An ecological study of barley growing under three contrasting regimens of farm management

Using barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) as a phytometer, comparisons were made of the three systems of farm management (Organic, Mixed and Stockless), maintained as a long-term experiment by the Soil Research Association (Pye Research Centre) at Haughley in Suffolk. Special attention being paid to the geochemicals of the crops/soil system. Significant differences were indicated between both 'total' and 'available' geochemicals of the three soil systems. The differences of available geochemicals are undoubtedly related to the differing long-term management, especially the continuous and predominant use of organic manures and mulches on both the Organic and Mixed systems. The unexpected differences in total geochemicals (significantly more Ca, Mg and K in the Organic soils) is tentatively explained on the basis of deterioration of soil structural characteristics in the Stockless system, leading to interruption of the supply of geochemicals by capillary water. The data collected allowed crude geochemical budgets for the farm systems to be attempted and the work was, therefore, supplemented by the lysimeter studies. The indications for this work are that the geochemicals in the Organic soil are more readily 'available' to leaching than those of the Stockless soil. Phytometry, using both the old "Rika' barley variety used in the long-term experiment, and the new varieties 'Julia' and 'Sultan', did not, in the main, back up the above findings. This was especially true of the field experiments when environmental factors other than geochemical supply, probably govern the performance of the barley. However, in the majority of cases where significant differences were shown, the Organic system always shows better performance of the plant or greater flux of geochemicals into the plants than the Stockless system. No indication of a developed dependence of the barley on the three farm systems was obtained. Nitrogen fixation by soil microorganisms appear to be unimportant on the Haughley systems

Developing Students' Ability of Mathematical Connection Through Using Outdoor Mathematics Learning

The Purpose of this study is to determine the achievement and improvement of students' mathematical connectionability through using outdoor mathematics learning. 64 students from the fifth grade of Primary School at SDN 65 and SDN 67 Bengkulu City were taken as the sample of this study. While the method of the research used in this research is experiment with quasi-experimental designs non-equivalent control group. The results of the study are as follows: (1) There is an increasing ability found in mathematical connection of students whom taught by using outdoors mathematics learning is 0,53; (2) Based on statical computation that achievement of students' ability of mathematical connection is taught by using outdoor mathematics learning score is 71,25. It is higher than the students score 66,25 which were taught by using the conventional learning. So as to improve students' mathematical connection, teachers are suggested to use the outdoors mathematics learnin

SMANJENJE TROŠKOVA TRANSPORTA OTPADA U PROVINCIJI TAIF, SAUDIJSKA ARABIJA

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a critical issue in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Management of solid waste in crowded conditions, especially in main cities such as the Al-Taif Province. This paper deals with that case study and focuses on how to solve material handling problems by applying conventional methods and computer ability. One of the costliest operations in the civil sector is transportation for material handling. City mayors considered transportation and materials handling as a subclass of the linear programming technique, thus linear programming problems take into consideration that the main objective is to handle materials from the city centre site to the identified dumping area. There are many methods and tools used to solve the transportation problem (TP) to find out the maximum or minimum in order to reduce cost or maximize profit. The methods related to manual solutions and others used many different computer applications. Manual solutions include the northwest corner method, the minimum cost method, the row minimum cost method, the column minimum cost method, and Vogel\u27s approximation method, and computer applications such as LINGO, Lingo, and solver function using Microsoft Excel. This case study focuses on applying the Microsoft Excel function to find the minimum cost of the transportation system in waste materials to reduce the transportation cost from the city centre to the final destination (dumping area) to be used. The results achieved with the model aided in obtaining optimal solutions and finally, the optimal solutions were checked.Gospodarenje čvrstim komunalnim otpadom kritično je pitanje u Kraljevini Saudijskoj Arabiji (KSA), posebice u uvjetima guste naseljenosti u glavnim gradovima i pokrajinama kao što je Taif. Ovaj rad prikazuje studiju slučaja i usredotočen je na to kako riješiti probleme gospodarenja i manipulacije materijalima primjenom konvencionalnih metoda i informatičkom tehnologijom. Jedan od najskupljih poslova u komunalnome sektoru jest transport materijala. Gradske uprave transport i rukovanje materijalima smatraju potklasom tehnologije linearnoga programiranja, stoga problemi linearnoga programiranja uzimaju u obzir da je glavni cilj rukovanje materijalima od središta grada do identificiranoga odlagališta. Postoje mnoge metode i alati koji se koriste za rješavanje problema transporta (TP) kako bi se saznao maksimum ili minimum u smislu smanjenja troškova ili maksimiziranja profita. Te metode primarno su se odnosile na manualna rješenja, a druge su se koristile mnogim različitim računalnim aplikacijama. Manualna rješenja uključuju metodu sjeverozapadnoga kuta (northwest corner method), metodu minimalnoga troška, metodu minimalnoga troška retka, metodu minimalnoga troška stupca i Vogelovu metodu aproksimacije te računalne aplikacije kao što su LINGO, Lingo i funkciju Solver koja je uključena u Microsoft Excel. Ova studija slučaja usredotočuje se na primjenu Microsoft Excel funkcije za pronalaženje minimalne cijene sustava transporta otpadnoga materijala kako bi se smanjio trošak transporta od centra grada do konačnoga odredišta (odlagalište). Rezultati dobiveni modeliranjem dali su optimalna rješenja koja su na kraju rada i provjerena

Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Kooperatif Tipe Snowball Drillinguntuk Meningkatkan Prestasi Belajar Siswa pada Pokok Bahasan Sistem Periodik Unsur di Kelas X SMA Negeri 1 Inuman

This research aims to increase student achievementon the subject Sistem periodic unsure inclass XSMAN 1 Inuman. This research is a kind of experiment research with pretest-posttest design. The research was conducted in SMAN 1 Inuman.The samples of this research were the students of class X MIA 2 as the experimental class and students of class X MIA 1 as the control class.Experimental class is a class that is cooperative learning model Snowball Drilling, while the control class was not. Data analysis technique used is the t-test. Based on analysis of data obtained tarithmetic> ttable is 2,7761 > 1,66, means that the application of cooperative learning model Snowball Drilling can improve student achievement on the subject of system periodic unsurein class X SMAN 1 Inumanincrease learning achievement category in the experimental class is based on the normalized gain scores (N-Gain) relatively high at 0,7806

Ionosphere: A Month Campaign over Sipitang and Parit Raja Stations, Malaysia

Ionospheric scintillations, which cause significant effects on satellite signals for communication and navigation, often takes place in equatorial region such as Malaysia. However, this disturbance are not fully understand due to few studies performed. This research reports the study and monitoring activity on Total Electron Content (TEC) and ionospheric scintillation in Malaysia using GPS measurements. Approach: One dual-frequency GPS receiver was positioned at the main station in Parit Raja, West Malaysia (1.86° N, 103.8° E) and Sipitang, East Malaysia (5.10° N, 115.56° E) respectively. Dual-frequency GPS data collected during the one-month ionospheric experimental campaign was used for TEC and scintillation computation and analysis. The TEC with 15 sec interval were computed from combined L1 and L2 code-pseudorange and carrier phase measurements. Whereas, the scintillation parameter S4 index was computed as a standard deviation of the received signal power normalized to average signal power every 60 sec on L1. A corrected S4 (without noise effects) was also computed and used in the analysis. Results: It was found that the daily maxima vTEC for Parit Raja (PR) ranged from 38-100 TECU, which is generally higher than those of Sipitang, which ranged from 30-42 TECU. However, a general consistency for both stations can be seen during the 1 month campaign period. Conclusions/Recommendations: In conclusion, these results show good agreement in the existence of the equatorial anomaly observed during moderate solar flux conditions and undisturbed geomagnetic condition. This will contributes to the knowledge of equatorial ionosphere and help in space weather condition. However, to better understand and characterize the ionosphere over Malaysia, more campaigns should be encouraged

Application of a hybrid of least square support vector machine and artificial bee colony for building load forecasting

Accurate load forecasting is an important element for proper planning and management of electricity production. Although load forecasting has been an important area of research, methods for accurate load forecasting is still scarce in the literature. This paper presents a study on a hybrid load forecasting method that combines the Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) methods for building load forecasting. The performance of the LSSVM-ABC hybrid method was compared to the LSSVM method in building load forecasting problems and the results has shown that the hybrid method is able to substantially improve the load forecasting ability of the LSSVM method

Effects of Solder Temperature on Pin Through-Hole during Wave Soldering: Thermal-Fluid Structure Interaction Analysis

An efficient simulation technique was proposed to examine the thermal-fluid structure interaction in the effects of solder temperature on pin through-hole during wave soldering. This study investigated the capillary flow behavior as well as the displacement, temperature distribution, and von Mises stress of a pin passed through a solder material. A single pin throughhole connector mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) was simulated using a 3D model solved by FLUENT. The ABAQUS solver was employed to analyze the pin structure at solder temperatures of 456.15 K (183∘C)

Application of PROMETHEE method for demand side management (DSM) options ranking

Demand Side Management (DSM) is a method used to modify the electrical load profile of a consumer to reduce its electricity bill. There are various types of DSM options available but mostly involve costs to be incurred by consumers. Moreover, the effectiveness of a DSM option depends on various factors including investment cost, saved energy, payback period and more. Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a tool that can be applied to make decision when a lot of factors to be taken into account. In DSM, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one MCDA technique that is widely used in ranking the DSM options. However, AHP requires additive aggregation that may cause lost in detailed information. This paper presents another MDCA method; Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) to perform the ranking of DSM options. PROMETHEE (I and II) were used in a case study and the results shows that PROMETHEE give the same result as AHP. PROMETHEE has an advantage over AHP as it does not require additive aggregation even the problem is multi-dimensional and could provide visual analysis

Prediction and measurement of high frequency radio frequencies in peninsular Malaysia and comparisons with the international reference ionosphere model

Prediction of High Frequency (HF) radio frequency is important in the planning and operation of HF radio system because of the highly variable ionospheric region. Therefore, there is a requirement to find reliable and accurate HF operating frequencies in the Malaysian environment. The main aim of this study was to observe and analyze the HF prediction and measurement in Peninsular Malaysia which was then compared to the IRI Model prediction. This study was carried out in the equatorial region and in the middle of solar cycle 24 which was in July and August of 2014. The HF prediction process involved two maximum usable frequency (MUF) models, and the predicted result, i.e., operating working frequency (OWF) was based on hourly monthly median values. The results show that the IRI Model overestimated MUF prediction at about 36% for July 2014 and 38% for August 2014. This indicates that the IRI Model is an inappropriate model to be used for prediction of HF operating frequency in the Malaysian region. Meanwhile, the OWF measurements were around the OWF prediction, and this indicates that the OWF measurements are in the range of the OWF prediction. Accordingly, the lower decile MUF, i.e., OWF is the right range for HF operating frequency