scholarly journals Microstructural Investigations on Plasticity of Lime-Treated Soils

Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Enza Vitale ◽  
Dimitri Deneele ◽  
Giacomo Russo
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Limit ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Plastic Behavior ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Clay Particles ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Surface Charge Distribution ◽  
Plastic Changes ◽  
Interparticle Repulsion

The surface charge distribution of clay particles governs the interparticle forces and their arrangement in clay-water systems. The plasticity properties are the consequences of the interaction at the microscopic scale, even if they are traditionally linked to the mechanical properties of fine-grained soils. In the paper, the plasticity modifications induced by the addition of lime were experimentally investigated for two different clays (namely kaolinite and bentonite) in order to gain microstructural insights of the mechanisms affecting their plastic behavior as a function of the lime content and curing time. Zeta potential and dynamic light scattering measurements, as well as thermogravimetric analyses, highlighted the mechanisms responsible for the plastic changes at a small scale. The increase of the interparticle attraction forces due to the addition of lime increased the liquid and plastic limits of kaolinite in the short term, without significant changes in the long term due to the low reactivity of the clay in terms of pozzolanic reactions. The addition of lime to bentonite resulted in a decrease of interparticle repulsion double layer interactions. Rearrangement of the clay particles determined a reduction of the liquid limit and an increase of the plastic limit of the treated clays in the very short term. Precipitation of the bonding compounds due to pozzolanic reactions increased both the liquid and plastic limits over the time.

scholarly journals Effects of agricultural credit on wheat productivity of small farms in Sindh, Pakistan

2018 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 592-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbas Ali Chandio ◽  
Yuansheng Jiang ◽  
Feng Wei ◽  
Xu Guangshun
Keyword(s):  
Wheat Yield ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Small Farms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Agricultural Credit ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of short-term loan (STL) vs long-term loan (LTL) on wheat productivity of small farms in Sindh, Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach The econometric estimation is based on cross-sectional data collected in 2016 from 18 villages in three districts, i.e. Shikarpur, Sukkur and Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, Pakistan. The sample data set consist of 180 wheat farmers. The collected data were analyzed through different econometric techniques like Cobb–Douglas production function and Instrumental variables (two-stage least squares) approach. Findings This study reconfirmed that agricultural credit has a positive and highly significant effect on wheat productivity, while the short-term loan has a stronger effect on wheat productivity than the long-term loan. The reasons behind the phenomenon may be the significantly higher usage of agricultural inputs like seeds of improved variety and fertilizers which can be transformed into the wheat yield in the same year. However, the LTL users have significantly higher investments in land preparation, irrigation and plant protection, which may lead to higher wheat production in the coming years. Research limitations/implications In the present study, only those wheat farmers were considered who obtained agricultural loans from formal financial institutions like Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited and Khushhali Bank. However, in the rural areas of Sindh, Pakistan, a considerable proportion of small-scale farmers take credit from informal financial channels. Therefore future researchers should consider the informal credits as well. Originality/value This is the first paper to examine the effects of agricultural credit on wheat productivity of small farms in Sindh, Pakistan. This paper will be an important addition to the emerging literature regarding effects of credit studies.

scholarly journals Control and remediation methods for eutrophic lakes in the past 30 years

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 1099-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Zhang ◽  
Pingping Luo ◽  
Shuangfeng Zhao ◽  
Shuxin Kang ◽  
Pengbo Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Cyanobacterial Blooms ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Eutrophic Lakes ◽  
Lake Ecosystems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Incomplete Removal

Abstract Accelerated eutrophication, which is harmful and difficult to repair, is one of the most obvious and pervasive water pollution problems in the world. In the past three decades, the management of eutrophication has undergone a transformation from simple directed algal killing, reducing endogenous nutrient concentration to multiple technologies for the restoration of lake ecosystems. This article describes the development and revolution of three remediation methods in application, namely physical, chemical, and biological methods, and it outlines their possible improvements and future directions. Physical and chemical methods have obvious and quick effects to purify water in the short term and are more suitable for small-scale lakes. However, these two methods cannot fundamentally solve the eutrophic water phenomenon due to costly and incomplete removal results. Without a sound treatment system, the chemical method easily produces secondary pollution and residues and is usually used for emergency situations. The biological method is cost-effective and sustainable, but needs a long-term period. A combination of these three management techniques can be used to synthesize short-term and long-term management strategies that control current cyanobacterial blooms and restore the ecosystem. In addition, the development and application of new technologies, such as big data and machine learning, are promising approaches.

Social work interventions for human trafficking victims’ in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 002087281990116
Author(s):  
Solomon Amadasun
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Social ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Social Work Interventions

Human trafficking victims require holistic and long-term services if their social conditions are to be improved. This study aims to explore the nature of social work services for human trafficking survivors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a cohort of social workers in a statutory anti-trafficking organization in southern Nigeria and the results were analyzed using thematic analysis. While the social workers reported providing services to trafficking survivors, these services were mainly rehabilitation-driven and short-term-focused. Although the research relates to a small-scale study, it has far-reaching implications for social work professionals and the Nigerian political leadership.

scholarly journals Population signatures of large-scale, long-term disjunction and small-scale, short-term habitat fragmentation in an Afromontane forest bird

Heredity ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 113 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
J C Habel ◽  
R K Mulwa ◽  
F Gassert ◽  
D Rödder ◽  
W Ulrich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Forest Bird ◽  
Afromontane Forest

From Small Scale, Short Term to Large Scale, Long Term: Integrating ‘Sustainability’ into Engineering Education

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M LEMKOWITZ ◽  
B. H BIBO ◽  
G. H LAMERIS ◽  
J. A. B. A. F. BONNET
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Short Term

scholarly journals Conceptual and detailed design knowledge management in customized production – Industrial perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Pokojski ◽  
Konrad Oleksiński ◽  
Jarosław Pruszyński
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Customer Requirements ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Industrial Practice ◽  
Market Situation ◽  
Customized Production ◽  
Joint Evaluation

Abstract The current market situation forces companies that deal with small scale, dedicated production to meet the needs and demands of their customers quickly. Usually, the products must be designed to fulfil a certain set of requirements. Additional conditions necessary to meet are also the limitations resulting from law regulations related to environmental, safety, maintenance and recycling matters. The imposed requirements are very often contradictory. In such cases the design process is an attempt to find a rational compromise. Fulfilling all the above-mentioned conditions is very difficult, especially for small companies. As the result, engineers have to take into consideration a much wider scope of tasks and responsibilities which are related to different areas of knowledge. Knowledge of a particular area is not always mastered to the extent that allows them to move freely within it. In such situations engineers are willing to use personal knowledge and experiments as the basic sources of design information. The exchange of opinions, joint evaluation of concepts and detailed solutions, as well as long-term and short-term close teamwork are also often observed. Public tools to support the indicated processes did not fully meet the team's requirements. The authors introduce a proposal for an application that supports the solving of this class problem based on modelled, acquired and stored knowledge. The work presents the characteristics and range of supported engineering processes. Next, the concept and the construction of the software, as well as its functioning using real examples, which derive from industrial practice, are presented. Highlights Manufacturers of industrial equipment must be flexible in relation to customer requirements. Designers need to take into account a much wider range of knowledge than in the past. Engineers are willing to use techniques such as re-use and modification. The aim of work is to create software solutions that will streamline the design phase. The authors create an environment where knowledge and its development is the main aspect.

scholarly journals On-Side fighting in civil war: The logic of mortal alignment in Syria

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 402-460
Author(s):  
Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Short Term Survival

On-side fighting – outright violence between armed groups aligned on the same side of a civil war’s master cleavage – represents a devastating breakdown in cooperation. Its humanitarian consequences are also grave. But it has been under-recognized empirically and therefore under-theorized by scholars to date. This article remedies the omission. Existing research can be extrapolated to produce candidate explanations, but these overlook spatial and temporal variation in on-side fighting within a war. I provide a theory that accounts for this ebb and flow. On-side fighting hinges on belligerents’ trade-offs between short-term survival and long-term political objectives. Enemy threats to survival underpin on-side cooperation; in their absence, belligerents can pursue political gains against on-side competitors. I evaluate this threat-absence theory using evidence from the ongoing Syrian Civil War’s first years. Fine-grained fatalities data capture fluctuating enemy threats to on-side groups’ survival and situate on-side fighting and its absence. Findings support threat-absence theory and contribute to research on warfighting and political competition in civil wars and to the study of coalition dynamics in other settings, including elections and legislatures.

The value of a broad temporal and spatial perspective in understanding dynamics of kelp forest ecosystems

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Reed ◽  
Andrew R. Rassweiler ◽  
Robert J. Miller ◽  
Henry M. Page ◽  
Sally J. Holbrook
Keyword(s):  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Kelp Forest ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Spatial Perspective ◽  
Ecological Responses ◽  
Temporal And Spatial

Many ecological processes play out over longer time scales and larger spatial scales than can be studied in a traditional 2–4-year grant cycle. Uncertainties in future funding hinder efforts to implement comprehensive research programs that integrate coupled time series observations of physical variables and ecological responses, manipulative experiments and synthetic analyses over the long term. Such research is essential for advancing our understanding of ecological responses associated with climate change, and the physical and biological processes that control them. This need is perhaps greatest for ecosystems that display highly dynamic and spatially complex patterns that are difficult to explain with short-term, small-scale studies. Such is the case for kelp forest ecosystems, which often show tremendous spatial and temporal variability in resource supply, consumer control and physical disturbance across spatial scales of metres to hundreds of kilometres and temporal scales of hours to decades. Here we present four examples from the Santa Barbara Coastal Long-term Ecological Research project that demonstrate the value of a broad temporal and spatial perspective in understanding the causes and ecological consequences of short-term local dynamics of giant kelp forests of California, USA.

scholarly journals Leveraging fine-grained mobile data for churn detection through Essence Random Forest

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Colot ◽  
Philippe Baecke ◽  
Isabelle Linden
Keyword(s):  
Communication Network ◽  
Random Forest ◽  
Unstructured Data ◽  
Spatial Mobility ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Classical Communication ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Telephone Companies ◽  
Mobility Data

AbstractThe rise of unstructured data leads to unprecedented opportunities for marketing applications along with new methodological challenges to leverage such data. In particular, redundancy among the features extracted from this data deserves special attention as it might prevent current methods to benefit from it. In this study, we propose to investigate the value of multiple fine-grained data sources i.e. websurfing, use of applications and geospatial mobility for churn detection within telephone companies. This value is analysed both in substitution and in complement to the value of the well-known communication network. What is more, we also suggest an adaptation of the Random Forest algorithm called Essence Random Forest designed to better address redundancy among extracted features. Analysing fine-grained data of a telephone company, we first find that geo-spatial mobility data might be a good long term alternative to the classical communication network that might become obsolete due to the competition with digital communications. Then, we show that, on the short term, these alternative fine-grained data might complement the communication network for an improved churn detection. In addition, compared to Random Forest and Extremely Randomized Trees, Essence Random Forest better leverages the value of unstructured data by offering an enhanced churn detection regardless of the addressed perspective i.e. substitution or complement. Finally, Essence Random Forest converges faster to stable results which is a salient property in a resource constrained environment.

scholarly journals Cooperation as a Foreign Policy Instrument

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Contreras
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Evaluation Methodology ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The South ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Bilateral Relations

Cooperation is undoubtedly a great tool to deploy Chilean foreign policy, since it creates long-term ties with the beneficiary countries. This generates small-scale retributions in bilateral relations and in specific technical areas, as well at the multilateral level. Chile's cooperation flows have undergone important changes since the creation of the International Cooperation Agency in the 90s, to the present, since Chile has gone from being a net recipient, to being a participant in international cooperation through the South-South modality or horizontal. In spite of this, it is not possible to clearly establish the benefits that cooperation generates for the country because there is no clear evaluation methodology. Finally, Chilean cooperation does not have a priority budget, and its programs are affected by short-term issues in the absence of a more leading role in the formulation of Chilean foreign policy.

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