Evaluation of an ivermectin-based attractive targeted sugar bait (ATSB) against Aedes aegypti in Tanzania.

Background The control of vector borne arboviral diseases such as Dengue is mainly achieved by reducing human-vector contact and controlling the vectors through source reduction and environmental management. These measures are constrained by labour intensity, insecticide resistance and pro-active community participation. The current study intended to develop and test an ivermectin-based attractive-targeted sugar bait (ATSB) against Aedes aegypti. Methods The 48hour lethal concentration (LC90) of ivermectin against Ae. aegypti was determined through serial dilution experiment where five 30cm x 30cm x 30cm cages were set; into each, a 10% sugar solution treated with ivermectin were introduced. 40 Ae. aegypti were released into each cage and observed for mortality after 4, 8, 24 and 48 hours. The ivermectin-based ATSB was evaluated in a semi field system where ATSB and attractive sugar bait (ASB) were deployed into each compartment of the semi field and 100 female Ae. aegypti were released every day and recaptured the next day through human land catch and Bio-gent sentinel trap. The developed and semi-field tested ATSB was further tested in the field by deploying them in garages. Results The ivermectin 48hr LC90 of male and female Ae. aegypti was found to be 0.03% w/v. In the semi field system, the ATSB significantly reduced a free-flying population of Ae. aegypti within 24 hours (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.62; [95% confidence interval (95%CI); 0.54-0.70] and p-value < 0.001). However, in the field, the ATSBs required the addition of yeast as a carbon dioxide source to efficiently attract Ae. aegypti mosquitoes to feed. Conclusion Ivermectin is an active ingredient that can be used in an ATSB for Ae. aegypti depopulation. However, further research is needed to improve the developed and tested ATSB to compete with natural sources of sugar in a natural environment.

Wages and Firm Ownership: A Study of the Manufacturing Sector of India

From an ownership viewpoint, we analyse the determinants of significant wage differences for India’s manufacturing sector. We use data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s Prowess database from 2000–2015. Using fixed-effects and Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method, we confirm that foreign firms pay higher wages and salaries than domestic firms. Most importantly, productivity, participation in the export market, firm size, firm age and profit margin explain the inter-firm and intra-firm differences in labour intensity for the manufacturing firms in the Indian economy. The wage gap seems higher for intra-firm than the inter-firm, indicating that demand for labour is higher within the sector. JEL Classifications: E24, G32, L6, C13

New advances in automatic shearer cutting technology for thin seams in Chinese underground coal mines

Automatic mining technology is the ideal path and the inevitable way to improve production efficiency, reduce labour intensity and ensure safety for thin coal seam. Recently, while automatic mining technology is increasingly applied in China for thin seams, the corresponding automatic cutting technology has made new advances. Among them, mnemonic cutting technology has been fruitful industrial tested with suitable conditions. Simultaneously, another one called cutting trace pre-set technology of the shearer has been put forward. Using this method, the cutting trace in the area with coal thickness changed and geological structures can be preset. What's more, self-adaptive regulation strategy of cutting trace based on coal-rock recognition by monitoring current of cutting motor was discussed. Then, the main problems and development trends of automatic mining in China was also proposed.

Device for Wood-Cutting Tool Hardening

Choosing effective methods and devices for surface hardening of wood-cutting tools is problematic due to the variety of their designs and operating conditions. In this regard, the development of such devices becomes an urgent task. According to the literature, one of the effective methods for increasing the service life of machine parts and tools is electrospark hardening or electrospark alloying. Industrial electrospark installations such as “EFI” (electrophysical measurements) and “Elitron” with manual vibrators are used for electrospark hardening. However, using manual vibrators significantly increases the labour intensity and hardening time. Moreover, the surface quality after hardening with manual vibrators is often unsatisfactory. Various mechanized installations have been developed in order to reduce the labour intensity of electrospark hardening. Nevertheless, these installations are designed to harden specific parts and do not allow hardening tools of various designs, including woodcutting tools. The surface quality after hardening in mechanized installations does not always satisfy the customer. Further surface plastic deformation treatments, such as rolling and unrolling with rollers and balls, as well as diamond burnishing, are often used to improve the surface quality after electrospark hardening. The surface quality after additional processing by these methods boosts, although the labour intensity and cost of the hardening process increase. To increase the wear resistance of machine parts and tools, it is reasonable to reduce the height parameters of roughness, increase microhardness, and form the residual compressive stresses, which is ensured by the methods of surface plastic deformation. In this regard, it becomes necessary to use electrospark hardening simultaneously with surface plastic deformation. The work presents the design and features of using the device for hardening. The device was used to strengthen the thicknesser machine knives, which made it possible to almost double their durability. Applying this device, in comparison with using the electrospark hardening with a manual vibrator, reduces the roughness of the hardened surface and improves the surface quality of the processed workpieces. The modes of hardening have been installed, making it possible to effectively harden wood-cutting tools. For citation: Buglaev A.M. Device for Wood-Cutting Tool Hardening. Lesnoy Zhurnal [Russian Forestry Journal], 2021, no. 5, pp. 134–141. DOI: 10.37482/0536-1036-2021-5-134-141

Control of Production Personnel when Performing Vehicle Maintenance

The objective of this article is to analyse labour discipline of production personnel when performing vehicle maintenance works. Currently, many car service enterprises practically do not control the quality of the work of the employees. These responsibilities are assigned to the lower management level – foremen, however, they are either heavily loaded with work, or are not interested in performing control functions. In addition, labour intensity of technical maintenance and repair work is set by the manufacturer at the lowest possible level, assuming that the staff is highly qualified, and the company is provided with all the necessary special tools. As a result, it is difficult or impossible for employees to meet the standards, therefore, to fulfil the plan and not lose part of the wages, they miss or do not perform part of the work paid by the client. The studies were carried out in Perm at a typical car service enterprise, which is an official dealer of a domestic car brand.The analysis of the work of the personnel was carried out by comparing the actual work performed following the technology defined by the manufacturer. For this, video recording of all the actions of an employee was carried out. The completeness of each operation was noted, as well as the time spent. Work efficiency was assessed using Spaghetti diagrams, which indicate all movements of the performers. A methodology is presented that allows to give a final assessment of the work of locksmiths, which consists in calculating penalty points for exceeding standard time, partial execution or omission of operations. A scale for evaluating performers has been developed. The results of studies of carrying out maintenance of two identical cars are presented. The shortcomings of the production personnel are discovered and analysed. To increase labour productivity, it is possible to use the principles of lean production of the 5 «S» system. It is necessary to equip the posts with tools, issue checklists to the performers and use the movement scheme at the maintenance post, equip posts with video surveillance cameras and periodically carry out selective control of work. To motivate staff, it is necessary to revise the system of bonuses and fines, considering the results of work.

Debatable Aspects of Progressive Taxation of Individual Incomes in Russia

The present research deals with debatable aspects connected with introduction of progressive taxation of individual incomes in this country. In spite of the fact that in 2021 an attempt was made to introduce the progressive scale on income tax, different political parties put forward their own approaches substantiating them by demonstrating their regulating impact on economy. It is necessary to realize that progression in taxation involves not only the scale alteration. Today the possibility of progressive tax introduction is being discussed on the background of cutting their number in the fiscal system. In fact such innovations, despite their advantages, could have irrevocable consequences. Among key threats we can mention an increase in the shadow share of economy; administration challenges connected with labour intensity and extra costs; growing capital outflow abroad; general drop in economy competitiveness due to declining entrepreneurial urge towards profit maximization, etc. The article systematizes approaches presented by political parties for discussion and structures the author's approach to introduction of progressive rates based on generalized experience of best practices, adapted to Russian reality. The results of practical testing of authors' vision illustrated by income tax by different rates gives an opportunity to compare the tax burden, which can be estimated in order to enlarge citizens' groups with different levels of incomes.

Multiview Machine Vision Research of Fruits Boxes Handling Robot Based on the Improved 2D Kernel Principal Component Analysis Network

In order to better realize the orchard intelligent mechanization and reduce the labour intensity of workers, the study of intelligent fruit boxes handling robot is necessary. The first condition to realize intelligence is the fruit boxes recognition, which is the research content of this paper. The method of multiview two-dimensional (2D) recognition was adopted. A multiview dataset for fruits boxes was built. For the sake of the structure of the original image, the model of binary multiview 2D kernel principal component analysis network (BM2DKPCANet) was established to reduce the data redundancy and increase the correlation between the views. The method of multiview recognition for the fruits boxes was proposed combining BM2DKPCANet with the support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The performance was verified by comparing with principal component analysis network (PCANet), 2D principal component analysis network (2DPCANet), kernel principal component analysis network (KPCANet), and binary multiview kernel principal component analysis network (BMKPCANet) in terms of recognition rate and time consumption. The experimental results show that the recognition rate of the method is 11.84% higher than the mean value of PCANet though it needs more time. Compared with the mean value of KPCANet, the recognition rate exceeded 2.485%, and the time saved was 24.5%. The model can meet the requirements of fruits boxes handling robot.

Development of Forming Method of Deployable Boom from Thermoplastic Polymer Composite

This paper studies deployable elements which are used in satellites and different terrestrial antenna devices. Many deployable elements are made from steel or thermoset polymer composite materials and have the following disadvantages like length limitation of deployable elements, labour intensity of manufacturing process of deployable elements etc. For this purpose a deployable tube boom element was chosen and a forming method for manufacturing deployable tube element from thermoplastic polymer composite material was developed.

Is China’s Textile Industry Still a Labour-Intensive Industry?

Is China’s textile industry (CTI) still a laboor-intensive one? To answer this question, this study measures the capital-labour intensity and technology intensity of CTI and its sub-sectors during 2006-2018, then applies factor intensity classification and cluster analysis to identify their industrial attributes. The results show that CTI and its sub-sectors are still the labour- and non-technology-intensive. All the indexes of capital-labour intensity and technology intensity of CTI and its sub-sectors are below 100, lower than the average of industry sectors, indicating that they are not separate from the category of labour-intensive industry and still heavily dependent on labour. And cluster analysis verifies the industrial classification results. So CTI still needs to keep on increasing its capital intensity and technology intensity to achieve the goal of industrial transformation and upgrading in the future.

Nominal and Effective Rates of Protection by Industry in Pakistan: A Tariff Based Analysis

The study calculates nominal and effective rates of protection and their association with major characteristics of industries—labour intensity, export orientation and revealed comparative advantage. The results indicate that nominal as well as effective rate of protection has declined between two benchmark years—1990 and 2002, but vegetable oil, motor vehicles, and a sector producing intermediate good ‘other manufacturing’ remains highly protected. Overall results reveal that manufacturing import competing sectors enjoy higher protection through trade policy—tariff while negative effective rate of protection for majority of agriculture and services sectors show their disadvantage position in the economy. The results clearly indicate government priority for manufacturing sector over agriculture and services sectors. The results also reveal that effective rate of protection is negatively associated with industrial characteristics such as labour intensity, export orientation, and revealed comparative advantage indicating that a sector needs less protection if it has comparative advantage—labour intensive and produce exportable commodity. The results of the study also indicate that trade policy in Pakistan shifts trade in favours of trade in intermediate inputs in 2002 from trade in final goods in 1990. There is a need to restructure tariff structure to remove bias against agriculture and services sectors. Agriculture where majority of unskilled labour engaged ask immediate action from government to improve the condition of poor.