Getting the definition of 'consumer' right - Worrying about the smaller ones in Fiji

This paper argues that the definition of consumer in Fiji should be broadened to include the micro and small enterprises (MSEs). A survey conducted by the National Centre for Small and Micro Enterprises Development in Fiji provides a deep insight into the operation of MSEs in Fiji. The survey findings reveal that MSEs are vulnerable and could be easily exploited by larger companies in the market. One of the ways in which MSEs could be protected is by providing them with the consumer-level protection. This paper argues that MSEs are eligible for consumer protection because like consumers, they also have poor bargaining power, less expertise in making an informed purchasing decision and significant difficulties in seeking remedies against the large suppliers. The paper further contends that the definition of consumer must not only be widened in the general consumer protection law but in the consumer credit legislation and with respect to unfair contract terms too. The arguments against the proposal to broaden the definition are that all businesses, regardless of their size, should be treated the same, there are other relevant laws for the protection of business-consumers and that it would put extra burden on the suppliers, many of whom are small businesses themselves. The paper ends with a draft definition of consumer which includes domestic consumers, micro businesses, whether purchasing for business use or re-sale and small businesses purchasing for business consumption

Agro-hydrological modelling of regional irrigation water demand

The irrigation sector accounts for over 70% of the total freshwater consumption in the world. Therefore, e cient management of irrigation water is essential to ensure water, food, energy and environmental securities in a sustainable manner; these securities are grand challenges of the 21st century. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the simulation of irrigation water demand at the catchment scale in order to develop improved tools for conducting quantitative planning and climate change studies. Irrigation water demand is mostly driven by soil moisture. It is a state variable which is used to trigger the irrigation in hydrological models. In this study, a hydrolgical model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool, SWAT) is evaluated for reliably simulating the spatial and temporal patterns of soil moisture at a catchment scale. The SWAT simulated soil moisture was compared with the indirect estimates of soil moisture from Landsat and Time-domain re ectometry (TDR). The results showed that the SWAT simulated soil moisture was comparable with the soil moisture estimated from Landsat and TDR. Secondly, the applicability of the SWAT model was tested for simulating stream ow, evapotranspiration (ET) and irrigation water demand for four di erent agro-climatic zones (Mediterranean, Subtropical monsoon, Humid, and Tropical). Two di erent irrigation scheduling techniques were used to simulate irrigation namely, soil water de cit and plant water demand. It was seen from the results that the SWAT simulated irrigation amounts under soil moisture irrigation scheduling technique were close to the irrigation statistics provided by the state. However, the irrigation amounts simulated under the plant water demand irrigation scheduling technique were underestimated. Additionally, the two reanalysis data were also used to check the data uncertainty in simulating irrigation water demand. SWAT model code was modi ed by incorporating modi ed root density distribution function and dynamic stress factor. The modi ed model was used to simulate irrigation and crop yield. It was tested against the irrigation and crop yield simulated by Soil Water Atmosphere Plant (SWAP) model and eld data (Hamerstorf, Lower Saxony, Germany). It was then validated for di erent catchments (Germany, India and Vietnam). The results showed that the SWAT simulated irrigation water demand in case of plant water demand is comparable with the amount simulated by the model under soil water de cit irrigation scheduling technique. This dissertation not only bridges the gap between the scales of soil moisture determination but also establishes a close connection with the actual observations and modelled soil moisture and irrigation amounts at the eld, regional and global studies in agricultural water management. Additionally, the studies about simulating irrigation water requirement in data-scarce areas must address data uncertainty when using reanalysis data. It was found that rainfall is not always the dominant variable in irrigation simulation. Therefore, it is worth checking and bias correct the other climate variables

Layout Design and Implementation of Adiabatic based Low Power CPAL Ripple Carry Adder

his paper presents schematic and layout design s for low power adiabatic Ripple Carry Adder which is implemented by proposed N - type & P - type Full Adder Cell . Adiabatic logic Design is the most efficient energy saving technique which provides very low power dis sipat ion for VLSI circuits. In this paper the main emphasis on the most significant technique of adiabatic logic design that is Complementary Pass Transistor Logic. Simulation results show s that energy loss of digital VLSI circuits can be greatly reduced by using Complementary Pass Transistor A diabatic Logic technique. All the circuits have been simulated on BSIM3V3 90nm technology on tanner EDA tool

Environmental impact due to iron ore mining in Chhattisgarh

Iron ore is an important mineral in Chhattisgarh. The production of iron ore is 5.50 million tones per year. Due to massive extraction of iron ore, it pollutes air, water and soil. When iron in solution reaches the water table it pollutes the ground water, while dissolved iron in surface water reacts with soil to cause soil erosion and effect the soil profile and sometimes minor particles of iron spread with air cause air pollution. Mining in Bailadila and Dalli-rajhra (Durg) have resulted into various environmental problems. Apart from these, the open cast mining which removes the top soil cover may invite occurrences of landslide. If the mining and industrial activities are carried out in an integrated planed way by continuous monitoring and taking effective mitigative measures in a timely manner then it will definitely prove to be economically beneficial in a sustainable manner

EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON ADULT EDUCATION

Social Networking Sites (SNS) are rapidly taking over people’s personal as well as professional lives, globally. It has not only changed the way masses communicate and express but is also transforming the way learning is looked at. Though considered as inherently personal spaces, these sites are now proving to be professional spaces to learn; used by millions of consumers and validated by field experts and mentors. Although there is some amount of research done on the effects social network platforms have on school education, the way it is moulding adult education is yet to be fully investigated. Adult education is essentially unlike school education as it usually has a specific goal, either personal or career oriented. Since SNS are affecting all these aspects of life and the world is starting to accept them as not only socialising tools but as executive tools, it is time for these sites to be a part of adult education too

Detecting and predicting visual affordance of objects in a given environment

The rapid growth of the development of autonomous robots is transforming the manufacturing and healthcare industry in many ways, but they still face many challenges. One of the challenges experienced by autonomous robots is their inability to manipulate an unknown object without human supervision. One way through which autonomous robots can manipulate an unknown object is affordance learning [1]. Affordance describes the action a user can perform on the object in given surroundings. This report describes our proposed model to detect and predict the affordance of an object from videos by leveraging the spatial-temporal feature extraction through ConvLSTM and Fully Convolutional Networks. Our model is built upon an Encoder-Decoder architecture. The encoder consists of CNN to capture spatial features of the input frames and ConvLSTM to capture the temporal dynamics of the input frames. The decoder utilizes the encoder\u27s output to classify the affordance of a given task and predict the interaction region between the human and the object in the form of a heatmap. The decoder is composed of a LSTM, utilized to classify affordance of a given task, and a Fully Convolutional Neural Network to predict the heatmap of the interaction region

A case study on professional development of teachers in India

Abstract. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) practices in India, as articulated in policy documents exhibit a paradox. These documents oscillate between managerialist and democratic ideologies, consequently giving rise to conflicts and inconsistencies in practice. Furthermore, while teachers are often portrayed as agents of social transformation in policy documents, there is a failure to account for the realities of their professional lives and work environment. Consequently, with the introduction of the National Education Policy 2020, several new structures of CPD are being implemented, re-articulating the vision of a transformative teacher professionalism in India. Hence, in the relatively under-studied context of Goa, it was important to investigate the current CPD practices and whether they are aligned to the transformative policy vision. A qualitative case study methodology was employed through a socio-constructivist paradigm. Various stakeholders in the field of teacher education in Goa, including teachers, government officials, and resource persons, provided data through semi-structured interviews. This qualitative data underwent abductive thematic analysis, resulting in six key themes: ’Structure and Implementation of CPD’, ’Purpose of CPD’, ’Constraints of teacher autonomy’, ’Relevance of training’, ’Teacher motivation’, and ’Systemic issues’. These themes offered comprehensive answers to the research questions. Finally, the study proposed potential policy implications and areas for future research