Productive and technological characteristics of goat farmers in Comondú, Baja California Sur

To identify productive characteristics through the technological indicators adopted by goats farmers at theComondú municipality, state of Baja California Sur, Mexico. A survey consisting of semi-structured questionswas designed to obtain multi-criteria information on the variables of technological, economic, social, andmultilevel indicators. The production units (PUs) were classified by the cluster analysis of means statisticalmethod in the SAS software, allowing to identify four groups of producers of 10.33, 69, 10.33, and 10.33 % ofthem. The social indicator demonstrated differences between UPs regard their education level, non-inclusionof women in the activity, total annual income, and whether or not they are members of an association. Thetechnological indicator revealed differences in their distance from the UPs to the community, road conditions,area of the UP, available area for planting, water sources, herd size, availability to facilities, machinery, andequipment. The economic indicator showed differences between UPs in their agricultural complementaryactivities, economic dependence, milk production, cheese production, animal wastes, goat production, andtheir respective sales values. The conclusion is that this information is useful for particularly attending to theneeds and will allow defining the precise kind of intervention in the management practices or the requiredmanagement.

Extreme Value Charts & Analysis of Means Based on the New Weighted Exponential Distribution

It is assumed that the probabilistic model of the quality characteristics follows the new weighted exponential distribution. Control charts based on each subgroup’s extreme values are established. The constants in the control chart are determined by the probability distribution of the extreme value order statistics of the sub-group and the sub-group size. The proposed chart is thus referred to as an extreme values chart. A biased overall mean analysis method (ANOM for truncated population) is used for the new weighted exponential distribution. Examples based on real time data are used to explain the findings.

A generalised approach on kerf geometry prediction during CO2 laser cut of PMMA thin plates using neural networks

This study presents an application of feedforward and backpropagation neural network (FFBP-NN) for predicting the kerf characteristics, i.e. the kerf width in three different distances from the surface (upper, middle and down) and kerf angle during laser cutting of 4 mm PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) thin plates. Stand-off distance (SoD: 7, 8 and 9 mm), cutting speed (CS: 8, 13 and 18 mm/sec) and laser power (LP: 82.5, 90 and 97.5 W) are the studied parameters for low power CO2 laser cutting. A three-parameter three-level full factorial array has been used, and twenty-seven (33) cuts are performed. Subsequently, the upper, middle and down kerf widths (Wu, Wm and Wd) and the kerf angle (KA) were measured and analysed through ANOM (analysis of means), ANOVA (analysis of variances) and interaction plots. The statistical analysis highlighted that linear modelling is insufficient for the precise prediction of kerf characteristics. An FFBP-NN was developed, trained, validated and generalised for the accurate prediction of the kerf geometry. The FFBP-NN achieved an R-all value of 0.98, in contrast to the ANOVA linear models, which achieved Rsq values of about 0.86. According to the ANOM plots, the parameter values which optimize the KA resulting in positive values close to zero degrees were the 7 mm SoD, 8 mm/s CS and 97.5 W LP.

Means of linguistic expressiveness in the headings of the «Opinions» section of the Internet newspaper «Izvestia»

The article is devoted to the analysis of means of expression. with the help of which the titles of the publications «Opinion» of the Internet newspaper «Izvestia» were formed. It was revealed that the most important tool with which expressiveness is created is a pun, playing with words and phraseological combinations. The main object of rethinking is phraseological units, and the main type of pun is the phonetic pun. A large number of figurative and expressive headings among the analyzed material is associated with the author’s nature of these publications, with the fact that journalists, writers, public figures in this section strive for creative self-expression and self-representation as creative personalities. It is emphasized that phonetic puns attract authors with their rich possibilities in accentuation and transformation of words, meanings and sounds.

English Language Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Critical Thinking within Moroccan High Schools

This study addresses the restricted attention of critical thinking in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in Moroccan high schools, which is one of the new issues investigated in recent times. Many students could not think critically since their instructors could not implement critical thinking into their instructional practices every day. The primary bjective of this inquiry is to examine teachers’ attitude towards the use of critical thinking in the classroom. In this paper, the questionnaire was used to address only English language high school teachers. Descriptive statistical analysis of means, standard deviations, and percentages were used. The results showed that teachers held a positive attitude towards the use of critical thinking in the classroom. Therefore, they need not hesitate to introduce it in their teaching. Our findings strongly indicate that having an understanding of what really happened in the classroom will surely help shape the development of critical thinking in education. This suggests that further study could be carried to determine teachers’ level of use of critical thinking in Moroccan high schools.

Determination of Objective Weights Using a New Method Based on the Removal Effects of Criteria (MEREC)

The weights of criteria in multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems are essential elements that can significantly affect the results. Accordingly, researchers developed and presented several methods to determine criteria weights. Weighting methods could be objective, subjective, and integrated. This study introduces a new method, called MEREC (MEthod based on the Removal Effects of Criteria), to determine criteria’ objective weights. This method uses a novel idea for weighting criteria. After systematically introducing the method, we present some computational analyses to confirm the efficiency of the MEREC. Firstly, an illustrative example demonstrates the procedure of the MEREC for calculation of the weights of criteria. Secondly, a comparative analysis is presented through an example for validation of the introduced method’s results. Additionally, we perform a simulation-based analysis to verify the reliability of MEREC and the stability of its results. The data of the MCDM problems generated for making this analysis follow a prevalent symmetric distribution (normal distribution). We compare the results of the MEREC with some other objective weighting methods in this analysis, and the analysis of means (ANOM) for variances shows the stability of its results. The conducted analyses demonstrate that the MEREC is efficient to determine objective weights of criteria.