricultural research at the regional and global level can help avoid duplication, enhance the efficiency of small-scale organizations, and make research more cost-effective and impactful.

Adaptive link quality routing protocol for UASNs with double forwarding modes

Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs) has been used in various fields. However, UASNs is characterized by long delay, poor and time-varying link quality and unequal node distribution. Opportunistic routing (OR) uses broadcast forwarding to overcome poor link quality, but it increases delay compared to unicast forwarding, and most OR protocols cannot overcome routing voids. This paper proposes an Adaptive Link Quality Routing Protocol (ALQR) with double forwarding modes to solve these problems. This protocol innovatively selects the forwarding mode adaptively by link quality and uses distance vectors to construct candidate set to avoid routing voids and long detour. First, a new query algorithm is proposed to obtain the residual energy of neighbors and establish all distance vectors between sensor nodes and sink nodes, reducing the overhead of control packets. Distance vectors guide senders to determine the candidate set and avoid routing voids and long detours based on the shortest path principle. Second, an improved triangle metric is introduced to measure the accurate link quality. Based on this, a novel forwarding strategy combining unicast and broadcast is proposed. The unicast forwarding mode directedly select next hop based on route cost, which shortens the delay. Moreover, a new priority-based waiting-competition mechanism is proposed to determine the forwarding nodes in the broadcast forwarding mode, reducing redundant packets. The simulation results indicate that ALQR outperforms other routing protocols in terms of end-to-end delay and energy consumption when sacrificing little PDR. Specifically, delay is reduced by an average of 37.51% and 19.54% and energy consumption is reduced by an average of 35.01% and 16.41%, compared to DBR and DVOR.

Social Network to Accelerate Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from Hambanthota District, Sri Lanka

Information links among the actors of social networks have a vital effect on the diffusion of knowledge from person to person and subsequently accelerate the adoption process. Poor information links led to the inefficiency of technology transfer and adoption by rural farmers in developing countries. Concerning the importance of information links of a social network on technology adoption, the study intended to explore the social network impact on the agricultural knowledge transferring process as an alternative extension approach over traditional extension practices. The 72 extension officers working in the Hambantota district were purposefully selected to collect primary data on information and knowledge network. Extension officers were identified as the key node of the information network. The role of contact farmers was prominent in paddy farming in Sri Lanka as they provided the interconnection between extension officers and farmers by sharing information. The study found that all the actors in the network similarly influenced each other and were well-connected. Further, the contact farmers’ approach can be successfully applied as a cost-effective extension tool in developing countries while progressing technology adoption among farmers.

Energy Efficiency Maximization of Backscatter-Assisted Wireless-Powered MEC With User Cooperation

The integrated backscatter communication (BackCom) and active communication (AC) scheme can improve wireless powered mobile edge computing (WPMEC) system performance in general single-user and multi-user scenarios. However, there is little research in the cooperation-assisted WPMEC scenario. In this paper, we consider a cooperation-assisted WPMEC system consisting of a source node (SN), a helper and a hybrid access point (HAP) integrated with MEC servers. An innovative user cooperation (UC) scheme with integrated BackCom and AC is proposed to enhance the system performance. As a relay, the helper can help the SN to transmit its computing tasks due to the poor communication link between the SN and the HAP. To be specific, we aim at maximizing the user energy efficiency (EE) by jointly optimizing backscatter reflection coefficient for BackCom, transmission power for AC, system time and tasks allocation while considering the minimum computation bits requirement, the channel capacity and energy constraints. Based on a fractional program, the EE maximization problem first is transformed to an equivalent one. Then, we exploit variable substitution and convex optimization to transform this non-convex problem into a convex problem. In addition, semi-closed form expressions of the optimal solution are deduced. An energy efficiency maximization algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly improves the user EE than the existing schemes.

Promoting Effect of TiCl4 Pre-Coating Time on TiO2 Semiconductors on Double Layer Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

The invention of chemically flexible solar cells, known as dye-sensitive solar cells (DSSC), has led to cheaper, more ecologically friendly, yet inefficient solar cells. The poor link between the semiconductor and the substrate, which impacts the DSSC electrons' mobility, is the root reason of the low efficiency. TiCl4 pre-coatings have been used in many studies on semiconductor engineering to boost electron mobility. In order to lower the internal resistance in the DSSC, it is known that using TiCl4 pre-coating affects the mechanical strength between the semiconductor and the substrate. TiCl4 pre-coating can be done by immersing FTO glass, where semiconductors have deposited, in the TiCl4 solution. This study examines how the TiCl4 pre-coating time in the production of TiO2 semiconductors affects DSSC performance. To reveal the effects on alterations in the semiconductor morphology of TiO2, immersion times in the TiCl4 treatment were set to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60mins. The results show that TiO2 nanoparticles with a 60min TiCl4 treatment had better connectivity between individual particles than those with shorter treatments. The performance metrics like open circuit photovoltage (Voc), short-circuit photocurrent density (Jsc), and fill factor (FF), and efficiency (η) were 0.569 V, 7,616 mA/cm2, 43.3%, and 2.208%, respectively.

Intergenerational Educational Mobility among Toto Tribe of Alipurduar District of West Bengal

Intergenerational mobility is a method of assessing the relationship between the socioeconomic condition of an individual and that of their progeny. Educational mobility refers that the transfer of parental educational attainment to their child. Higher mobility would result from a poor link between parent’s education levels and children's educational levels, while lower mobility would result from a strong link. A change in career or giving up an educational status could indicate a change in the acceptable quality of living in values and ideologies. In the Alipurduar district of West Bengal, In India only one little settlement known as Totopara home to isolated tribal community known as the Toto. Toto’s are mostly illiterate in previous generation, however recently change in the education has been observed. The present study aims to study the structural change in the education among Toto tribe. Further, an attempt has also been made look at the factor associated with the educational mobility. The study is based on primary survey and total of 150 household has been considered. To study the educational mobility, three generations were chosen: the first generation (grandfather or grandmother), the second generation (father or mother), and the third generation (grandson or granddaughter).

Developing food markets in Vanuatu: Re-examining remote island geographies of food production and trade

Vanuatu is experiencing urban nutrition insecurity, despite having a population primarily engaged in agriculture. As Vanuatu is an island archipelago, this is often attributed to poor shipping links between islands, which separate rural producers and urban consumers. However, closer attention to rural island geographies reveals that substantial differences in livelihoods materialise over small distances. This study explores social, economic and biophysical features of rural food production and trade in an area of West Ambae, Vanuatu. A survey of 94 rural smallholding households was undertaken. The survey reveals that the largest food producing households are often very remote farmers for whom spatially situated social and economic features represent a significant barrier to food trade. Closer attention to these remote island geographies of food production and trade are needed to support effective policy for the development of a sustainable and resilient food system.

Linking Advanced Technology Industry 4.0 to Environmental Management Accounting (Ema): Impact on Environmental Performance

Sustainability has become vital today as stakeholders demand more information related to the company's environmental and social performance. In order to gather eco-efficient data, companies need to have a good infrastructure or appropriate system for data gathering and sharing in the supply chain. Prior researchers have discussed the use of environmental management accounting (EMA) as one of the tools that can provide environmental information that helps in dealing with environmental issues. Nevertheless, environmental information may not be shared effectively due to poor communication links and the inconsistency of information systems. The motivation to conduct this study is to examine factors that can be solutions to several challenges discovered by prior studies to effectively implementing EMA. Besides that, there are mixed discussions on previous research suggested examining factors that influence the EMA adoption to enhance environmental performance. One of the recent issues is the rise of advanced technology from the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), which was discussed briefly in recent prior studies. Prior research highlighted advanced technology under Industry Revolution (IR) 4.0 might enhance environmental information. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of advanced technology Industry 4.0 on the adoption of EMA leads to the improved environmental performance of the Malaysian electrical and electronic industry. Keywords: Environmental management accounting (EMA), advanced technology Industry 4.0, industrial revolution 4.0, environmental performance

Conceptualization of electromagnetic induction at various educational levels: a case study

A vast amount of scientific literature in physics education documents a general widespread difficulty in dealing with electromagnetic induction (EMI) at various levels of instruction. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of research that compares difficulties with EMI at different educational levels. Here, we discuss a case study of Italian high school students', graduate students', and teachers' conceptualization of some aspects of EMI as a function of the sample instruction level. We analyzed the answers to a multiple choice written questionnaire, adapted from the literature and given to a total of 49 participants. Some difficulties that emerged during the exams of university students while discussing their final project concerning a didactical path about EMI for secondary school are also analyzed. We found that some deep misunderstandings are common at all levels of education and probably come from the very poor link, generally presented in teaching EMI, between Faraday's flux law and the Lorentz force.

Joint Optimization of Offloading and Resource Allocation for SDN-Enabled IoV

With the development of various vehicle applications, such as vehicle social networking, pattern recognition, and augmented reality, diverse and complex tasks have to be executed by the vehicle terminals. To extend the computing capability, the nearest roadside-unit (RSU) is used to offload the tasks. Nevertheless, for intensive tasks, excessive load not only leads to poor communication links but also results to ultrahigh latency and computational delay. To overcome these problems, this paper proposes a joint optimization approach on offloading and resource allocation for Internet of Vehicles (IoV). Specifically, assuming particle tasks assigned for vehicles in the system model are offloaded to RSUs and executed in parallel. Moreover, the software-defined networking (SDN) assisted routing and controlling protocol is introduced to divide the IoV system into two independent layers: data transmission layer and control layer. A joint approach optimized offloading decision, offloading ratio, and resource allocation (ODRR) is proposed to minimize system average delay, on the premise of satisfying the demand of the quality of service (QoS). By comparing with conventional offloading strategies, the proposed approach is proved to be optimal and effective for SDN-enabled IoV.

Traffic priority based delay aware scheduling for co-located WBANs

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a promising solution that has gained significant attraction in the human health monitoring system. Body sensors measure the physiological parameters of the human body and send the data to the access point via coordinator or local processing unit (e.g., smartphones, PDA) for further analysis. Data transmission from the local processing unit to the access point, known as inter-WBAN transmission, is challenging since many problems such as interference, poor link quality, and scarcity of resources can arise. As a result, data may be lost, or transmission may be delayed, which turn can endanger the user’s health. The situation could be worse when the user suffers from critical diseases and has to coordinate with other WBANs co-located in the same vicinity. This paper focuses on dynamic slot scheduling and topology handling of WBAN, whose neighborhood is constantly changing due to its mobility. To guarantee the performance of different WBAN’s criticality; we propose Critically Aware Threshold Sensitive (CATS) scheduling algorithm for coexisting WBANs data transmission. CATS treats all the nodes in the same WBAN as a whole and allocates the same slot to nodes of the WBAN so that the data transmission delay of a critical WBAN can be minimized. The proposed method categories and schedules the WBANs based on the sensor data priority and WBAN’s criticality index. Furthermore, we have considered for categorizing the WBANs into various groups. In this work, the network performance is evaluated using these threshold values. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed CATS against the existing scheduling algorithms with respect to various performance metrics. Simulation results show that the proposed method has lower transmission delay and higher spatial reuse factor.

Barriers to Somatic Health Care for Persons With Severe Mental Illness in Belgium: A Qualitative Study of Patients' and Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives.

BackgroundA huge and still growing mortality gap between people with severe mental illness (SMI) and the general population exists. Physical illnesses, mainly cardiovascular diseases, substantially contribute to the high mortality rates in patients with SMI. Disparities in somatic health care access, utilisation, and provision contribute to these poor physical health outcomes.MethodsA qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, was set up to explore SMI patients' and healthcare professionals' perspectives on somatic health care in different psychiatric settings of the three Belgian regions (Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia). Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed prior to qualitative inductive thematic analysis, using Nvivo software. The COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research (COREQ) were used for reporting methods and findings.ResultsCollaboration and information flows between psychiatric healthcare professionals, non-psychiatric healthcare professionals, and persons with SMI were troublesome. This seemed to be mainly due to stigma and prejudice and challenging communication and data transfer. Lack of sufficient training and experience to identify and treat somatic health problems in people with SMI (for psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses) and lack of psychiatric knowledge and feeling or sensitivity for psychiatric patients (for non-psychiatric healthcare professionals) further complicated adequate somatic health care. Finally, optimal somatic follow-up of patients with SMI was hampered by organisational problems (unavailability of equipment, unadapted infrastructure, understaffing, hospital pharmacy issues, and insufficient health promotion/lifestyle interventions), patient-related issues (unawareness of physical problems, non-adherence, need for accompaniment) and financial barriers.ConclusionThere is an urgent need for integrated somatic and mental healthcare systems and a cultural change. Psychiatrists and primary care providers continue to consider the mental and physical health of their patients as mutually exclusive responsibilities due to a lack of sufficient training and experience, poor or absent liaison links, time constraints and organisational and financial barriers. Modifying these aspects will improve the quality of somatic health care for these vulnerable patients.

An Opportunistic Network Routing Protocol for Maritime Voluntary Observation Ships

In order to solve the issue of data transmission for maritime voluntary observation ships, an opportunistic network routing protocol (MVOS-RP) is proposed for the complicated maritime environment. The proposed protocol transmits data through the encounter between ships. A connected graph is constructed with the sending node as the vertex, and then the selection of the relay node is divided into three scenes by traversing the graph through the Breadth First Search (BFS) algorithm. We also use the ship’s Automatic identification System (AIS) information, such as the estimated time of arrival and the route of ships, to select the appropriate relay node. MVOS-RP protocol solves the transmission issue of opportunistic network in the environment of sparse nodes and poor communication link quality. Simulation is performed on Opportunistic Network Environment (ONE) platform. The results show that, compared with other protocols, the proposed protocol has a better balance in terms of data delivery rate, average latency and routing overhead. It is a reliable and efficient opportunistic network routing protocol.

Integrating STEM in to TVET Education Programs in QATAR: Issues, Concerns and Prospects

Qatar TVET education system faces unique challenges in that the percentage of vocational secondary school students constitute only 1.4% compared to world average of 15% due to the poor perception of TVET as lesser pathway than other academic-based education. This low perception is associated with sociocultural, economic and institutional factors. Another challenge is the poor link between vocational and general education and the link to labor market. Further challenge is how TVET institutions can develop new curricula, which can respond to the needs of the 21st century skills. This paper will discuss how STEM can help promote TVET education and what are the possible changes required to overcome those challenges. A survey on “Improving and enriching the Human Capital of the State of Qatar through Identification and Development of 21st Century Skills”, explored perceptions of both employers and TVET program leaders toward the skills needed for economic and social developments in a changing world by Meeting Human Capital Needs through 21st Century Skills including the perceptions on needed STEM and cognitive skills. A total of 85 managers and professionals (from more than forty establishments) completed the survey, together with 35 TVET program leaders located in one national university and six government TVET institutions together with 32 semi structured interviews. Descriptive statistics analysis showed a major mismatch between the perceptions of TVET program leaders and employers’ managers and professionals in many aspects., employers perceive the social skills as more important while TVET consider mathematical reasoning as more important employers perceive technological skills such as digital literacy as more important than what TVET leaders perceive. This presentation will identify several approaches to integration and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the approaches employed. The presentation addresses the various planning approaches and resources required to effectively integrate STEM in TVET programs and curricula.

Successful factors determining the significant relationship between e-governance system and government operational excellence

Every government's major objective is to provide the greatest services in order to establish efficiency and quality of performance. Syria's government has understood how critical it is to go in the direction of information technology. However, there are gaps and poor links across government sectors, which has tainted the image of Syrian e-governance. As a result, one of the main aims of this study is to figure out what factors impact Syrians' acceptance of the e-government system. A total of 600 questionnaires were delivered to Syrian individuals as part of a survey. The data was analysed using the structural equation model (SEM) using AMOS version 21.0. User intention to utilise an e-government system was shown to be influenced by performance expectations, effort expectations, system flexibility, citizens-centricity, and facilitating conditions. Assurance, responsiveness, reliability, tangibles, and empathy are five fundamental factors that have a major impact on government operation excellence. Behavioural Intention is being utilised as a mediator between the government operation excellence (GOE) initiative and the e-government platform.

Understanding the Nexus between Savings, Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria: an Empirical Analysis

For economic growth to take place, certain variables must be triggered. Among these variables are savings and investment. The economic theory establishes equity between savings and investment which is expected to translate into economic growth. However, in reality, certain factors may disrupt this equity. Individually, savings and investment are also influenced by certain variables that might influence the supply of savings and demand for investment. This study investigated the savings-investment and economic growth nexus while examining the determinants of savings and investment in Nigeria between 1981 and 2020. The study used secondary data sourced from the World Development Indicators and the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletins. Vector Autoregressive model was adopted for the econometric analysis. Analysis was done using three separate models. The VAR results reveal an insignificant relationship between gross domestic savings, gross capital formation and economic growth. It was also found that gross domestic savings, gross domestic product and lending rate have insignificant impacts on gross capital formation. In contrast, gross domestic product and lending rate was found to impact gross domestic savings significantly. The Granger causality test shows that unidirectional causality runs from lending rate to gross capital formation and lending rate to the gross domestic product. In contrast, bidirectional causality was found to exist between gross domestic product and gross capital formation. These relationships imply that the blame of a poor link between savings, investment and economic growth in Nigeria should be primarily attributed to the inefficient financial intermediation in allocating savings to productive uses, underutilisation of monetary and fiscal policies to stimulate investment as well as other socio-economic and political factors that are not included in this study. The study recommends, among other things, that more savings should be encouraged by rising per capita income in Nigeria. This can be achieved by increasing productivity in all sectors of the economy. The study also recommends adopting flexible and efficient use of monetary and fiscal policies that are in line with current economic realities in the country to link savings and investment efficiently and, hence, promote economic growth.

SARS-CoV2 vaccination roll-out in European prisons

Abstract Introduction As SARS-CoV2 mass vaccination campaigns are rolled out, there is debate about which population groups to prioritize. Prison staff and prison residents should be considered a priority. Prison staff are essential workers and absenteeism should be minimized to enable safe and decent regimes. They play a pivotal role in SARS-CoV2 transmission within prison, contributing to disease spread. Prison residents are characterized by high burden of underlying disease, including non-communicable diseases. Furthermore, it is difficult to effectively protect prison populations by means of infection prevention and control and non-pharmaceutical measures, due to the constraints of the prison system. Methods Evidence on the inclusion of prison population within national SARS-CoV2 vaccination plans, level of implementation and models of vaccine delivery in prison settings is being collected through a questionnaire developed and disseminated within the European research project “Reaching the hard-to-reach: Increasing access and vaccine uptake among prison population in Europe -RISE-Vac”. Results and discussion There are notable differences between countries across Europe regarding inclusion in and priority attributed to prison residents and staff within national vaccination plans. Several challenges have been identified for the implementation of SARS-CoV2 vaccination programs in prison. Conclusions Suboptimal healthcare delivery and information systems with poor links to community systems are a major issue to overcome to ensure accurate and timely monitoring of vaccination. Prison residents are highly heterogeneous when it comes to age, ethnicity, level of education and health literacy. Ensuring their meaningful engagement is key to high vaccine uptake. This includes appropriate information and communication strategies prior to and at the point of vaccine delivery, covering inter alia possible side effects and informed consent.

Wild Flower Value Chains as Complex Adaptive Systems in Rural Sri Lanka

Purpose: Timeline of wild flowers showed the changing face to an economic good and moving through the different value chains while fueling to rural livelihoods. Focus of this study was to identify the upstream and downstream actors, their roles, map the wild flower value chain, analyze the income distribution, find out the gender-based constraints and identify the buying behavior of consumers. Methodology: Rapid market chain analysis equipped to collect the primary data. In-depth interviews with value chains actors, interviewer administered questionnaires and filed observations facilitated the process. Three key economically important wild flower value chains; Lotus, Lily and Jasmine were purposely selected. Findings: Value chain map shows core processes, flow of products and its volume, knowledge and information, geographical distribution and value web of relationships, and linkages. Income distribution shows that intermediaries claim the lion’s loin while collectors and growers receive less. Upstream actors of lotus and lily source their raw materials from common pool and free rider problem hinders the rational allocation of resources. Downstream; retailers govern the chain and seasonal price fluctuations are common. Poor post-harvest chain links with unhealthy returns. Color, price and quality were the prime concerns of consumers. Limitations: Poor availability of literature based on Sri Lankan wild flower sector was a constraint during the study and that was avoided with reference to researches which were done in other countries. Originality/Value: Since, limited number of studies paid attention on wild flower value chain; it’s better to investigate the Sri Lankan wild flower value chain in quantitative and qualitative aspects.

CoSMoS: Cooperative Sky-Ground Mobile Edge Computing System

In this correspondence, we study a tethered unmanned aerial vehicle (TUAV)-assisted mobile edge computing (MEC) system, in which tasks of several ground mobile users (MUs) are served by ground edge cloud (GEC) with superior computing capability and poor communication links and TUAV-mounted cloudlet with lower computing capability and better communication links. We aim to minimize weighted-sum system delay of MUs by jointly optimizing TUAV position, time slot allocation, and task splitting ratio. We first decompose the optimization problem into three subproblems, and then to solve non-convex subproblem related to TUAV position, we reformulate it by the first-order Taylor series approximation and apply the successive convex approximation (SCA) method. Then, we tackle the overall problem by applying the alternative optimization algorithm. Numerical results verify that our proposed cooperative sky-ground mobile edge computing system (CoSMoS) algorithm can achieve a better performance than other benchmark schemes.

Measuring Nature Contact: A Narrative Review

While many studies suggest evidence for the health benefits of nature, there is currently no standardized method to measure time spent in nature or nature contact, nor agreement on how best to define nature contact in research. The purpose of this review is to summarize how nature contact has been measured in recent health research and provide insight into current metrics of exposure to nature at individual and population scales. The most common methods include surrounding greenness, questionnaires, and global positioning systems (GPS) tracking. Several national-level surveys exist, though these are limited by their cross-sectional design, often measuring only a single component of time spent in nature, and poor links to measures of health. In future research, exposure assessment combining the quantifying (e.g., time spent in nature and frequency of visits to nature) and qualifying (e.g., greenness by the normalized difference of vegetation index (NDVI) and ratings on perception by individuals) aspects of current methods and leveraging innovative methods (e.g., experience sampling methods, ecological momentary assessment) will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the health effects of nature exposure and inform health policy and urban planning.