Modelling cultural dimensions and social relationships to create cultural synthetic characters

The work presented in this thesis investigates studies and theories of culture, social power and the relationship between culture and emotion studied by psychologists and anthropology. We operationalised a Cultural Dimension model, proposed by Hofstede, and Social Power and integrated them into an already existing architecture for autonomous agents called “FAtiMA”. The purpose of the adapted system is to generate culturally-specific behaviour in character interaction which is recognisably different to users. Two different experiments, with human participants, were conducted to investigate the perceived differences between two different groups of characters: with and without cultural parameters. The main result shows that users do recognise the differences in character behaviour between the two experimental cases, which demonstrates that our model is able to create culturally-specific synthetic characters

An integrated method for understanding the fluid flow behavior and forecasting well deliverability in gas condensate reservoirs with water aquifer drive

Gas condensate reservoirs constitute a significant portion of global hydrocarbon reserves. In these reservoirs, as bottomhole pressure falls below the dew point, liquid develops in the pore space. This results in the formation of a liquid bank near the wellbore region that decreases gas mobility, which then reduces gas inflow. Some gas condensate reservoirs have bottom aquifer drive, which also negatively impacts gas production. This research used a field case study to demonstrate an integrated workflow for forecasting well deliverability in a gas condensate field in Libya. The workflow began with the interpretation of open-hole log data to identify the production interval net pay and to estimate petrophysical properties. A compositional model was developed and matched to actual reservoir fluids. Transient pressure analysis was described and used to identify reservoir properties. Inflow performance relationships (IPRs) were analyzed using three types of backpressure equations. The workflow integrated all data in a numerical simulation model, which included the effect of bottom water drive. Sensitivity analysis was used to identify parameters with the greatest impact on future deliverability and recovery. The results provided in this case study demonstrated the importance of an integrated workflow in predicting future well performance in gas condensate fields with bottom water drive. The study demonstrated how to implement the workflow in managing or developing these types of reservoirs --Abstract, page iii

Competence of Professional Language Teachers in Providing Educational Services to Improve Students’ Retention Ability

The current research investigates how professional language teachers’ educational services improve the retention ability for high school students. The population in this study are 635 students of Al Manara School, located at city of Sirte, with 65 students as the sample taken with proportional random sampling technique, and involved two language teachers from the same school, an English teacher and an Arabic teacher. To collect research data, researchers used questionnaire and interview. The data was analyzed using a simple regression formula. The data with a simple regression model with a significance level of the regression was matched with the significance test rules. The result of data analysis indicates that the competence of professional language teachers in educating has a significant effect on increasing students’ memory toward lessons.  In addition, the researchers found that there are three pillars of educational services applied by language teachers in educating students. Therefore, it can be concluded that if the professional language teacher education services in educating are improved, there will be an increase in students’ retention ability toward lesson materials

Application of artificial neural networks in the design of drainage systems in data-poor areas.

Deeks, Lynda K. - Associate SupervisorDrainage has been identified as an often-neglected component of irrigated agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas. Even though it is accepted that drainage is often necessary to prevent waterlogging and salinity impacting productivity in irrigated agriculture, it is typically ignored when planning future irrigation schemes. Only 5 – 10% of the total irrigated land in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that requires drainage is currently drained (compared to 25 – 30% in developed countries). This is partly due to a fundamental lack of spatially and temporally coherent datasets containing key input parameters for drainage models, local expertise and the high cost of drainage installation. Drainage simulation models can provide reliable predictions of multi-component systems to evaluate drainage system design over long periods (1 – 100 years). This study evaluated existing drainage simulation models (i.e. DRAINMOD, SWAP, ADAPT, RZWQM2, EPIC, WaSim and HYDRUS-1D) for their suitability to be applied in data-poor arid and semi-arid regions. Based on a selection criteria, the most applicable model for drainage design in arid and semi-arid areas was DRAINMOD. DRAINMOD, an agricultural drainage simulation model, is a versatile and readily available model that can be used to evaluate alternative drainage system designs. DRAINMOD requires several key inputs, including saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat), reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and the Electrical Conductivity of a saturated soil Extract (ECe). In LDCs, measuring these parameters is expensive and time-consuming. In addition, existing historic datasets are often spatially and temporally limited. Therefore, indirect approaches are needed to overcome incomplete data records that restrict drainage designs. This thesis evaluates the feasibility of applying indirect methods, with a focus on developing and validating the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) using available historic measured datasets. The study data draws on the drainage design for Hammam Agricultural Project (HAP) and Eshkeda Agricultural Project (EAP), located in the south of Libya, north of the Sahara Desert. Soil texture, bulk density, field capacity, and wilting point were used to develop ANNs to predict Ksat which were significantly more accurate compared to widely adopted Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) such as Rosetta3. To calculate the daily ET0, average monthly maximum and minimum air temperature were used to develop ANNs. Arithmetic Averaging of Neighbouring Stations (AANS), MODAWEC and Era5-Land were among the indirect methods applied to predict ET0. Landsat 5 Surface Reflectance bands and the derived salinity indices were applied to develop ANNs to estimate ECe. The accuracy of the predicted values of Ksat, ET0 and ECe were evaluated by using statistical parameters such as coefficient of determination (R²), mean square error (MSE), and root mean square error (RMSE). The predicted Ksat and ET0 values were input to DRAINMOD to design drainage systems in EAP and HAP as compared to the optimum design based on measured data. The design focused on how accurately the predicted values were able to estimate drain spacing, relative yield, irrigation depth, and drainage discharge. The key findings showed that the accuracy of predicting Ksat greatly impacted predicting the optimum drain spacing and the associated relative yield. Accurate prediction of the optimum spacing between drains will reduce the overall cost by ensuring that the drains are not spaced too closely, but also lowers the risk of raising the water table and negatively impacting the yield by preventing the drains being installed on too wider a spacing. In addition, precisely predicting ET0 is essential to quantify the irrigation water requirement and drainage discharge. Finally, predicting soil salinity using remote sensing data can be used as an early warning tool to monitor irrigated lands affected by salinity, evaluate the performance of existing drainage systems, and indicate areas that need improvement. Future research recommendations identified by this research include the need for (1) critical evaluation of the accuracy of using ANNs and other machine learning approaches to predict other input parameters required for drainage design such as the water retention curve, depth of impermeable layer, hourly or daily rainfall, and initial water table depth. (2) development and validation of ANNs and other machine learning approaches that can predict Ksat, ET0, and ECe on a national level (Libya) and/or regional level (Middle East and North Africa) to overcome the challenge of incomplete data records that restrict drainage designs.Libyan Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research, via the Government of National Unity, Libyan Academic Attach ́e – London (FA042-185-5447)PhD in Environment and Agrifoo

The combined effects of starvation and pH on the virulence of Shigella sonnei ATCC25931

Shigella sonnei encounter numerous different stresses during their growth, survival and infection. In this study, the effect of stress response to pH and starvation was investigated. We studied the survival, adhesion and the morphology of Shigella after its incubation in several pH. Our results show that after 2 h of incubation, the rate of cell survival was proportional to the decrease of pH of the medium, but we also noted that the reduction of the cells viability is significant for the normal cells compared to starved cells. In addition to that, the results proved the evidence that the pH can influence significantly the hydrophobicity of S. sonnei (normal and starved) and their capacity to produce biofilm on Congo red agar and on polystyrene microplate wells. The atomic force micrographs showed a reduction of the cells size after stress.Keywords: Shigella sonnei, starvation, pH, survival, adhesion, morphologyAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(16), pp. 2034-204

La consommation halal à l'épreuve de l'immigration : cas de la deuxième génération maghrébine en France

«Halal/ » : une prescription de la religion musulmane qui circonscrit ce qui est permis, mais surtout un marché en croissance exponentielle. Le marché du halal pèse près de 700 milliards de dollars de chiffre d’affaires annuel et intéresse 1,6 milliard de musulmans dans le monde (Bel Hadj, 2015). Entre 2014 et 2015, les dépenses alimentaires du monde musulman ont affiché une progression de 4,3% en atteignant 1158 milliards de dollars soit 16,7% des dépenses alimentaires de la planète . Ces dépenses dépasseront la barre symbolique des 2000 milliards de dollars d’ici 2025. En France, le marché est en constante croissance à deux chiffres (entre 17 à 20 % les cinq dernières années), il est estimé à 5,5 et 7 milliards d’euros par an .Face à l’évidence de l’ampleur et du potentiel du marché du halal dans le monde et en particulier en France, plusieurs tentatives d’élucidation du phénomène sont avancées. En observant de près les pratiques marketing, nous constatons un «déni» total des origines religieuses et une préférence pour la carte du purement ethnique. La recherche, quant à elle, reste fragmentée. Si dans certaines disciplines on préfère encore parler d’un phénomène purement religieux, d’autres tiennent encore à l’étiquette communautaire. Ce flou persiste avec la vision monochrome et surtout cloisonnée entre plusieurs domaines d’études. La recherche dans la discipline du comportement du consommateur, qu’elle s’intéresse à l’essence de la proscription religieuse ou qu’elle se focalise sur la dimension ethnique, n’investigue pas automatiquement toutes les raisons pour lesquelles un individu respecte les règles du halal. La sociologie semble être la discipline qui a su arpenter les chemins les plus sinueux pour tenter d’apporter plus de compréhension à ce phénomène qui ne cesse de prendre de l’envergure et d’attirer les controverses les plus acerbes. C’est aussi la discipline qui a su capturer l’évolution des générations d’immigrants et a su exprimer la complexité de l’expression alimentaire de la deuxième génération mais aussi le défi que relève la communauté maghrébine à cohabiter avec la stigmatisation. Cette deuxième génération d’«immigrants» maghrébins qui n’ont jamais immigré, décide de «manger pour croire » en «se nourrissant de nostalgie » pour une culture qu’ils vivent par procuration à défaut de pouvoir s’intégrer entièrement dans la société française. Il devenait pour nous fondamental de considérer cette pratique alimentaire dans une perspective plus large qui favorise l’élan de l’engagement et de la revendication identitaire affichée. Dans cette voie, et dans la ligne directrice des travaux en sociologie qui ont été notre principale inspiration tout au long de ce travail, notre projet s’inscrit dans une volonté de saisir cette consommation à travers un héritage à la fois culturel, migratoire, familial et une trajectoire propre à chaque individu. Pour arriver à cette fin, nous avons privilégié l’enquête par questionnaire (432 observations) auprès des immigrants de deuxième génération habitant la région parisienne. Pour l’analyse, nous avons opté pour les méthodes des équations structurelles, avec l’ambition de démêler la toile d’araignée à la fois culturelle, sociale et personnelle sans s’enliser dans les a priori, les polémiques et les partis pris. Pour ce faire, nous avons, tout au long de ce travail abordé le halal sous l’angle d’un fait religieux comportant de multiples facettes, à la fois collectives et individuelles, conservatrices et modernistes, désintéressées ou engagées. Nos résultats confirment cette relation de conviction étroite avec la consommation halal. Outre la religion, construit de prédilection des principales recherches en comportement du consommateur, le présent travail doctoral confirme les apports de certaines valeurs (sécurité, stimulation/hédonisme) de l’acculturation mais aussi de la socialisation alimentaire. Cette dernière a cristallisé l’impact de la composante comportementale de l’apprentissage sur la consommation, mais a surtout révélé l’impact de la composante affective sur cet apprentissage. Du côté de l’acculturation, seul l’attachement à la culture hôte a prouvé son influence négative sur la consommation alimentaire halal. Les polémiques récurrentes qui collent au halal nous ont également suggéré la voie de la confiance en la certification, qui a elle aussi confirmé qu’il s’agit désormais d’un phénomène de conscience, de revendication mais aussi d’un engagement responsable du consommateur pour harmoniser ce qu’il incorpore avec ce qu’il est

Virulence gene expression, proteins secreted and morphological alterations of Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio alginolyticus in response to long-term starvation in seawater

International audienceIn this study, we incubated Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio alginolyticus (marine food-borne pathogens bacteria) in seawater for 8 months to study their morphologic, proteomic and genetic responses to starvation. The atomic force micrographs of stressed strains showed a reduction of the cells size and an evolution to two coccoid-shape forms whose length is less than 0.4 mu m and between 0.5 and 1 mu m. Extracellular protein patterns and gelatinase profiles of stressed bacteria were also altered. Indeed, these modifications were manifested by the appearance and/or disappearance of bands as well as in the level of expression of certain proteins. In addition, we also searched for the presence of eight Vibrio cholerae virulence genes: toxR, toxS, toxRS, ctxA, zot, ace, toxT, and Virulence Pathogenicity Island (VPI) in the genome of investigated strains. The expression level of VPI gene studied by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was decreased, whereas the mRNA quantities of toxR, toxS, and ace in starved Vibrio remained stable

Examination of Effects of Expanding Cities on Peri-Urban Agricultural Areas: Implications on Farmers' Livelihoods in Qarabulli District in the Eastern Part of Tripoli, Libya

Many countries in the southern hemisphere are still in the process of developing. In North Africa to be specific, the development process is bringing about various degrees of land use and land cover changes which are having various levels of impact on people’s lives both in urban and peri-urban areas among others. The core causes of these changes vary, but literature indicates that the process of urbanization is the main cause since as cities and town areas urbanization, deforestation, soil erosion and the sale of land by rural farmers are encouraged. Implications of land use and land cover changes are broad and vary across geographies. It is the variations of the impact of such changes that motivated this researcher to conduct this research with the aim of analyzing effects of urbanization and expanding cities on the surrounding agricultural area. The research zeroed in on trying to understand how peri urban farmers and their livelihoods are being impacted by various land use and land cover changes that are emerging from the expansion of Tripoli, the capital of Libya. This study examined the impact, both positive and negative, that the expansion of Tripoli has had on the livelihoods of these rural households in Qarabulli. It further sought to identify the way affected farmers and households cope and react to the various changes the expansion of Tripoli is exposing them to. The research also looked at the context in which the poor rural households pursue livelihoods, and discussed factors that make their livelihoods vulnerable. The forms of capitals, named livelihood assets, available to the rural households are also examined. The livelihood outcomes of the farmers, the strategies and the coping measures employed by affected peri urban farmers are identified and discussed. Through the utilization of a mixed methods research approach, a mix of qualitative and quantitative data were collected, and analyzed. Data collection was done in two stages. The first stage looked at land use and land cover changes through a critical analysis of land degradation and this was done using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. Image Classification, multi-temporal Landsat TM, and ETM+ imagery were used to determine and detect land use and land cover changes during the periods 1986 to 2009. The second stage of the research data collection process, collected qualitative data using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods to explore farmers’ experiences and feelings on how the land use changes are impacting their livelihoods. Through the use of Remote Sensing and GIS techniques, the study area is divided into four categories: urban area, forest land, irrigated farmland and bare land. Land use and land cover changes during the years 1986 and 2009 were noted and analyzed based on satellite images. The study found that throughout 1986 up to 2009, the size of land classified originally as urban area changed from the original size of 4,997 hectares to 9,653 hectares while within the same time span, land originally classified as forest land reduced in size by 1,793 hectares. Further to these changes, land classified as bare land increased in size by 2,353 ha while the original size of land classified as irrigated farmland reduced by nearly 2,204 hectares. These observed changes are significant, hence pose a growing threat to agricultural land in Libya which could impact food production and water quantity and quality thus potentially destabilizing food sufficiency and sustainability of the whole nation. Key findings concerned the identification of water quality and quantity as the main challenges faced the agricultural sector. As a way of managing this problem, the farmers asked for a speedy intervention of the Libyan government through greater regulation and investment in the agricultural sector. Further to the land use and land cover changes that were noted through the use and analysis of the satellite images, the study also noted that livelihoods of rural farmers in the periphery of Tripoli are threatened by the expansion of the city. The expansion, which is the core reason why the images are displaying the various changes noted, confirm that land originally used for agriculture has changed its use and is now used as urban land where urban settlements and associated infrastructure have been constructed thus making farmers lose the land on which rural households activities were being conducted. The study also found that there are both positive and negative outcomes to the rural households when cities like Tripoli expand. The expansion of Tripoli enabled some of the affected households to access new livelihoods through migration and securing of alternative sources of income in the urban area. On the other hand, the loss of land by the farmers means that there is shortage of land for agriculture. Coupled with poor water and soil qualities, the direct consequences of reduced farming activities have been low food production at household level which has negatively affected rural people’s livelihoods. The study is the first of its kind to be conducted in Libya and among others differs from other studies conducted on urbanization and livelihoods area in Libya because of the nature of study methods. No study prior to this has ever employed a combination of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) strategies, Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) approaches in one study that sought to better understand the impact of land use and land cover changes on livelihoods of peri-urban farmers

2D and 3D Modeling of Rock Mechanical Properties of Khasib Formation in East Baghdad Oil Field

Knowing the distribution of the mechanical rock properties and the far field stresses for the field of interest is an important task for many applications concerning reservoir geomechanics, including wellbore instability analysis, hydraulic fracturing, sand production, reservoir compaction, and subsidence. A major challenge with determining the rock's mechanical properties is that they cannot be directly measured at the borehole. Furthermore, the recovered carbonate core samples for performing measurements are limited and they provide discrete data for specific depths.    The purpose of this study is to build 2D and 3D geomechanical models of the Khasib reservoir in the East Baghdad oil field/ Central area. TECHLOG.2015.3 software was used to build the 1D-MEM while Petrel E&P 2018.2 software was used to build the 3D distributions of rock mechanical properties. The Khasib formation has nine units (from K1 to K9). The current results support the evidence that the horizontal stresses are somewhat similar for all layers in the vertical case, but their distribution varies horizontally due to the changes in pore pressures. The pore pressure increases vertically, but its distribution within one layer is different due to the production from different wells. Elastic and strength characteristics of rock, including Young modulus, Poisson ratio, and unconfined compressive strength (UCS), have the same behavior, the highest value of the parameters appeared in the surface layer (K1). This layer is more stiff than other layers that have high porosities and high permeability. The internal friction angle for all formations ranges between 38o-40o, which gives a good harmonization with the limestone friction angle. The 3D distribution of the rock's mechanical properties revealed the carbonate heterogeneity because of its marine depositional environment and complex diagenetic processes. The findings of this study can be used for future geomechanical applications in the East Baghdad oil field including wellbore stability analysis, fault reactivation, and CO2 sequestration

Drainage models: an evaluation of their applicability for the design of drainage systems in arid regions

Only 5%–10% of irrigated lands in least developed countries (LDCs) are currently drained. Although drainage simulation models (DSMs) are used to evaluate alternative designs, it is unclear which drainage model is suitable for LDCs' arid and semi-arid regions. This study evaluates selected DSMs (ADAPT, RZWQM2, DRAINMOD, EPIC, HYDRUS-1D, WaSim and SWAP) and critically assesses their applicability to arid and semi-arid areas. Also, establish and apply selection criteria based on the availability of data in LDCs with Libya as a case study, and identify the most suitable model for application in Libya. DRAINMOD had the highest overall score, and alternative methods to predict missing input parameters for DRAINMOD are discussed. Evaluating the feasibility of using predicted input parameters for DSMs to design drainage systems in LDCs would help farmers, planners and decision-makers to reduce the overall cost of drainage system and, also, make DRAINMOD a more accessible tool to evaluate different drainage designs