Growth of Output and Productivity in Pakistan’s Agriculture: Trends, Sources, and Policy Implications

The paper aims to review the growth performance of Pakistan’s agriculture from 1950 to 1995. The long-term growth rate of agriculture, although respectable, has exhibited considerable yearly fluctuations even between decades. The period of the fifties and early seventies lacked any growth. Accelerating and high growth rates marked the decade of the sixties but the performance has not been satisfactory since 1979-80 and average growth rates have barely exceeded the population growth rate, with widespread implications for growth of national economy, food security, and social welfare of the masses. Area, modern inputs, and technology have been the major determinants of growth but prices were equally important because of their incentive and disincentive effects. The agriculture price policies adopted during the 1980s are known to have had a negative effect on the development and use of technology in agriculture. In order to boost agricultural productivity, a change in price policy is needed to ensure incentive prices. This could be done by setting agricultural commodity prices at par with corresponding import and export parity prices. A higher investment in research and development can hardly be overemphasised. There is an urgent need to remove the bottlenecks in agricultural input markets since these markets represent the typical monopoly position. To break up the monopoly of registered dealers and to promote competition, free sales in the open market by interested parties and individuals may be allowed.

Population dynamics and the management of the Indian mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta from the Bay of Bengal

FiSAT program was used to estimate population parameters of Rastrelliger kanagurta from length frequency data. Loc and K were found to be 27.4 em and 0.90 year1 respectively. The Wetherall plot provided an estimate of Loc and Z/K were 26.7 cm and 4.683 respectively. The annual rate of natural and fishing mortality were estimated as 1.71 and 3.21 respectively. The exploitation rate was 0.652. The selection pattern L50 was 18.09 cm. Recruitment pattern suggests two seasonal pulses one in March-May and another in September-October. Peak recruitment appeared in March-May. Maximum yield could be achieved by decreasing length at first capture to 13.0 em. The relationship between total length and body weight was found to be W = 0.01583 L8952. Yield and stock prediction analysis suggested that highest yield and price could be achieved by decreasing the fishing mortality to 2.0 coefficient rate

SPESIES PRIMATA DI KAWASAN TAMAN HUTAN RAYA POCUT MEURAH INTAN (TAHURA PMI) PROVINSI ACEH, INDONESIA

Primata merupakan salah satu ordo dari kelas Mammalia yang memiliki lebih dari 350 spesies di dunia. Kehadiran primata semakin berkurang akibat kondisi habitat yang mengalami penyusutan di kawasan aslinya. Keberadaan Primata sangat penting bagi keseimbangan ekosistem. Taman Hutan Raya Pocut Meurah Intan (Tahura PMI) Provinsi Aceh adalah salah satu habitat yang didiami oleh primata. Penelitian yang bertujuan untuk mengetahui spesies dari Primata ini dilakukan pada bulan September - Oktober 2018 di Kawasan Tahura PMI. Metode penelitian dilakukan secara survei eksploratif. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif. Hasil penelitian diketahui terdapat lima spesies dari ordo Primata yaitu Simphalangus syndactylus (Siamang), Trachypithecus cristatus (Lutung), Presbytis thomasi (Kedih), Macaca fascicularis (Monyet Ekor Panjang), dan Macaca nemestrina (Beruk)

Flexural Behavior of RC One-Way Slabs Strengthened with Fiber Reinforcement Cementations Matrix, FRCM.

المحاكاة العددية التي أجريت في هذا البحث للتحقيق في سلوك الانحناء للسقوف الخرسانية احادية الاتجاه والمقواة بعجينة اسمنتية مسلحة بالالياف المركبة. تم إجراء تحليل العناصر المحددة ثلاثية الأبعاد باستخدام ANSYS (17.2). تتمثل القضايا الرئيسية التي يركز عليها هذا البحث في: (1) تأثير نوع الالياف المستخدمة في العجينة الاسمنتية على سلوك الانثناء للسقوف الخرسانية من ناحية الحمل الاقصى والهطول، (2) تأثير قيم مختلفة لمقاومة الانضغاط لخرسانة السقف و (3) تاثير عدد طبقات الالياف في العجينة الاسمنية. بينت النتائج ان نوع الالياف له تاثير واضح على سلوك الانثناء للسقوف المقواة. كما أظهرت الدراسة العديدية أن قوة الانثناء تزداد بزيادة مقاومة انضغاط الخرسانة عندما يكون الفشل محكومًا بسحق الخرسانة. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، كان زيادة عدد طبقات الالياف المركبة تأثير واضح على سلوك السقف الخرساني، ولكن الى عدد محدد لان بعد ذلك يكون الفشل محكوم بتصرف الخرسانة في منطقة الانضغاط.Numerical simulation performed in this paper to explore the flexural behavior of RC one way slab strengthened with fiber reinforcement cementations matrix (FRCM). Three dimensional finite element analysis was performed by using ANSYS (17.2). The main issues focused in this paper are (1) the effect of FRCM fabric types on the flexural behavior of strengthened RC slab in terms of both ultimate capacity and deflection, (2) effect of variables compressive strength value of the concrete slab and (3) number of fabric layers for composite material effect. The results showed that the fabric type had a clear effect on the flexural behavior of the strengthened slab. The parametric study also revealed that the flexural strength increases with increasing the compressive strength of concrete when the failure is represented by crushing of the concrete strut. In addition to, the number of fabric layers for composite material had a clear effect on the behavior of RC slab, but to a specified number because then the failure is determined by the action of the concrete in the compression zone

On Analysis and Evaluation for Predicting Students’ Academic Performance GPA Considering an Engineering Institution (Neural Networks’ Modeling Approach)

Predicting students’ performance is one of the most important topics for learning contexts such as schools and universities, since it helps to design effective mechanisms that improve academic results. Educational Institutions face numerous challenges today in providing quality and student-centric education to Students Individual learners prefer their own strategies originated from diverse learning styles. Learning style models may include collective strategies for mental, emotional, and physiological components. On the basis of such components, this piece of research suggests a specific quantified learning style preferred by learners in engineering education. By following average learners’ achievements (marks) at specific courses closely related to the specialization, interesting analytical results for Grade Point Average (GPA) evaluation are obtained. Moreover, an ANN model with supervised learning is presented to simulate diverse learning styles performance. Accordingly, optimal guided advise is suggested in fulfillment of probabilistically best GPA of graduated engineers. Obtained simulation results are well supported by the findings of experimental case study

A Brief Introduction to Decolonial Computing

Does computing need to be decolonized, and if so, how should such decolonization be effected? This short essay introduces a recent proposal at the fringes of computing, which attempts to engage these and other related questions

Recognition techniques for online Arabic handwriting recognition systems

Online recognition of Arabic handwritten text has been an on-going research problem for many years. Generally, online text recognition field has been gaining more interest lately due to the increasing popularity of hand-held computers, digital notebooks and advanced cellular phones. However, different techniques have been used to build several online handwritten recognition systems for Arabic text, such as Neural Networks, Hidden Markov Model, Template Matching and others. Most of the researches on online text recognition have divided the recognition system into these three main phases which are preprocessing phase, feature extraction phase and recognition phase which considers as the most important phase and the heart of the whole system. This paper presents and compares techniques that have been used to recognize the Arabic handwriting scripts in online recognition systems. Those techniques attempt to recognize Arabic handwritten words, characters, digits or strokes. The structure and strategy of those reviewed techniques are explained in this article. The strengths and weaknesses of using these techniques will also be discussed

Oransal lindley fréchet dağılımının bazı teorik ve hesaplamalı yönleri

In this article, we study an extension of the Fréchet model by using the the odd Lindley-G family of distributions, which was introduced by [17]. Its some statistical properties such as quantile function, density shapes, moments, generating functions and order statistics are obtained. We estimate its parameters by maximum likelihood method. The Monte Carlo simulation is used for assessing the performance of the maximum likelihood method. The usefulness of the odd Lindley Fréchet model is illustrated by means of three real data sets.Bu çalışmada, Fréchet modelinin genişletilmiş bir versiyonu [17] tarafından önerilen oransal Lindley dağılım ailesi kullanılarak çalışılmıştır. Bu modele ait kuantil fonksiyonu, yoğunluk biçimi, momentler, üreten fonksiyon ve sıra istatistikleri gibi istatistiksel özellikleri elde edilmiştir. Model parametrelerinin en çok olabilirlik tahminleri elde edildi. En çok olabilirlik parametre tahminleri için bir simülasyon çalışılması verilmiştir. Önerilen modelin gerçek veri seti üzerindeki uygunluğu için üç veri analizi yapılmıştır

Various methods for retrofitting prestressed concrete members: A critical review

Structures of a building can get exposed to adverse conditions resulting from overloading situations, which would eventually contribute to massive building degradation. The choice to repair the building structures seems to be very costly. The possible step that could be taken is by implementing a method of reinforcing and strengthening the building structures. For the past years, strengthening methods by implementing various innovative technologies has been seen to become a modern scientific topic in the fields of environmental and civil engineering study. Previous related studies on the reinforcement of pre-stressed concrete beams (PSC) by adding different elements have been observed by past researchers. The tests were carried out to evaluate the shear and flexural capacities of the building structures after the mechanisms were installed. A large number of scholars have conducted such studies with different types of interacting factors. In this study, a review will be presented by analyzing various techniques that have been implemented by multiple researchers for strengthening pre-stressed concrete beams, as well as their shear and flexure performances of the beams

Flexural strengthening of the continuous unbonded post -tensioned HSC beams by precast SIFCON laminates

Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Concrete (SIFCON) is a cementitious composite with outstanding durability and mechanical characteristics. Accordingly, the current research studies the behavior of continuous unbonded post-tensioned HSC beams that were flexural strengthened with precast SIFCON laminates. Four prestressed concrete beams with dimensions (200x300) mm and 4300 mm length were fabricated have been strengthened with 30 mm thick precast SIFCON laminates gluing with epoxy and were tested to understand the influence of their strengthening with using the various length of the laminates. The results showed that the use of precast SIFCON laminates is an effective method in enhancing the capacity of load-carrying and stiffness of continuous unbonded post-tensioned HSC beams. Used various lengths of precast SIFCON laminates in hogging and sagging regions led to positively affected by delaying the first crack appearance time of the tested beams between (56.1%-60%), Increased the ultimate flexural capacity of the test beams (36.9%-43.6%), and improving in stiffness about (153.7%-243.6%). When comparing specimens unstrengthened and strengthened, the strengthening generally leads to a reduction in the crack width in central support and mid-span regions. In other words, the crack behavior was enhanced