Market Chain Analysis of Cassava in Wolaita Zone, Snnpr, Ethiopia.

This study aimed at identifying cassava Market actors and their functions, analyzing distribution of margins along cassava market actors. A survey was carried out on six randomly selected kebele administrations in Gassuba and Kindo Koysha Woreda of wolaita zone. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used to conduct this study. Primary data for this study were collected from 122 farmers, 48 traders and 23 consumers through application of appropriate sampling procedures and secondary data were obtained from written documents. Data were collected by using both close ended and open ended questionnaire through personal interview, group discussion, and key informant interview. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The market chain and margin analysis indicated that the  marketing and consumption, the major actors in the market chain are cassava producers, collectors, wholesalers, retailers, processors and consumers and about 89.43% of gross marketing margin in cassava market chain goes to cassava traders and producers earn about 10.57% of gross marketing margin. Therefore, policy initiatives aiming at increasing  training on post harvest loss, improving marketing information system  and extension service provisions are recommended to intervene on  the development of cassava value chain in the study area. Keywords: Market channel, market chain, market margin and market actor

PV System Design and Performance

Photovoltaic solar energy technology (PV) has been developing rapidly in the past decades, leading to a multi-billion-dollar global market. It is of paramount importance that PV systems function properly, which requires the generation of expected energy both for small-scale systems that consist of a few solar modules and for very large-scale systems containing millions of modules. This book increases the understanding of the issues relevant to PV system design and correlated performance; moreover, it contains research from scholars across the globe in the fields of data analysis and data mapping for the optimal performance of PV systems, faults analysis, various causes for energy loss, and design and integration issues. The chapters in this book demonstrate the importance of designing and properly monitoring photovoltaic systems in the field in order to ensure continued good performance

Understanding innovation system build up: The rise and fall of the Dutch PV Innovation System

Renewable energy technologies have a hard time to break through in the existing energy regime. In this paper we focus on analysing the mechanisms behind this problematic technology diffusion. We take the theoretical perspective of innovation system dynamics and apply this to photovoltaic solar energy technology (PV) in the Netherlands. The reason for this is that there is a long history of policy efforts in The Netherlands to stimulate PV but results in terms of diffusion of PV panels is disappointingly low, which clearly constitutes a case of slow diffusion. The history of the development of the PV innovation system is analysed in terms of seven key processes that are essential for the build up of innovation systems. We show that the processes related to knowledge development are very stable but that large fluctuations are present in the processes related to ‘guidance of the search’ and ‘market formation’. Surprisingly, entrepreneurial activities are not too much affected by fluctuating market formation activities. We relate this to market formation in neighbouring countries and discuss the theoretical implications for the technological innovation system framework.Photovoltaic, Innovation system dynamics, Motors of Change

Tangential shrinkage of scots pine

Bakalaureusetöö Metsanduse õppekavalSiinse bakalaureusetöö eesmärgiks on uurida hariliku männi (Pinus sylvestris L.) analüüsketaste tangentsiaalset kahanemist kuivatamisel. Töö fookuses on sügis- ja kevadpuidu aastarõngaste laiuste kahanemise võrdlemine. Käsitletud teema aktuaalsus seisneb selles, et männi puit on Eestis laialdaselt kasutatav nii ehituses kui ka mööblitööstuses ning puidu kuivamise ning kahanemise detailne tundmine võimaldab tagada puidu töötlemisel parema tulemuse. Uurimustöö aluseks olevad analüüskettad olid lõigatud ja kogutud eelnevate lõputööde (Epler 2014, Ploom 2015) käigus Tartumaalt Järvselja kvartalitelt JS221 ja JS222. Siinses bakalaureusetöös kaaluti esmalt analüüskettad ning mõõdeti seejärel aastarõngaste laiused. Järgmises töö etapis kuivatati neid ahjus 103 ± 2 °C juures 48h jooksul. Lõpptulemuste saamiseks korrati mõõtmisprotsessi, et selgitada välja, kuidas on kaal ja aastarõngaste laiused muutunud. Saadud tulemustest võib järeldada, et hariliku männi kuivatamisel on sügispuidu tangentsiaalne kahanemine suurem kui kevadpuidul.The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to study the tangential shrinkage of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in the process of drying. The focus is on the comparison of the tangential shrinkage of the growth rings on early and latewood. The topic is actual as Scots pine is widely spread in Estonia both in the construction and furniture industry. In addition, detailed knowledge about the drying and shrinking process of wood enables to ensure a better result in processing wood. The analysed boards were cut and collected in the course of previous works (Epler 2014, Ploom 2015) from Tartu county Järvselja forest blocks JS221 and JS222. The boards used in this thesis were first weighed and thereafter the growth rings were measured. The boards were then dried in an oven at 103 ± 2°C for 48 hours. The measuring process was then repeated to find out how the weight and the growth rings had changed while the wood was dried. The results show that by drying the Scots pine the latewood’s tangential shrinkage is greater than early wood’s

Чому слід припинити проскрибування латиномовної сторінки в українській літературі

Шляхом аналізу програми, за якою відбувалося вивчення української літератури у 5–9 класах загальноосвітніх навчальних закладів протягом 2009–2010 н.р., низки документів, що в той чи інший спосіб тлумачать програму, та шкільних підручників, рекомендованих МОН України, визначається глибина та межі знань, які може отримати український школяр про давній період розвитку української літератури. Стаття містить конкретні рекомендації щодо розширення програми у частині, яка стосується латиномовного періоду української літератури, та доповнення програми творами, що були написані латинською мовою протягом XV–XIX ст. та належать до української літератури.Путем анализа программы, согласно которой осуществлялось изучение украинской литературыу в 5–9 классах общеобразовательных учебных заведений на протяжении 2009–2010 уч.г., а также ряда документов, которые определенным образом толкуют программу, школьных учебников, рекоммендованых МОН Украины, определяется глубина и границы знаний, которые может получить українский школьник о давнем периоде развития украинской литературы. Статья содержит конкретные рекоммендации по расширению программы в части, касающейся латиноязычного периода украинской литературы, а также дополнения программы произведениями, написанными на латинском языке в XV–XIX ст. и относящимися к украинской литературе.The depth and scope of knowledge that can acquire Ukrainian pupil about the ancient period of Ukrainian literature development is defined through analysis of Ukrainian literature study program for 5–9 forms of general education institutions for 2009–2010, a number of documents that somehow or other interpret the program as well as schoolbooks recommended by Ministry of education and science of Ukraine. The article presents specific recommendations regarding extension of the program in the part that pertains to Ukrainian literature Latin speaking period and addition of works created in Latin during XV–XIX centuries that belonged to Ukrainian literature

Low Complexity Radar Gesture Recognition Using Synthetic Training Data

Developments in radio detection and ranging (radar) technology have made hand gesture recognition feasible. In heat map-based gesture recognition, feature images have a large size and require complex neural networks to extract information. Machine learning methods typically require large amounts of data and collecting hand gestures with radar is time- and energy-consuming. Therefore, a low computational complexity algorithm for hand gesture recognition based on a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar and a synthetic hand gesture feature generator are proposed. In the low computational complexity algorithm, two-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform is implemented on the radar raw data to generate a range-Doppler matrix. After that, background modelling is applied to separate the dynamic object and the static background. Then a bin with the highest magnitude in the range-Doppler matrix is selected to locate the target and obtain its range and velocity. The bins at this location along the dimension of the antenna can be utilised to calculate the angle of the target using Fourier beam steering. In the synthetic generator, the Blender software is used to generate different hand gestures and trajectories and then the range, velocity and angle of targets are extracted directly from the trajectory. The experimental results demonstrate that the average recognition accuracy of the model on the test set can reach 89.13% when the synthetic data are used as the training set and the real data are used as the test set. This indicates that the generation of synthetic data can make a meaningful contribution in the pre-training phase

Mogućnosti uzgoja Brassica rapa ssp.rapa u sjeverozapadnoj Hrvatskoj

Brassica rapa ssp. rapa D.C. Metzg je vrsta koja se najviše uzgaja u Italiji gdje je najčešće korišten naziv „cima di rapa“. Pripada porodici Brassicaceae, a upotrebljava se zbog cvjetne stabljike, mladog lišća i cvata prije otvaranja cvjetnih pupova. Cvjetovi, obično žuti, zajedno s listovima koji ih okružuju predstavljaju jestivi dio, a dobar su izvor vitamina C. Za uzgoj su pogodna srednje teška tla, bogata humusom, dobro drenirana i pH vrijednosti 6,0 do 6,8. Odgovara joj umjerena klima, a raste i pri 5 °C. Optimalna temperatura za rast i razvoj je između 14 i 19 °C, pa je za uzgoj ove, u Hrvatskoj manje poznate povrtne vrste, najpogodnija umjereno kontinentalna klima središnje Hrvatske. Istraživanje mogućnosti uzgoja vrste Brassica rapa ssp. rapa u klimatskim prilikama sjeverozapadne Hrvatske, provedeno je u ljetno-jesenskom roku uzgoja koji je za brokulu, kulturu sličnih bioloških svojstava, potvrđen kao najpovoljniji. U monofaktorijelni sortni pokus, postavljen je u Zavodu za povrćarstvo Agronomskog fakulteta u Zagrebu, po slučajnom bloknom rasporedu u četiri ponavljanja, bile su uključene četiri sorte talijanske provenijencije različitih dužina vegetacije od sadnje do berbe: 'Quarantina' (40 dana), 'Sessantina' (60 dana), 'Novantina' (90 dana) i 'Centoventina' (120 dana). Tijekom višekratne berbe na 10 biljaka praćena su morfološka svojstva mladih izboja u tehnološkoj zrelosti te su utvrđeni dužina razdoblja berbe i tržni prinos. Uzgoj „cima di rapa“ u ljetnom roku izložen je riziku od viših temperatura zraka od optimalnih za rast i razvoj. Temeljem istaknutih morfoloških svojstava, najveće mase i duljine izboja te ujednačenog promjera i broja listova u izboju tijekom svih pet berbi izdvaja se sorta 'Sessantina'. Sorte se razlikuju u visini ukupnog tržnog prinosa, a sve su ostvarile manje vrijednosti od standardnih za područje Italije. Sorta 'Centoventina' imala je najveći ukupni prinos (8,6 t/ha).Brassica rapa ssp. rapa D.C. Metzg is a plant species known in Italy as „cima di rapa“. It belongs to the family Brassicaceae, and is used for its stalk, young leaves and inflorescence. The flowers, usually yellow, together with the leaves represent the edible part of the plant and are good source of vitamin C. The most suitable for cultivation are heavy, hummus rich, well drained soils with pH 6 to 6.8. It loves mild climate, but continues to grow even at 5°C. The optimal temperature for growth and development is 14-19 °C. Considering its biological and morphological features, the best climate for cultivation in Croatia is located in central Croatia. The aim of this work is to explore the possibilities of growing Brassica rapa ssp. rapa in north-west Croatia, in the summer-autumn period, which is for broccoli, a culture with similar biological properties, acknowledged as the best. A field trial was set up at Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Vegetable Crops in. The mono-factorial trial was set up as a randomized block design with four replications, including four varieties of Italian origin, with different length of vegetation period: 'Quarantine' (40 days), 'Sessantina' (60 days), 'Novantina' (90 days) and 'Centoventina' (120 days). During the growing season 10 plants within each repetition were monitored for the next characteristics: the beginning of the generative phase, the dynamics of the production of inflorescences, morphological characteristics of inflorescences in technological maturity, the length of the harvest period and marketable yield. Based on morphological characteristics during the five harvests (largest mass and length, uniform diameter and the number of leaves) can be single out variety 'Sessantina'. Varieties differ in marketable yield, and during multiple harvesting all varieties achieved lower total marketable yield than standard values for the area of Italy. The higher total marketable yield had variety 'Centoventina' (8.6 t/ha)