Provision of Library and Information Resources and Services on Suicide: Nigerian Libraries Perspective

This paper seeks to highlight the services and resources provided by Nigerian libraries on the prevalent incidents of suicide. The library is a hub of activities and its major purpose is to provide necessary and needed information to its teeming users. Library and information resources are those materials provided by the library both in printed and electronic formats which include the provision of information on suicide. These resources aid the provision of various information services such as current awareness service, selective dissemination of information, reader advisory service, and lots more. The diverse information services can be provided in collaboration with NGOs to create public awareness, provide signages on suicide and also train librarians on how to interact with users who are likely to possess such traits with the aid of the available resources that would help in suicide prevention, and also provide direction on how to get psychological help. From the literature review, very little is written on suicide by authors in Nigeria and it is a fact that Nigerian libraries do not give special attention to the provision of resources on suicide, especially the preventive aspect of it; therefore, a recommendation for a special corner in the library for such resources was proffered.

Economic impact of the agro meteorological advisory services of Ministry of Earth Sciences - A review

ESSO-MoES is making constant efforts to improve prediction of weather, climate and hazardous events for societal, economic and environmental benefits. For this it is making huge investments in terms of infrastructure growth, up-gradation of technical knowledge and human resource development. These new technical capabilities offer the promise of much improved forecasts and reliable service and this has been established through some of the recent skilful predictions of extreme events that occurred over the country. However, it is important to justify the spending through evaluating the economic benefits of the services. ESSO-MoES, regularly undertakes studies to carry out the impact assessment and benefits of the services it renders in economic terms. This paper is a review of the studies carried out in various phases, involving impact assessment and economic benefit of the Agromet Advisory service being rendered by ESSO-MoES. The studies indicate that over the years there is a definite increase in the economic benefits with improvement in the , outreach and worthiness of the service which is direct fallout of improved weather predictions as a result of the huge investments being made by Government of India.

A Q study: exploring the purpose of transdisciplinary dairy advisory services in Denmark

Background Structural changes in dairy farming increase farm complexity, thereby inducing a need to combine herd health management, technological solutions, legislation, and human relations among farmers, farm workers, and advisors. This complex situation may require ‘transdisciplinary advisory service’, i.e., a highly integrated network of both non-academic and different academic disciplines. While working in these networks, advisors need to offer specialized knowledge from their own field, interact in a dynamic relationship between different types of professions and facilitate complex processes. The objectives of this study were: (1) to identify and describe different advisor and farmer styles based on their reasons to engage in transdisciplinary advisory services at farm-level, (2) to identify any possible conflicting perspectives between advisors and farmers’ demand, and (3) to discuss these styles and conflicts in the context and future of advisory services for dairy herd health and production management. Results Using Q methodology, we explored the purpose of transdisciplinary advisory service on dairy farms. The results were derived from correlations between 40 statements for 25 advisors and 33 statements for nine farmers. We identified three similar styles among advisors and farmers, characterized as: (1) the teamwork and knowledge-focused style, (2) the production and economy-focused style, and (3) the economy and strategy-focused style. These styles included reflections on financial aspects, production, knowledge-exchange and the teamwork process itself. In addition, different emphasis on animal welfare, farm strategy and follow-up procedures between the styles became evident. Conclusions This Q-study suggests three comparable styles between advisors and farmers. The main differences between the styles related to the teamwork process and purpose, follow-up process, financial aspects, farm strategy, and operational production objectives. Therefore, styles and expectations should be explored and discussed to create a mutual understanding within a farmer-advisor(s)-team, and to clarify the farmer’s needs and demands, and how the advisors can best meet these expectations. This study illustrates the importance of exploring different advisor and farmer styles to get a mutual understanding of the purpose of the transdisciplinary collaboration.

Trajectory Optimization of CAVs in Freeway Work Zone considering Car-Following Behaviors Using Online Multiagent Reinforcement Learning

Work zone areas are frequent congested sections considered as the freeway bottleneck. Connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) trajectory optimization can improve the operating efficiency in bottleneck areas by harmonizing vehicles’ manipulations. This study presents a joint trajectory optimization of cooperative lane changing, merging, and car-following actions for CAV control at a local merging point together with upstream points. The multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL) method is applied in this system, with one agent providing a merging advisory service at the merging point and controlling the inner-lane vehicles’ headway for smooth outer-lane vehicle merging, while other agents provide lane-changing advisory services at advance lane-changing points to control how vehicles make lane changes in advance and perform corresponding headway adjustment, similar to and jointly with the merging advisory service. Uniting all agents, the coordination graph (CG) method is applied to seek the global optimum, overcoming the exponential growth problem in MARL. Using MATLAB and the VISSIM COM interface, an online simulation platform is established. The simulation results show that MARL is effective for online computation with in-timing response. More importantly, comparisons of the results obtained in various scenarios demonstrate that the proposed system obtained smoother vehicle trajectories in all controlled sections, rather than only in the merging area, indicating that it can achieve better traffic conditions in freeway work zone areas.

Impact assessment of weather based agro-advisory services of Indus plain farming community under cold arid Ladakh

The study was conducted to evaluate the impact assessment of adoption of weather prediction using traditional knowledge and IMD based HMAARI Agro Advisory Services to understand the utilization efficiency of natural resources under cold arid region of Ladakh and to identify socio-economic status of agriculture farmers, their source of information, perception of farmers and their knowledge response carried out at High Mountain Arid Agriculture Research Institute, SKUAST (K), Leh-Ladakh. Total 100 farmers from AgroMet registered 3 villages of Leh region were randomly selected using multistage sampling technique. Socio-economic characteristics of respondents revealed that although before using advisory services, majority of the farming community were using traditional knowledge system to predict precipitation / temperature forecasting to interpret weather conditions. With the introduce of advisory services, it was recorded that old-aged farmers started using advisory services to the tune of 42 per cent. While more than 50 per cent of selected farmers (middle-aged non-registered under Agro-Met advisory services) utilized traditional prediction even under the changing climate. Education and land holding size were the most important factors influenced adoption culture of weather based Agro Advisory Services in the region. It was interesting that the old-aged people/farmers are the major source of information for traditional knowledge, have integrated and adopted the advisory services for weather prediction. As this advisory service scheme provided comprehensive information for agricultural operations. Majority (80%) selected farmers reported their satisfaction with present system of Agromet Advisory Bulletins, being issued biweekly. Whereas, the non-registered farmers of vulnerable villages in Ladakh region showed less knowledge about advisory service and its weather interpreted perdition.