The Effect of Crop Residue Percentages and Their Chopped Size on Soil Compactibility

The advancement of technology and increasing use of mechanization in agriculture, as well as increasing size of agricultural machinery for farm capacity improvement, have led to soil compaction. In developed countries, various reports of the soil compaction impacts on the reduction of agricultural products have been provided. In developing countries, soil compaction represents a less-known issue and a its destructive nature in agriculture has not been sufficiently addressed. Furthermore, in developed countries, the soil is rich in organic matter due to conservation tillage; however, in Iran, conservation tillage is not possible to perform because of traditional agriculture and using old agricultural machinery. Therefore, plant residues are either removed from fields, or burned. However, sufficient content of organic matter in field can contribute to soil compaction mitigation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of percentage of crop residues and their size on soil compaction at different soil moisture contents. For these purposes, five different soil moisture contents (8, 10, 12, 14 and 16% based on dry soil weight) and 4 residue rates at 3 fragmentation sizes were observed in terms of soil compaction. At all different soil moisture contents and residue sizes, with increasing percentage of added straw to the soil, the soil displacement increased. Moreover, as the straw size increased, the initial displacement during compression decreased, e.g., the maximum displacements for straw percentage of 12% and soil moisture of 8% were 64, 62 and 60 mm considering the straw sizes of 1, 2.5 and 5 cm, respectively. With high residue percentage, the final soil density and soil compaction were lower due to the low specific density of straw relative to soil. Furthermore, with high percentage of straw, more deformations and displacements were occurred in the mixture due to large deformation of straws. The density changes of soil-straw mixture were more significant at high residue percentages.

Formulation of Empowering Poor Women with Pro-Poor Capacity Improvement Model

There are several reasons that lead to the importance of implementing a gender-oriented poverty alleviation program, one of which is that it can stimulate the emergence of empowerment. So the purpose of this research is to formulate the empowerment of poor women with the Pro-poor Capacity Improvement model in an effort to alleviate poverty in rural areas. The formulation of the model is based on the analysis of potentials, barriers, opportunities, threats, and policies in empowering poor women. Research in Gadingkulon Village, Dau District, Malang Regency was carried out through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, observations, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), and literature studies. The first stage uses quantitative analysis to present the frequency table, and the second stage uses qualitative analysis in gender analysis by Sara Longwee. This research resulted in a model for empowering poor women, which was designed in the Pro-poor Capacity Improvement ((PCIM) model which consisted of several components in the model in order to improve family welfare. These components consisted of the results of an analysis of potential, opportunities, obstacles, intervention in entrepreneurship, and welfare.The formulation of empowerment of poor women in Gadingkulon Village can be implemented in poverty alleviation efforts.

Impacts of FDI on technology upgrade and employment of Singapore and Malaysia, lesson for Vietnam

<p>This thesis evaluates Vietnam's experience with FDI to date and looks at what lessons can be drawn from the experiences of Malaysia and Singapore to help Vietnam deal with emerging problems. The thesis shows that Vietnam's experience with FDI has been successful in the following ways: a significant contribution to growth, constitute 63.1% of exports (2012), some advanced technology are transferred, creation a number of new jobs and improving the quality of domestic products, etc. The main issues for Vietnam, though are limited technological upgrading, disappointing employment performance, fierce competition, crowding out effects and domination of FDI firms in the domestic market, etc. The thesis argues that the Malaysian and Singaporean experiences suggest Vietnam should prioritize tax incentives for pioneer industries, particularly aspects of education; enhancing human capital and technology capacity; improvement of business environment and subsidiaries industry, etc.</p>

Impacts of FDI on technology upgrade and employment of Singapore and Malaysia, lesson for Vietnam

<p>This thesis evaluates Vietnam's experience with FDI to date and looks at what lessons can be drawn from the experiences of Malaysia and Singapore to help Vietnam deal with emerging problems. The thesis shows that Vietnam's experience with FDI has been successful in the following ways: a significant contribution to growth, constitute 63.1% of exports (2012), some advanced technology are transferred, creation a number of new jobs and improving the quality of domestic products, etc. The main issues for Vietnam, though are limited technological upgrading, disappointing employment performance, fierce competition, crowding out effects and domination of FDI firms in the domestic market, etc. The thesis argues that the Malaysian and Singaporean experiences suggest Vietnam should prioritize tax incentives for pioneer industries, particularly aspects of education; enhancing human capital and technology capacity; improvement of business environment and subsidiaries industry, etc.</p>

Facing the Future of China’s Science and Technology Development

China’s scientific and technological strength is in a critical period of transition, from quantitative accumulation to a qualitative leap, and from point breakthroughs to system-wide capacity improvement. China has formulated the “Three-Step” strategic goal of scientific and technological innovation leadership. This chapter introduces eight socioeconomic foundations and strategic systems for supporting China’s science and technology innovation. These are sustainable energy and resources, advanced materials and intelligent green manufacturing, ubiquitous information network, ecologically high-value agriculture and bioindustry, universal healthcare, ecological and environmental conservation and development, space and ocean, and national and public security. China is committed to promoting the modernization of science and technology governance capabilities, improving the science and technology decision-making consultation mechanism, re-engineering the science and technology plan management system, optimizing scientific research projects and funding systems, promoting the open sharing of scientific and technological resources, and creating a deeply integrated open innovation environment.

Absence of exercise capacity improvement after in-hospital short-term cardiac rehabilitation is associated with long-term clinical outcome in heart failure patients

Background Previous studies suggest Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) improve exercise capacity and decline mortality in heart failure (HF) patients. However, some studies show there are HF patients who do not improve exercise capacity by CR and these patients have a higher risk of adverse events in long-term clinical outcome. We investigated whether absence of exercise capacity improvement after in-hospital short-term CR also has adverse effect in long-term clinical outcome. Methods In this retrospective study, 130 HF patients who underwent two weeks in-hospital CR after received standardized HF treatment between July 2014 and August 2020 were included. Improvement in exercise capacity was assessed by change in peak oxygen consumption (delta-Peak VO2) measured at 1st and 14th day of CR by cardiopulmonary test. The median delta-PeakVO2 was 1.3 ml·kg-1·min-1. Patients were classified as responder if they demonstrated delta-PeakVO2 ≥1.3 ml·kg-1·min-1 and as non-responder if they demonstrated delta-PeakVO2 &lt;1.3ml·kg-1·min-1. MeanΩ follow-up was 1236 days. The primary outcome was all-cause death. Result 63 patients (48.4%) were classified as non-responder. Non-responders were older (75.5±10.6 vs 70.8±11.0, P=0.01) and lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (49.7±19.4 vs 57.9±19.2) and lower albumin (3.5±0.5 vs 3.7±0.3 g/dL, P=0.04) than responders. Transtricuspid pressure gradient (TRPG) measured by transthoracic echocardiography was also higher in non-responders (28.5±10.9 vs 22.7±6.3). Predictor of non-responders were TRPG (OR = 1.1, 95% CI 1.02–1.26) and albumin (OR =0.04, 95% CI: 0.003–0.40). In multivariate analysis including delta-PeakVO2 &lt;1.3 ml·kg-1·min-1 (non-responder), age &gt;75, male gender, PeakVO2 at 1st day of CR, body mass index (BMI), left ventricular ejection fraction measured by transthoracic echocardiography, medication of β-blockers showed that delta-PeakVO2 &lt;1.3 ml·kg-1·min-1 (HR =2.8, 95% CI 1.0–7.5), age&gt;75 (HR11.2, 95% CI 2.1–60.1), BMI (HR =0.8, 95% CI 0.6–0.96) were associated with all-cause death. Conclusion The absence of exercise capacity improvement after in-hospital short-term CR was the risk of all-cause death. Especially, the HF patients with higher TRPG and lower albumin have a higher probability of becoming a non-responder. FUNDunding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.