ZIONISTIC SETTLER COLONIALISM: THE LEGACY OF EMPIRE

The Palestine issue involves historical, political, territorial and religious dispute between Israel and Palestinians. Two key factors or reasons, Zionism and Imperialism, are responsible for the birth of this conflict.  Since its birth this issue holds a significant place in international community. United States has bee a key ally and supported Israel every time since its birth in 1948.  This alliance is based on shared strategic interests and historical connections. Washington has its own reasons for the involvement in Middle East such as oil reservoirs, economic interests and strategic interests. The formation of Israel is a complex historical process shaped by a convergence of factors including the Zionist movement, geopolitical considerations, Imperial interests and the aftermath of World War II. The ongoing challenges in the region underscore the need for continued efforts to address the deep-rooted issues and work toward a comprehensive and sustainable resolution

A Comparative Study of Agha Shahid Ali and Imtiaz Dharker

Agha Shahid Ali and Imtiaz Dharker are the two most popular and accomplished poets of the twentieth century. The exploration of their poetry reveals a diasporic world in which the dark forces of life threaten to destroy any vestiges of redemption. They convey their complex inner states of mind. That is why there is a great deal of diaspora in their poems. They spend most of their life in self-exile alienation in West. Imtiaz Dharker currently divides her time between the United Kingdom and Mumbai. She often describes herself as a Scottish Muslim Calvinist, born in Lahore and adopted by India. Ali divides his time between U.S.A. and Delhi and Kashmir. Their life and work were similarly affected by their state of being “exile”.  The focus of this paper will be the comparative study of Agha Shahid Ali and Imtiaz Dharker

Sediment Outflow under Simulated Rainfall Conditions with Varying Geotechnical Properties

The vulnerability of soil toward erosion might be reduced by having a good vegetative cover over the soil surface, slope improvement, and improving soil properties so that it is not easily detached and transported. However, the establishment of proper vegetative cover is a long process because it takes time for seeds to germinate and attain maturity. As an alternative approach, if soil resistance was increased by increasing the shear strength of soil against erosive forces offered by eroding agents, the soil system would become capable of withstanding the detachment of its particles on the application of shear stress. To achieve the desired strength, jute fiber and guar gum were added (0.3%, 0.5%, and 0.7%) to a test plot of 1 m2 area which resulted in three different trays of three different strengths. The strength parameters were determined with the help of a triaxial test where unconsolidated undrained (UU) conditions were maintained throughout the experiment. The tray was maintained at different slopes (4%, 6%, 8%, 10%, and 12%) under a rainfall simulator of 1 m2 area that was capable of producing rainfall intensity of 12.8 and 17.5 cm/h. The sediment outflow for a particular tray at different rainfall intensity and the slope were collected and measured. The recorded observations revealed that the value of the shear strength of soil increased as a result of the applied treatments and the soil loss rate/sediment outflow rate decreased for every combination of land slope and rainfall intensity. In addition, it was found that for a particular value of cohesion and angle of internal friction, the runoff rate increased with rainfall intensity for every land slope and the sediment concentration and sediment outflow rate increased with rainfall intensity as well as land slope. The results of this study will be useful for measuring soil loss, sediment runoff, and sediment discharged from farmland taking into account the properties of rainfall, soil, and flow

Comparative study of soil physical characteristics of Jaipur district, Rajasthan

Increasing trend in the frequency of natural events like floods and drought, etc. due to increasing urbanisation has led to degradation of the ecosystems. A major flood in year 1981 in Jaipur district resulted into huge erosion of the top fertile soil and leaving the land unproductive for agriculture production. The present study was carried in Jaipur district of Rajasthan state to measure physical characteristics of the soil samples from different districts of Jaipur. Soils samples were taken at 5 and 15 cm below the top surface and have taken 3 samples per site in each month. The soil physical parameters like sieve analysis, dry density, liquid limit, specific gravity and moisture content were analysed by standard techniques for different months in a year. Analysed results revels that, land cover having different characteristics has an impact on the temporal variability of soil moisture and other physical variables. The result of this will help to understand the variation of physical properties and thus to better planning to work in agricultural field. Further to say that, findings of the study can be used for altered case studies, concentrating on the soil variability effects for geotechnical issues.Key words: Flood, physico-chemical, water content, specific gravity, geotechnical

“I” of “I SPEAK FOR THE DEVIL” Imtiaz Darker’s Poem

Imtiaz Dharker has not allowed her orthodox religion to stop her from the expression of her potentialities in her poetry in the form of confessional mode. No wonder, her rebel­lion has caused a tremble among the so called guardians of orthodox re­ligion and the custodians of common masses. Her concern in her poetry particularly in “I speak for devil” has been the existential pain of humanity as revealed mainly through woman’s relationship with man and the male-dominated society. She writes with frankness and openness unusual in the Indian background but in the view point of West. She exploits the confessional mode in order to discover the images that evoke the joy and frustration of achieved womanhood. The adverse circumstances have rendered her vision tragic and melancholy, her upbringing by Islamic parents, and her marriage though with a Hindu or English man of her own choice in order to remove her parental control. She expresses about these adverse circumstances in her famous poem “I speak for the devil”. This paper will try to find the first person “I” of the collection under same name

Mehjoor: The Poet of Kashmir

Mehjoor is one of the most prominent pioneers of Modern Kashmiri poetry. He initiated his poetic career in 1912 by writing in Persian and Urdu, but the circumstances and forceful patriotic movement turned Mahjoor’s attention to write in Kashmiri. He realized that his artistic desires would come only if he produce a literary work in his own mother tongue. The remarkable part played by Mehjoor in bringing a result was to make Kashmiri poetic medium more natural. He expanded the boundaries of Kashmiri poetry by including in it the themes of nature, common life and patriotism. He was a poet of great beauty who summoned the nature and people of Kashmir in his poems

The optimum form for acoustics: a study of the relationship between office designs and noise

This study investigates the relationship between office designs, acoustic measures and employee satisfaction. Cellular workspaces tend to have low noise disturbances which have been previously associated with enhanced employee satisfaction in past studies but the relationship between varying office size and employee satisfaction is unknown in cellular offices. The increase in size of open-plan workspaces generally implies an increase in occupancy and noise level because more noise disturbances tend to occur due to increase in office activities. But the increase in size of open-plan spaces also implies an increase in reverberation time because the latter is directly proportional to volume of space. The aim of this study is to provide some indication of workspace sizes for different office types that are related to acoustic measures and employee satisfaction and can be used during early design stages of office developments. In this study, acoustic measures are comprised of two indicators: 1) noise level which indicates the intensity of background noise in the workplace and 2) reverberation time which reflects the acoustic quality of the workspace. Two common office types are investigated in this study – cellular and open-plan workspaces and the formulated hypotheses for each office type are as follows: i) Hypothesis A: the increase in workspace floor areas will be associated with a decrease in values of at least one indicator of acoustic measures and with an increase in employee satisfaction in cellular workspaces and ii) Hypothesis B: the increase in workspace floor areas will be associated with an increase in values of at least one indicator of acoustic measures and a decrease in employee satisfaction in open-plan workspaces. A cross-sectional research framework was adopted in this study to investigate the association between workspace floor area, acoustic measures and employee satisfaction in cellular offices and open-plan offices with the following occupancy levels: 1) less than 10 employees, 2) between 10 and 25 employees and 3) more than 25 employees. The study made use of both objective and subjective data to correlate employee perception with physical work environment. Subjective data consisted of acoustic and work performance satisfaction ratings acquired from questionnaire survey and objective data consisted of noise levels, and reverberation time and workspaces areas. Furthermore, the study also investigated the differences in noise perception in contrasting countries and two samples were collected; one from UK (Glasgow) and another from Mauritius. Results from correlation analysis for Glasgow sample indicated that there were coherent associations between workspace floor areas, acoustic measures and employee satisfaction in all open-plan categories but not in cellular offices. The creation of a visual index in open-plan workspaces further supported the aforementioned associations when making use of shape descriptors in the detailed analysis of Glasgow sample. Certain similarities and differences were observed between Glasgow and Mauritius sample thereby eliminating the expectations that all workspaces in the investigated office categories in a developing country had inferior values of acoustic measures. The study here has a cross-sectional framework but a longitudinal one is considered to be more revealing especially when investigating noise perception in relation to the visual index, noise geometry. More cross-cultural studies focusing on noise in the workplace are required to further develop appropriate guidelines in varying cultures

Assessment of Groundwater Quality under Changing Climate in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

This research article was American Society of Civil Engineers in 2022Understanding the hydrochemical composition of water resources in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA, Dodoma, Tanzania) related to climate variability is essential for sustainable development. Thus, the current study used the HYDRUS-1D model to assess the groundwater quality change due to the leaching of hydrochemicals from surface water under the climate variability of the NCA. This study observed that the area’s surface water had varying hydrochemical contaminants, whereas the groundwater is currently most suitable for drinking and domestic purposes. However, it is predicted that two anions (Cl−1 and PO4−3) and two cations (Na+ and K+) are expected to exceed the permissible limits from 2036 to 2050, considering the anticipated climatic conditions. Changes in groundwater quality for cations and anions are significantly correlated to evapotranspiration and temperature, with Pearson’s coefficient of determinations r between 0.35 and 0.66. The findings of this study are necessary to benchmark better water resources management planning

Historical and projected spatial and temporal rainfall status of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from 1982 to 2050

Dar es Salaam, like other cities in Africa, experiences flash floods during the rainfall season that destroy infrastructure due to the overflow of rivers and blocked sewage. This study investigates the historical and future variability and changes in spatial and temporal rainfall over Dar es Salaam. Station data and Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) gridded data crossing 38 years (1982–2019) were used as a baseline and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) dataset from 2021 to 2050 was used for projection under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP 4.5) forcing scenarios. A trend analysis of historical data was conducted at monthly, seasonal, and annual timescales. Mann–Kendall statistical tests and Sen’s slope estimator were applied to identify the current trend direction and magnitude of changes in rainfall patterns over time. A standardized anomaly index (SAI) was also employed to detect the region’s trends in wetness and dryness. The spatial distribution of rainfall in the city was investigated using an inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation technique. The statistical results reveal that a non-significant trend in rainfall was observed on monthly, seasonal, and annual timescales. Generally, in the future (2021–2050), the annual cycle of rainfall shows a slight decrease in monthly rainfall, especially from January to August, and an increase from September to December compared to historical (1982–2019) rainfall, for most of studied locations. Spatially, the distribution of projected rainfall shows that the southern part of the city will experience higher rainfall than other parts. The most significant findings were a decrease in annual projected rainfall by 20%, the MAM projected rainfall season increased by 42%, and an increase of 38% of the OND-projected rainfall season. The findings of this study will be useful for the improved management and planning of the city