scholarly journals Greenhouse cultivation of Serrano Pepper (Capsicum annuum var. acuminatum): Dry Hydroponics

Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel Velázquez Carmona ◽  
Raquel Méndez-Arenas ◽  
Cintya Valerio Cárdenas ◽  
Patricia De la Cruz-Burelo ◽  
María L. Silíceo-Rodríguez

Objective: To produce Serrano peppers using a new cultivation technique that mixes the best of hydroponic cultivation and traditional cultivation. Design/methodology/approach: We set up a growing system where the Serrano pepper grew from seedling to its full-fledged state, in a growbag containing sand (as support material), potassium polyacrylate (as water retention material), and a nutrient solution for vegetable gardens, under greenhouse conditions. The humidity level of the growbag is controlled by adding as much water with nutrient solution as needed. This technique has generated 100% harvestable plants (total: 20 plants); more than 90% of the water can be saved in comparison to regular and hydroponic cultivation. Results: Once the harvest began, at least 22.857 kg of Serrano pepper were obtained in 3 m2 of soil in a system with a pyramidal structure in which the 20 plants were placed. If we extrapolated this data, approximately 93,000 kg of Serrano pepper could be harvested from a 1 ha system. Study Limitations/implications: This technique tries to tackle the water access limitations that may exist in some areas of Mexico. However, it does not mitigate the initial costs of a greenhouse system. Nevertheless, this technique can be reused up to 10 times without requiring maintenance. Findings/conclusions: Experience has shown that hydroponic crops are truly profitable, despite their vast water requirements, which is precisely what prevents their global expansion. However, our modification of this method saves more than 90% of the water, using potassium polyacrylate as a retention agent and sand as a support material. Therefore, this technique could be implemented even in places where water is scarce

Author(s):  
Shao-Hsien Chen ◽  
Chih-Hung Hsu

AbstractThe nickel alloy has good mechanical strength and corrosion resistance at high temperature; it is extensively used in aerospace and biomedical and energy industries, as well as alloy designs of different chemical compositions to achieve different mechanical properties. However, for high mechanical strength, low thermal conductivity, and surface hardening property, the nickel alloy has worse cutting tool life and machining efficiency than general materials. Therefore, how to select the optimum machining parameters will influence the workpiece quality, cost, and machining time. This research will be using a new experimental design methodology to the cutting parameter planning for nickel-based alloy cutting test, and used the uniform design methodology to cutting test to reduce the number of experiments. Three independent variable parameters are set up, including cutting speed, feed rate, and cutting depth, and four dependent variable parameters are set up, including cutting tool wear, surface roughness, machining time, and cutting force. A nickel alloy turning parameter model is built by using regression analysis to further predict the I/O relationship among various combinations of variables. The errors between actual values and prediction values are validated. When the cutting tool wear (VB) is 2.72~6.18%, the surface roughness (Ra) is 4.10~7.72%, the machining time (T) is 3.75~8.82%, and the cutting force (N) is 1.54~7.42%; the errors of various dependent variables are approximately less than 10%, so a high precision estimation model is obtained through a few experiments of uniform design method.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 363
Author(s):  
Wenshuo Xu ◽  
Na Lu ◽  
Masao Kikuchi ◽  
Michiko Takagaki

Nasturtium is a popular herbal plant, widely cultivated as culinary and medicinal plants all over the world. However, the seed propagation of nasturtium is inefficient, and in-vitro propagation is sophisticated and high-cost. In this study, the cutting propagation method was employed to produce nasturtium seedlings. We aimed to determine the optimal conditions for cutting propagation of nasturtium seedlings by investigating the effects of node position and electric conductivity (EC) of nutrient solution on the root formation of the cuttings. Cuttings from five node positions (apical bud, 2nd node, 3rd node, 4th node, and 5th node) were subjected to water and five EC (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 dS m−1) treatments with a hydroponic cultivation system in a plant factory. Results showed that all cuttings rooted successfully within two weeks. The cuttings from the apical bud position rooted earliest and produced the most roots regardless of EC level. Cuttings from other node positions produced longer roots and heavier root fresh and dry weights than those from the apical bud position. The cuttings under EC of 1.0 dS m−1 had the greatest root number, the longest root length, and the heaviest root fresh and dry weights regardless of node positions. The EC of 1.0 dS m−1 is considered the best condition for nasturtium cuttings for the range of EC tested in this study, and the cuttings from all the five node positions can be used as seedling materials.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enas M.F. El Houby

PurposeDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the dangerous complications of diabetes. Its grade level must be tracked to manage its progress and to start the appropriate decision for treatment in time. Effective automated methods for the detection of DR and the classification of its severity stage are necessary to reduce the burden on ophthalmologists and diagnostic contradictions among manual readers.Design/methodology/approachIn this research, convolutional neural network (CNN) was used based on colored retinal fundus images for the detection of DR and classification of its stages. CNN can recognize sophisticated features on the retina and provides an automatic diagnosis. The pre-trained VGG-16 CNN model was applied using a transfer learning (TL) approach to utilize the already learned parameters in the detection.FindingsBy conducting different experiments set up with different severity groupings, the achieved results are promising. The best-achieved accuracies for 2-class, 3-class, 4-class and 5-class classifications are 86.5, 80.5, 63.5 and 73.7, respectively.Originality/valueIn this research, VGG-16 was used to detect and classify DR stages using the TL approach. Different combinations of classes were used in the classification of DR severity stages to illustrate the ability of the model to differentiate between the classes and verify the effect of these changes on the performance of the model.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-356
Author(s):  
Gustavo André Colombo ◽  
Aurélio Vaz-de-Melo ◽  
Gilberto Coutinho Machado Filho ◽  
André Silva de Sousa

The constant improvement of selection methods is necessary in order to optimize efficiency of breeding programs for aluminum tolerance. Thus, the aim of this study was to establish a vase volume to the ideal semi-hydroponic cultivation of forage grasses subjected to stress by aluminum in nutrient solution. The experimental design completely randomized, with four replicates, each replicate consisting of one plant per vase. The treatments were arranged in a factorial design 4x5, being the first factor consists of four genotypes of forage grasses Brachiaria Humidicola; Brachiaria brizantha cv. Piatã; Panicum maximum cv. Massai and Panicum maximum cv. Mombaça) and the second consisting of five separate volumes plastics vases where seedlings were grown (0.2; 0.25; 0.3; 0.35 and 0.4 dm³). The grasses grown in a semi-hydroponics system irrigated with nutrient solution rich in aluminum (3 mg L-1). Was measured plant height, dry weight of aereal part and root length. The semi-hydroponic cultivation in aluminum increased nutrient solution is effective in differentiation of forage grasses genotypes in relation to aluminum tolerance. Pots volumes near 0.3 dm3 promote greater development for root and aerial part attributes in forage grasses grown in nutrient solution with aluminum toxicity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Donato da Silva Souza ◽  
Geronimo Ferreira da Silva ◽  
Sirleide Maria de Menezes ◽  
José Edson Florentino de Morais ◽  
José Amilton Santos Júnior ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Cultivation using brackish waters can result in nutritional and metabolic imbalances in several plant species, consequently reducing the production of dry matter (DM) and accumulation of toxic ions (Na+ and/or Cl-) in plants. We evaluated the DM production, and nutrient and inorganic solute (Na+ and Cl-) content in green onion plants (cv. Todo Ano Evergreen - Nebuka) under different levels of nutrient solution salinity in combination with circulation frequencies of this solution. Two experiments were conducted in a hydroponic system, using a completely randomized design, in a 6 × 2 factorial scheme, with five replicates: six levels of nutrient solution salinity (1.5, 3.0, 4.5, 6.0, 7.5, and 9.0 dS m-1) and two solution circulation frequencies (twice and thrice a day). In Experiment I, the evapotranspired depth was replaced using brackish water that was used to prepare each of the salinity levels (used exclusively), whereas in Experiment II, brackish water was used only to prepare each of the salinity levels and public water was used (electrical conductivity [ECw] = 0.12 dS m-1) for replacement in all treatments. The increase in the nutrient solution salinity reduced the production of DM and accumulation of nutrients; the reductions were more pronounced when brackish waters were used exclusively (Experiment I). However, the circulation of solutions thrice a day resulted in the harmful effects of the salinity effect. Replacing the evapotranspirated blade with water supply (Experiment II) mitigated the deleterious effects of salinity. Moreover, three circulations of the nutrient solution daily resulted in lower accumulation of inorganic Na+ and Cl- solutes and increased accumulation of nutrients N, P, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and S in the culture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
Nusrat Bano ◽  
Ghulam Mustafa ◽  
Anwar Ali

Purpose: Integrity is pre-requisite for the prosperity and development of the society. Stable integration is the sign of justice, equality, rights and duties which provides tolerated society and religious inclusion. But, developing countries still have many challenges to stabilize their socio-religious integration due to non-cooperative behavior among different segments of the society, lack of politico-religious tolerance and less socio-economic development. The other factors responsible are poor educational and health system, weak social institution, marginalized segments of society, absences of culture of welfare state. Likewise, in India, communal conflicts remain present in every time as well as Pakistan faces sectarian tension and in both countries, religious norms and attitudes are used for political purposes. Similarly, both countries have the challenges of inequality and injustices within their communities. Design/Methodology/Approach: The qualitative techniques have been applied in this research. Date has been collected from Secondary and Primary Sources. Findings: Economic development is necessary for the development of the social prosperity without it socio-religious integration is a dream. Implications/Originality/Value: The epidemic COVID-19 has challenged the socio-religiosity of the developing countries which affected the socio-economic and religious set up of these countries ruthlessly.


Author(s):  
Vijay A. Neelakantan ◽  
Gregory N. Washington

The property of magnetorheological fluids to change their yield stress depending on applied magnetic fields can be employed to develop many controllable devices one of them being MR fluid based clutches. One major problem however with MR fluid based clutches is that at high rotational speeds, the iron/ferrous particles in the MR fluid centrifuge due to very high centrifugal forces. Thus the particles move outward as the speed increases thereby making the fluid non-homogeneous. Many times however the initial analysis assumes fluid homogeneity, which is really not the case. In this paper this problem is addressed by assuming various volume fraction profiles describing the fluid particle orientation. Two cases, one with a linear profile and the other with an exponential profile are discussed. Expressions for the torque transmitted are derived at for both disc shaped and cylindrical shaped clutches. In addition, the use of a MR sponge based clutch that may indeed reduce the effect of centrifugal forces significantly is described. The design methodology and configuration for the sponge clutch are also discussed. An experimental set up used to test the clutch is also described.


2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farinaz Fassa

Purpose – Discussing the Swiss case, the purpose of this paper is to examine how gender equality policies deal with the present requirements for scholars to be considered “excellent”. It aims to pinpoint the lines of tension or coherence between excellence, meritocracy and gender politics. Design/methodology/approach – In order to specify the norms of academic careers and their different renditions, the author draws on two studies (at local and national levels) to illustrate where the changes and resistances are taking place. Findings – The translations of a number of demands of feminist movements into the policies set up to favour equality between the sexes may combine to challenge the norms of academia as a gendered realm. Nevertheless, without strong pressure from feminists at local level and the conduct of research pursuing the enterprise of deconstructing norms, top-down policies may prove less “corrective” than affirmative action. This pressure is not only useful to build gender equality in science but also to broaden the spectrum of knowledge that can become a common good. Research limitations/implications – As neither the names nor the positions of the experts who select the candidates at national level are made public, we had to opt for other, less satisfactory means. Originality/value – The originality of the paper lies in the link made between the enhancements brought by Equalities policies and the changes they bring. It attempts to bring to light the extent to which gender equality policies conform to the neo-managerial order or challenge its norms to build a world that is more just.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabid Ali Al-Jarhi

Purpose This paper aims to provide an economic rationale for Islamic finance. Design/methodology/approach Its methodology is simple. It starts with listing the contributions to economic analysis relevant to the required rationale in the theories of banking, finance, price, money and macroeconomics, to identify the main rationale for Islamic finance. A concise description of the author’s model for an Islamic economic system, within which Islamic finance can be operational, is provided. Findings The paper finds distinct advantages of Islamic finance, when properly applied within the author’s model. Islamic finance can therefore be a candidate as a reform agenda for conventional finance. It opens the door for significant monetary reform in currently prevalent economic systems. Research limitations/implications The first limitation of the paper is that the distinct benefits of Islamic finance are all of macroeconomic types which are external to Islamic banking and finance institutions. They are therefore not expected to motivate such institutions to apply Islamic finance to the letter, without regulators interference to ensure strict application. The second limitation is the necessity to set up enabling institutional and regulatory arrangements for Islamic finance. Originality/value The results are unique as they challenge the received doctrine and provide non-religious rationale for Islamic finance.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunaina Chetan Kuknor ◽  
Shubhasheesh Bhattacharya

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the relationship between inclusive leadership (IL) and organizational inclusion (OI) in literature and explores the contribution of IL and OI in human resources development (HRD). Design/methodology/approach The systematic literature review was undertaken from peer-reviewed journals. In total, 68 articles were critically analyzed to be included in the review highlighting the relationship between IL and OI. Findings The paper provides insights into leader behaviors that foster IL and how it differs from other styles of leadership. The paper also proposes a theoretical model to show the relationship between IL and OI. Practical implications The study will facilitate creating awareness in practitioners and academicians who think inclusion is mostly concerned with disabled learners, which is misleading. The paper will help the concerned stakeholders to formulate HRD practices to foster an inclusive culture at work. Originality/value The paper explores an area less researched and is among the few review papers investigating through the relationship between IL and OI and how they impact HRD practices in an organizational set-up.


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