Implications of quality deterioration for public foodgrain stock management and consumers in Bangladesh

In the late 1990s, government policy in Bangladesh shifted in favor of increased public foodgrain stocks, setting official minimum stock targets of 1.0 to 1.2 million tons, as compared to operational targets of about 700 to 800 thousand metric tons in the early 1990s. Because no mechanism for stock rotation involving simultaneous buying and selling grain at a wholesale level exists, higher stock levels with no increase in distribution led to an increase in average age of stocks and problems of stock quality deterioration. This paper extends earlier analyses of stock policy by focusing on a key aspect of stock management in Bangladesh: the economic costs of stock quality deterioration in storage, including the implicit costs to recipients of Public Food Distribution System (PFDS) foodgrain. Using market prices to value procurement and distribution of rice and wheat, consumer and producer subsidies accounted for 57.4 and 20.9 percent, respectively, of net outlay in 2000/01. Implicit losses to rice consumers due to quality deterioration were significant in 2000/01: about 1.05 billion Taka (about 19 million dollars), equal to 10.9 percent of total net outlay on rice of the PFDS. Analysis of the costs and benefits of alternative stock targets based on calculations of the minimum age of stock on a monthly basis indicates that moderate increases in the size of stock (e.g. 200 thousand tons), lead to only small net marginal outlays. However, unless procurement and distribution are also raised, the age and quality of the stock for distribution deteriorates, resulting in significant losses to program recipients.Grain production ,Bangladesh ,Food supply ,

Type of Tomato Classification Using Deep Learning

Abstract: Tomatoes are part of the major crops in food security. Tomatoes are plants grown in temperate and hot regions of South American origin from Peru, and then spread to most countries of the world. Tomatoes contain a lot of vitamin C and mineral salts, and are recommended for people with constipation, diabetes and patients with heart and body diseases. Studies and scientific studies have proven the importance of eating tomato juice in reducing the activity of platelets in diabetics, which helps in protecting them from developing deadly blood clots. A tomato classification approach is presented with a data set containing approximately 5,266 images with 7 species belonging to tomatoes. The Neural Network Algorithms (CNN), a deep learning technique applied widely in image recognition, is used for this task

An Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching the 7 Characteristics for Living Things

Recently, due to the rapid progress of computer technology, researchers develop an effective computer program to enhance the achievement of the student in learning process, which is Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). Science is important because it influences most aspects of everyday life, including food, energy, medicine, leisure activities and more. So learning science subject at school is very useful, but the students face some problem in learning it. So we designed an ITS system to help them understand this subject easily and smoothly by analyzing it and explaining it in a systematic way. In this paper, we describe the design of an Intelligent Tutoring System for teaching science for grade seven to help students know the 7 characteristics for living things smoothly. The system provides all topics of living things and generates some questions for each topic and the students should answer these questions correctly to move to the next level. In the result of an evaluation of the ITS, students like the system and they said that it is very useful for them and for their studies

Adaptive Intelligent Tutoring System for learning Computer Theory

In this paper, we present an intelligent tutoring system developed to help students in learning Computer Theory. The Intelligent tutoring system was built using ITSB authoring tool. The system helps students to learn finite automata, pushdown automata, Turing machines and examines the relationship between these automata and formal languages, deterministic and nondeterministic machines, regular expressions, context free grammars, undecidability, and complexity. During the process the intelligent tutoring system gives assistance and feedback of many types in an intelligent manner according to the behavior of the student. An evaluation of the intelligent tutoring system has revealed reasonably acceptable results in terms of its usability and learning abilities are concerned

ADO-Tutor: Intelligent Tutoring System for leaning ADO.NET

This paper describes an Intelligent Tutoring System for helping users with ADO.NET called ADO-Tutor. The Intelligent Tutoring System was designed and developed using (ITSB) authoring tool for building intelligent educational systems. The user learns through the intelligent tutoring system ADO.NET, the technology used by Microsoft.NET to connect to databases. The material includes lessons, examples, and questions. Through the feedback provided by the intelligent tutoring system, the user's understanding of the material is assessed, and accordingly can be guided to different difficulty level of exercises and/or the lessons. The Intelligent Tutoring System was evaluated by a group of users and the results were more than satisfactory in terms of the quality of the material and the design of the system

Pengaruh Motivasi dalam Meningkatkan Semangat Kerja Pegawai pada Bagian Keuangan di Kabupaten Tulang Bawang

The problem in this study is whether motivational factors can enhance employee morale in the financial district Tulang Bawang. Purpose of the study to determine the magnitude of the effect of motivation on employee morale in the financial district Tulang Bawang. Data collection techniques used were literature study (library research) and field research (field research) that include interview, observation, documentation, and questionnaires. Used in analyzing the problems of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis to support the. Preformance of quantitative analysis using a formula writer product moment correlation coefficient and KP (determinant coefficient). The analysis shows that the influence of motivation morale of employees in the financial district Tulang Bawang

The Effect of Mineral Filler, Asphalt Content, and Curing Time on the Properties of Cold Mixes When Used for Low-volume Roads

Factors such as economy, awareness of environmental problems, and the need for conservation of energy fuels have increased the rate of emulsion use in recent years. These factors have also shifted the efforts to replace cutback asphalts with emulsified asphalts in a majority of paving applications, especially in paving mixtures. This study reports the findings of a laboratory investigation that evaluated the effect of asphalt emulsion content, percent of mineral filler, and curing time on the· design parameters and properties of emulsified asphalt-aggregate cold mixes used in low-volume road by utilizing Marshall equipment. One aggregate type (quartzite) and one type of asphalt emulsion (CSS-1) were used. Sixty specimens were prepared and tested in accordance with the procedure developed by the Asphalt Institute utilizing the Marshall mix-design method, along with minor modifications created for this particular study. The variation of mineral filler in the mix and curing time were considered and analyzed rather than determination of an optimal residual asphalt content for a job mix. Comparative studies were conducted using statistical analysis, and prediction models were constructed to predict cold mix properties utilizing the data obtained from the laboratory. These models revealed that mix properties cannot be evaluated in relation to a single factor, and the interaction of these factors must be considered in the evaluation as demonstrated by various models. However, a basic finding of this study was that curing time has the greatest effect on cold mixes and increasing it tends to enhance their properties a great deal

Digital transformation: incorporating social and human extensions into change models

This study is about incorporating social and human dimensions of the organisation into change models to support technology enabled change, also known as digital transformation. Organisations often manifest change through projects. Despite utilizing change models and frameworks, the rate of failure remains as high as 80%, leading to estimated financial losses of $900B USD a year, in addition to non-financial losses such as opportunity cost, change fatigue, loss of confidence and poor morale. Studies show that the majority of the root causes of failure are non-technical; yet change models and frameworks focus on the technical aspects, providing little guidance to the non-technical aspects (i.e. social and human). This study explores this omission with the aim of developing extensions to improve the success rate of organisational change. The context of the study is two multi-national organisations undergoing digital transformation: a telecommunication provider and a financial institution. The researcher, by virtue of his role as digital transformation leader, is embedded in both organisations which facilitates a deeper understanding of the change context and more informed interpretation of observations and data. Action Research principles support the researcher’s dual role and provide rigor and validity. The study uses Mixed Methods to collect data: two focus-groups sessions with 14 to 20 participants in each and 11 semi-structured interviews with change leaders. The researcher recognizes the ethical implications and tensions associated with Action Research, and maintains vigilance and balance throughout. The study outcomes represent proposed extensions to change models and are model agnostic. They include language, definitions of ‘social’ and ‘human’ aspects of organisational change, themes supporting social and human dimensions of change, weaving of the themes into a practical workflow, and a stakeholder categorization framework mapped to power of influence spectrum. In addition, an interconnected Organisational Model - Human, Business, and Environment - is presented. The proposed extensions aim to improve the success rate of digital transformation and as a result, contribute to boosting productivity, reducing operating costs and improving organisational performance

The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Improving Human Rights in Iraq

Iraq has had a long history of human rights violations since its inception as a modern state in 1921. This is true especially under the personalistic dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Under his regime, the Iraqi people suffered a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including political imprisonment, torture, and summary and arbitrary executions. This regime used a variety of mechanisms to squelch political dissent, including house-to-house searches; arbitrary arrests, often in large numbers; surveillance; harassment and questioning of family members; detention of targeted individuals, such as those returning to Iraq pursuant to amnesties, at unknown locations; and the use of torture prior to and during interrogation. Due to deep historical ethnic cleavages between its ethnic groups and religious sect, any attempt to build a country where human rights will prevail seemed unachievable. However, events after 1991, the initial Kurdish human rights experience showed different results with the intervention of the international community, especially under the impact of NGOs in the region. Most theoretical assumptions regarding human rights development fail to consider the complex, interconnected events, and historical and psychological elements in Iraq since its formation as a modern state, and the rich political, social and history of one part of the country, namely the Kurdish people. This research attempts to answer these interrelated questions: why was the Kurdish parliament able to pass some progressive laws regarding respecting human rights for women, children, and minorities? Second, how, and why was the international community, especially through human rights NGOs, successful in Kurdistan while the rest of Iraq failed to implement these human rights changes? This project offers a different perspective on how and why NGOs impact the process of human rights development in Iraq. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the largest qualitative dataset of NGO leaders to date to explain the process of human rights development, regarding women and minorities. Advisor: Ross A. Mille