The entrepreneurship potential of rural areas: soap production as a side business for Tanzanian rice farmers

Purpose: This study examines soap production’s entrepreneurship potential and profitability as a supplementary business for rural rice farmers in Tanzania to promote their economic independence.Design/ Methodology/ Approach: We randomly sampled and interviewed about ten smallscale soap manufacturers in urban Tanzania gathered from 2019-2021 to develop a soap production business strategy for rural farmers at a similar scale. Considering the Voronoi theory, we calculated the distance from the rural areas to urban centres to determine the transportation costs, which particularly burden rural farmers. Soap production costs and profitability were determined based on transportation costs and raw material prices.Findings: Rural farmers would incur high transportation costs, given the high average distance to the nearest urban centre (sometimes > 100 km). Nevertheless, producing their rice bran oil, valuable raw material for soap production, would give them a competitive advantage over urban producers.Research Limitation: The study’s proposed strategy can be applied to similar contexts to reduce the urban-rural entrepreneurship divide.Practical Implication: Soaps made using rice bran oil help farmers reuse agricultural waste. Their active ingredients also increase their marketability as high-end cosmetic products, providing farmers with additional income.Social Implication: Commercializing agricultural residues such as rice bran increases farmers’ revenues and reduces CO2 emissions by preventing the residues’ incineration; this creates a virtuous cycle in society.Originality/ Value: This study presents a more realistic business strategy for rural Tanzanian farmers, as, unlike previous studies, it considers not only direct costs but also transportation costs

Geodesic acoustic mode oscillation in the low frequency range

In order to understand the various appearances of geodesic acoustic modes (GAM) in experiments, the following specific problems are theoretically addressed: (1) The asymmetry of the potential field of GAMs, which is enhanced by the coupling with ion acoustic modes. It may affect GAMs in plasmas with electron temperatures higher than those of the ions. (2) The possible existence of GAMs in the lower frequency range: This is discussed in connection with the uniqueness of the kinetic response of the plasma to an external field associated with the geodesic curvature of the magnetic lines of force. (3) The extension of the theory to cover both tokamaks and helical systems: Differences between the helical-type and the tokamak-type GAMs are discussed in terms of their differences in connection length. In a device of mixed helicity, helical natured GAMs are predicted to appear depending on the intensity of the corresponding geodesic curvature and electron temperature

Extension of geodesic acoustic mode theory to helical systems

The present paper extends the theory of geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) oscillation, which so far has been applied to tokamaks, to helical systems. By using drift kinetic equations for three-dimensional equilibriums, a generalized dispersion relation is obtained including Landau damping. The oscillation frequency is obtained in terms of the squared sum of Fourier components of the magnetic field intensity expressed by means of magnetic flux coordinates. An analytic form of the collisionless damping rate of GAM is obtained by solving the dispersion relation perturbatively. It is found that the GAM frequency is higher in helical systems than in tokamaks and that damping rate is enhanced in multi-helicity magnetic configurations. However, damping rates are predicted to be small if the temperature of electrons is higher than that of ions

Orbifold Family Unification in SO(2N) Gauge Theory

We study the possibility of family unification on the basis of SO(2N) gauge theory on the five-dimensional space-time, $M^4\times S^1/Z_2$. Several SO(10), $SU(4) \times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$ or SU(5) multiplets come from a single bulk multiplet of SO(2N) after the orbifold breaking. Other multiplets including brane fields are necessary to compose three families of quarks and leptons.Comment: 28 page

Orbifold Family Unification

We study the possibility of complete family unification in higher-dimensional space-time. Three families of matters in SU(5) grand unified theory are derived from a single bulk multiplet of SU(N) gauge group (N >= 9) in the framework of S^1/Z_2 orbifold models. In the case of the direct orbifold breaking down to the standard model gauge group, there are models in which bulk fields from a single multiplet and a few brane fields compose three families of quarks and leptons.Comment: Comments added, version to appear in Physical Review D (v3); References added (v2); 19 pages (v1

Product-Group Unification in Type IIB String Thoery

The product-group unification is a model of unified theories, in which masslessness of the two Higgs doublets and absence of dimension-five proton decay are guaranteed by a symmetry. It is based on SU(5) x U(N) (N=2,3) gauge group. It is known that various features of the model are explained naturally, when it is embedded in a brane world. This article describes an idea of how to accommodate all the particles of the model in Type IIB brane world. The GUT-breaking sector is realized by a D3--D7 system, and chiral quarks and leptons arise from intersection of D7-branes. The D-brane configuration can be a geometric realization of the non-parallel family structure of quarks and leptons, an idea proposed to explain the large mixing angles observed in the neutrino oscillation. The tri-linear interaction of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model is obtained naturally in some cases.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figure