Business Education Trends in Japan and America

This chapter shares the author's academic and career experiences in Japan and America and its influence on his perception towards business education, specifically MBA programs, in America. By sharing his experience, he will compare the business education in Japan and America and its differing perception of entrepreneurism. Comparing these two countries would highlight the current obstacles and future improvement for business education. Compared to business education in Japan, business education in America emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship within its curriculum.

Automatic Vehicle Access System using Ultra-High Frequency RFID

Securing and monitoring the territory have become a big challenge for everyone as the number of vehicle users have increased. The premise area must be secure with enforced entrances and exits. It should have an automated and efficient security and monitoring system. For this purpose, an automated vehicle access system with accurate and secure monitoring of vehicle entry and exit was developed with Graphical User Interface (GUI) and vehicle’s user database along with the prototype of Ultra-High Frequency RFID. The suitable configuration for the hardware prototype has also been evaluated to maximize the system’s capabilities. This system operates on frequencies from 400MHz to 950MHz and is performed at distances of 7 meters. The passive tag was attached to the various condition and sizes of the car. The result shows showed that the system was optimally performed with the speed of the vehicle up to 50 km/h, 7 m of reading range and a maximum 20% tinted windshield. The ideal angle for the reader is around 60ᵒ to 70ᵒ with 2 meters of mounting pole. For future improvement, it is suggested that the registered vehicle user data was linked with the official premise’s database and the data is saved in an off-site location (cloud storage). The GUI is also able to support more than 1 reader at a time depending on demand.

Reflection on Contradictory Learning Methods and Identity Formation in a New Academic Life Setting

Lecturers new to the academic life setting normally face similar types of challenges. These challenges were intensified for new lecturers starting their careers in the academic setting during the COVID-19 pandemic, when classes were conducted online. Student-centered learning has been the focus in engineering education recently, but many of the current lecturers have never experienced this method of learning as students, resulting in unfamiliarity and inexperience in conducting classes using this method of teaching. Our experiences as two new lecturers starting our academic careers during the pandemic using both the student-centered learning method and teacher-centered learning method in different classes are reported through collaborative autoethnographic methods. Both of our reflections revealed that stark differences can be seen as an effect of the teaching method, concluding that the student-centered learning method is superior to the traditional teacher-centered learning method. However, applying the former method also has some challenges. To overcome these challenges faced by new lecturers, some action plans have been listed for future improvement, which could be very meaningful and useful to other new lecturers as well as educators new to applying the student-centered learning method.

Evaluation and participatory variety selection of improved highland sorghum varieties for smallholder farm at west hararghe zone

Participatory variety selection is the most important breeding program which enhanced the adoption of improved varieties through creating awareness based on smallholder farmers’ selection criteria. Several different improved sorghum varieties are released at different international and national research institutions at different times, however, the technologies were not properly addressed the farmers based on participatory, client oriented and demand driven. The experiment was carried out in West Hararghe Zone; Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia with the objective to identify and recommend the best adapted and performed improved sorghum varieties with farmers’ preference traits through continuous performance evaluation at different stages of the sorghum. A total of six sorghum varieties were evaluated in randomized complete block design in the 2019 main cropping season. Farmers have evaluated the entire experimental units using different statistical tools like direct-matrix and pair-wise ranking algorithms at maturity stage. Farmers set selection criteria to identify the superior improved varieties as compared to the local check by listing different agronomic traits like yield, biomass, seed color, seed size and biotic and abiotic resistance. The analysis of variance showed that there was highly significant difference (p<0.01) among the genotypes for all studied traits. The greatest grain yield was recorded from the variety Dibaba (11325 Kgha-1) and Jiru (10200 Kgha-1) respectively. Likewise, based on the overall farmer’s preference, Dibaba and Jiru were ranked first and second and followed by Adelle, ETS2752 and Chiro respectively. Additionally, the study revealed that participatory varietal selection is playing decisive role in gathering farmers’ perceptions, preferences, merits and shortcomings of sorghum varieties for future improvement. Hence, based on the result of the study, variety Dibaba and Jiru were recommended for multiplication and distribution to farmers through both formal and informal seed systems. Generally, the integration of plant breeders and farmers’ perceptions are used to increase the adoption rate and design a good breeding program for future improvement.

Lessons Learnt From The 2020 COVID 19 Lockdown: A Students’ Online MS Team Project

This paper outlines an investigation of the impact of a programme Students Online, which was created in Microsoft (MS) Teams during New Zealand’s level 4 lockdown of March-May 2020. Students Online was set by the Learning Hub, the learning support centre, for a large tertiary institution in response to an international student’s request, asking for a way for students to meet and practise English. The study aimed to investigate the experiences of those who engaged with the MS Team and derive implications for possible future improvement. Offering focused learning support as well as sessions on life in New Zealand, the most significant benefit seen was the overall sense of connection when many aspects of life were disconnected. Other benefits highlighted by the study’s participants include improved communication between students and the Learning Hub, a “mental release” in the day, relationships being built and adding to the institute’s value of being supportive. The MS Team provided a sense of normality in a time when life was filled with abnormality. Participants were drawn from Learning Hub staff and students who interacted within the programme. This study found that the Students Online programme was considered generally useful and successful, modifications for future such programmes are suggested.

Research on Security Protocol Analysis Tool SmartVerif

Security protocols have been designed to protect the security of the network. However, many security protocols cannot guarantee absolute security in real applications. Therefore, security tests of the network protocol become particularly important. In this paper, firstly, we introduce SmartVerif, which is the first formal analysis tool to automatically verify the security of protocols through dynamic strategies. And then, we use SmartVerif to verify the pseudo-randomness of the encapsulated key of the Two-Pass AKE protocol, which was proposed by Liu’s in ASIACRYPT in 2020. Finally, we summary our work and show some limitations of SmartVerif. At the same time, we also point out the direction for future improvement of SmartVerif.

Research and Progress on the Mechanism of Iron Transfer and Accumulation in Rice Grains

Iron (Fe) is one of the most important micronutrients for organisms. Currently, Fe deficiency is a growing nutritional problem and is becoming a serious threat to human health worldwide. A method that could help alleviate this “hidden hunger” is increasing the bioavailable Fe concentrations in edible tissues of major food crops. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms of Fe accumulation in different crop tissues will help to develop crops with higher Fe nutritional values. Biofortification significantly increases the concentration of Fe in crops. This paper considers the important food crop of rice (Oryza sativa L.) as an example and highlights recent research advances on the molecular mechanisms of Fe uptake and allogeneic uptake in different tissues of rice. In addition, different approaches to the biofortification of Fe nutrition in rice and their outcomes are described and discussed. To address the problems that occur during the development and application of improving nutritional Fe in rice, technical strategies and long-term solutions are also proposed as a reference for the future improvement of staple food nutrition with micronutrients.

"Seed Science and Engineering" Exploration on the Construction of Curriculum Ideological and Political System

The specialty of "seed science and Engineering" has trained a large number of scarce seed talents for China. This paper summarizes the experience, existing problems and future improvement direction of the ideological and political system construction of the curriculum of "seed science and Engineering" in our university, in order to improve the ideological and political system construction of colleges and universities.

Graphene-based composite membranes for isotope separation: challenges and opportunities

Graphene-based membranes have got significant attention in wastewater treatment, desalination, gas separation, pervaporation, fuel cell, energy storage applications due to their supreme properties. Recently, studies have confirmed that graphene based membranes can also use for separation of isotope due to their ideal thickness, large surface area, good affinity, 2D structure etc. Herein, we review the latest groundbreaking progresses in both theoretically and experimentally chemical science and engineering of both nanoporous and lamellar graphene-based membrane for separation of different isotopes. Especially focus will be given on the current issues, engineering hurdles, and limitations of membranes designed for isotope separation. Finally, we offer our experiences on how to overcome these issues, and present an ideas for future improvement and research directions. We hope, this article is provide a timely knowledge and information to scientific communities, and those who are already working in this direction.