On the practical utility of a continuum traffic flow model on curvy highways in adverse weather conditions

The macroscopic continuum traffic flow models are being investigated to predict and ameliorate traffic more efficiently. These models are beneficial implementation tools to comprehend and complement the shortfalls in traffic evolution. Despite the significant enhancements in devising the traffic dynamics, the practical utilization of these macroscopic models is not being fully explored. In this study, the Non-Homogeneous Stimulus-Response Model (NHSRM) (Imran et al., 2023) is investigated for its application in forecasting traffic flow on a curvy highway during various weather conditions. The weather impact, in the specific, dry, light rainfall, moderate rainfall, and heavy rainfall on the travel time, velocity, and density spatiotemporal evolution on a curvy highway is analyzed. The flow during different weather conditions is investigated over two curved roads with 120 m, and 500 m radii. As evident from the results, significant velocity breakdowns during heavy rainfall impact the upstream traffic which contributes to congestion development. The average velocity of traffic depletes significantly, and the congestion formation upstream is significant. While the travel time of particular highway segments elevates sharply during heavy rainfall. A comprehensive understanding of the insights, and the critically associated with the parameters of the model, in particular, on the choice of the maximum velocity of the highway has been presented for NHSRM

Increasing Performance through Assessed Training (A Human Recourse Management Strategy)

This research finds out the way of increasing employee’s performance through training. There are many organizations which give their workers training but do not get any enhancement in their performance. Performances of a worker are directly correlated with his/her capabilities and know how to do the job. This study develops a strategy for improving the capabilities of workers which leads to increase their performance. The research proposes that just after an organization want to increase the performance of its workers, it must find out the area where they have weaknesses. After finding out the weaknesses, organizations have to assess how that weakness should be made solved. In the third stage they have to give specific training their weaknesses. This will enhance the capabilities of workers and their performance will be increased. Keywords: Weakness, Weakness needs Assessments, Training and Performanc

Improved salinity tolerance in early growth stage of maize through salicylic acid foliar application

Soil salinity threatens agricultural production worldwide by constraining plant growth and final crop yield. The early stages are most sensitive to salinity, in response to which salicylic acid (SA) has demonstrated beneficial effects in various plant species. Based on this, a maize (Zea mays L.) pot experiment was set up combining three levels of soil salinity (0, 6 and 12 dS m–1), obtained through NaCl addition, with three levels of SA (0, 300 and 600 mM), applied by leaf spraying 20 days after seedling emergence. Fifteen days later, the following traits were assessed: morphology (plant height, leaf number), growth (root and shoot dry weight), leaf water status [relative water content (RWC), elec-trolyte leakage (EL)], pigments (chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, anthocyanin), antioxidant enzymes (peroxidase, catalase, ascor-bate peroxidase, vitamin C), oxidative stress markers (H2O2, mal-ondialdehyde), osmo-regulating compounds (free amino acids, soluble proteins and sugars, proline), hormones [indole-3-acetic acid, gibberellic acid (GA), abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene], ele-ment (Na, K, Ca, Mg and Cl) concentration and content in roots, stem and leaves. Salinity severely affected maize growth (–26% total dry weight), impaired leaf water status (–31% RWC), reduced photosynthetic pigments, enhanced all antioxidant enzymes and oxidative stress markers, two osmo-regulating compounds (soluble sugars and proline) out of four, and all hormones except GA. SA was shown effective in containing most of the stress effects, while supporting plant defences by upgrading anti-oxidant activities (reduced oxidative stress markers), increasing cell membrane stability (–24% EL) and leaf water status (+20% RWC), and reducing plant stress signalling (–10% ABA and –20% ethylene). Above all, SA contrasted the massive entry of noxious ions (Na+ and Cl–), in favour of K+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ accumulation. Lastly, salicylic acid was shown beneficial for maize growth and physiology also under non-saline condition, suggesting a potential use in normal field conditions

Tit for tat: Abusive supervision and knowledge hiding - The role of psychological contract breach and psychological ownership

The extant literature has focused on individuals' knowledge-sharing behavior and its driving factors, which stimulate the knowledge transmission and exchange in organizations. However, little research has focused on factors that inhibit knowledge sharing and encourage individuals to hide their knowledge. Therefore, based on social exchange and displaced aggression theories, the study proposed and checked a model that examined the effect of abusive supervision on knowledge hiding (KH) via a psychological contract breach (PCB). The Psychological ownership was regarded as a boundary condition on abusive supervision and KH relationship. Using a time-lagged method, we recruited 344 full-time employees enrolled in an executive development program in a large university in China. The findings show that PCB mediates the association between abusive supervision and KH. Similarly, psychological ownership moderates the association between abusive supervision and KH. Employees with high psychological ownership minimized the effect of abusive supervision on KH. Based on study findings, contributions to theory and practice, limitations, and future directions are discussed

Molecular and biochemical characterization of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri pathotypes

Prevalence of citrus bacterial canker caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri in citrus groves is the major impediment and limiting factor in successful citrus production. Severity varies among different species, varieties and prevailing climatic conditions. Despite extensive studies on the biology, epidemiology and management of this disease, there is still little known about the role of different biocontrol agents for management of this disease. Traditional management of X. axonopodis pv citri is brought about by chemicals which have become complicated through the development of chemical resistance, and as such, it is hazardous for health. It is necessary to identify the pathotypes of X. axonopodis pv. citri through biochemical and molecular characterization and to determine the role of different biocontrol agents (antibiotics and plant extracts), in order to find out a safer way for controlling citrus canker as disease severity results in defoliation, dieback, premature fruit drop and blemished fruit that consequently decrease fruit production and market value.Keywords: Citrus, bacterial canker, Xanthomona

Promises and Pitfalls of Mobile Money in Afghanistan: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial

ABSTRACT Despite substantial interest in the potential for mobile money to positively impact the lives of the poor, little empirical evidence exists to substantiate these claims. In this paper, we present the results of a field experiment in Afghanistan that was designed to increase adoption of mobile money, and determine if such adoption led to measurable changes in the lives of the adopters. The specific intervention we evaluate is a mobile salary payment program, in which a random subset of individuals of a large firm were transitioned into receiving their regular salaries in mobile money rather than in cash. We separately analyze the impact of this transition on both the employer and the individual employees. For the employer, there were immediate and significant cost savings; in a dangerous physical environment, they were able to effectively shift the costs of managing their salary supply chain to the mobile phone operator. For individual employees, however, the results were more ambiguous. Individuals who were transitioned onto mobile salary payments were more likely to use mobile money, and there is evidence that these accounts were used to accumulate small balances that may be indicative of savings. However, we find little consistent evidence that mobile money had an immediate or significant impact on several key indicators of individual wealth or well-being. Taken together, these results suggest that while mobile salary payments may increase the efficiency and transparency of traditional systems, in the short run the benefits may be realized by those making the payments, rather than by those receiving them

Evaluation of two interaction techniques for visualization of dynamic graphs

Several techniques for visualization of dynamic graphs are based on different spatial arrangements of a temporal sequence of node-link diagrams. Many studies in the literature have investigated the importance of maintaining the user's mental map across this temporal sequence, but usually each layout is considered as a static graph drawing and the effect of user interaction is disregarded. We conducted a task-based controlled experiment to assess the effectiveness of two basic interaction techniques: the adjustment of the layout stability and the highlighting of adjacent nodes and edges. We found that generally both interaction techniques increase accuracy, sometimes at the cost of longer completion times, and that the highlighting outclasses the stability adjustment for many tasks except the most complex ones.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2016

Ivermectin as a novel complementary malaria control tool to reduce incidence and prevalence: a modelling study

BACKGROUND: Ivermectin is a potential new vector control tool to reduce malaria transmission. Mosquitoes feeding on a bloodmeal containing ivermectin have a reduced lifespan, meaning they are less likely to live long enough to complete sporogony and become infectious. We aimed to estimate the effect of ivermectin on malaria transmission in various scenarios of use. METHODS: We validated an existing population-level mathematical model of the effect of ivermectin mass drug administration (MDA) on the mosquito population and malaria transmission against two datasets: clinical data from a cluster- randomised trial done in Burkina Faso in 2015 wherein ivermectin was given to individuals taller than 90 cm and entomological data from a study of mosquito outcomes after ivermectin MDA for onchocerciasis or lymphatic filariasis in Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Liberia between 2008 and 2013. We extended the existing model to include a range of complementary malaria interventions (seasonal malaria chemoprevention and MDA with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine) and to incorporate new data on higher doses of ivermectin with a longer mosquitocidal effect. We consider two ivermectin regimens: a single dose of 400 μg/kg (1 × 400 μg/kg) and three consecutive daily doses of 300 μg/kg per day (3 × 300 μg/kg). We simulated the effect of these two doses in a range of usage scenarios in different transmission settings (highly seasonal, seasonal, and perennial). We report percentage reductions in clinical incidence and slide prevalence. FINDINGS: We estimate that MDA with ivermectin will reduce prevalence and incidence and is most effective in areas with highly seasonal transmission. In a highly seasonal moderate transmission setting, three rounds of ivermectin only MDA at 3 × 300 μg/kg (rounds spaced 1 month apart) and 70% coverage is predicted to reduce clinical incidence by 71% and prevalence by 34%. We predict that adding ivermectin MDA to seasonal malaria chemoprevention in this setting would reduce clinical incidence by an additional 77% in children younger than 5 years compared with seasonal malaria chemoprevention alone; adding ivermectin MDA to MDA with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine in this setting would reduce incidence by an additional 75% and prevalence by an additional 64% (all ages) compared with MDA with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine alone. INTERPRETATION: Our modelling predictions suggest that ivermectin could be a valuable addition to the malaria control toolbox, both in areas with persistently high transmission where existing interventions are insufficient and in areas approaching elimination to prevent resurgence. FUNDING: Imperial College Junior Research Fellowship

Modelling pathogen load dynamics to elucidate mechanistic determinants of host-Plasmodium falciparum interactions

During infection, increasing pathogen load stimulates both protective and harmful aspects of the host response. The dynamics of this interaction are hard to quantify in humans, but doing so could improve understanding of mechanisms of disease and protection. We sought to model the contributions of parasite multiplication rate and host response to observed parasite load in individual subjects with Plasmodium falciparum malaria, using only data obtained at the time of clinical presentation, and then to identify their mechanistic correlates. We predicted higher parasite multiplication rates and lower host responsiveness in severe malaria cases, with severe anemia being more insidious than cerebral malaria. We predicted that parasite growth-inhibition was associated with platelet consumption, lower expression of CXCL10 and type-1 interferon-associated genes, but increased cathepsin G and matrix metallopeptidase 9 expression. We found that cathepsin G and matrix metallopeptidase 9 directly inhibit parasite invasion into erythrocytes. Parasite multiplication rate was associated with host iron availability and higher complement factor H levels, lower expression of gametocyte-associated genes but higher expression of translation-associated genes in the parasite. Our findings demonstrate the potential of using explicit modelling of pathogen load dynamics to deepen understanding of host-pathogen interactions and identify mechanistic correlates of protection