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Assessment of agricultural practices by Ethiopian women farmers: existence of gender disparities in access to mycotoxins training
Get PDFEthiopia is one of the countries with the lowest gender-equality performance in sub-Saharan Africa being ranked 121/134 in terms of the magnitude and scope of gender disparities by the United Nations Women’s Organisation. Within the farming communities, women represent 70% of the labour force, but they are neglected from accessing training events run by Ethiopian Universities (e.g. Haramaya University). A survey to assess the existence of gender disparities among Ethiopian women farmers with respect to agricultural labour and mycotoxins knowledge was conducted on three hundred and forty-nine women from the Oromia and Amhara regions. A higher illiteracy rate was found in women compared to men from both Oromia and Amhara regions. Women played a key role in agricultural activities while having limited access to modern technologies compared to their male counterparts. Women were mainly responsible for sorting spoiled crops. Especially in Amhara, these were intended for home consumption, representing a serious health risk for local people. Overall, women from Amhara were more aware than women from Oromia about what mycotoxins are (e.g. aflatoxins), their impact and risk of occurrence in crops. Women in Amhara were also more intended to act towards mycotoxins in the future compared to women from Oromia. Only 0.24% of women have previously attended a training on mycotoxins. The radio seemed to be the most efficient way to deliver training to Ethiopian women farmers from these regions. Mycotoxins trainings were the second option of choice by all women surveyed. Such findings clearly stated the existence of gender inequality in the two Ethiopian regions considered. Empower women’s knowledge about mycotoxins will not only benefit agricultural income and the national economy, but it will also provide women the recognition they equally deserve alongside their male counterparts in future agricultural training programs and interventions.This research was supported by a Global Challenges Research Fund Quality-Research (QR-GCRF) to Cranfield University.World Mycotoxin Journa
README [Test Matrix & Description - ERICE]
No full textThe item consists of a presentation ('pptx' format) which describes the two distinct test matrix conditions for the ERICE tests and a text file which describes the process of all the various tests performed within this research work. These conditions were used for all the testing done within the ERICE project.Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking (CSJU) under grant agreement No. 82130
RL-based scheduling of an AAM traffic network
Get PDFThis study presents an approach for pre-flight planning process to be used in the future Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) system especially after contingency situations and relevant activities take place. The methodology for scheduling is modeled as a reinforcement learning (RL) agent that resolves potential conflicts for the traffic and balances the demand and capacity at vertiports. The reason behind to use RL is that specific problem requires a very quick response since it also deals with resolving conflicts that are observed between the flights that are about to take-off and the contingent flights that diverted for an emergency landing. The main objective of this work is to develop a pre-flight planning service to work compatible with contingency management activities for enhancing the contingency management process for the AAM system.2023 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CAI 2023
Data: Two-phase Gas-Liquid Flow Regimes Identification in an S-shape Pipeline-Riser Using Doppler Ultrasonic Sensor
No full textDifferent flow regime data was generated experimentally at Cranfield University using a 2-inch multi-phase flow S-shape pipeline-riser test loop. In order to obtain the desired flow regime condition, the air-water flow rate was automatically regulated using the DeltaV system. Allfiles.Mat contains all the Air (Sm3/hr) - Water (Kg/s) flow regime conditions investigated. The data was recorded using the LabVIEW program but converted to a MATLAB file for easy access. All the flow conditions that fall under category 1 are in slugging condition, all that fall into category 2 are in bubbly condition, the ones that fall under category 3 are in churn flow condition and the ones that fall under category 4 are in annular flow condition. Data_wave2.mat is also a MATLAB file that contains all the flow conditions investigated. It contains the same data as in Allfiles.mat. You can use either Data_wave2.mat or Allfiles.mat files
Input dataset used for the ML prediction of C, H, O, and S adsorption energies
No full textThe database used for the ML model training consists of DFT-calculated adsorption energies of C, H, O, and S on 23 monometallic and 12 bimetallic surfaces. Each pure metal is represented by a set of 12 features, including fundamental properties (e.g. group, atomic number, covalent radius, etc) and surface-related properties (e.g. surface free energy, work function, etc). Each alloy (M1xM2y) is represented by the features of its individual components (12 features of M1 plus 12 features of M2) and the ratio of x:y to account for the concentration of each component within the binary system. For monometallic inputs, the ratio was considered as 1. The adsorbates (C, H, O, and S) are represented by a set of 9 properties, including group, atomic number, first ionization potential, etc
Exploring the relationships among safety leadership, safety climate, psychological contract of safety, risk perception, safety compliance, and safety outcomes
No full textBackground: Recently, two types of safety compliance behaviors including deep compliance and surface compliance were differentiated. The current study aimed to investigate the relationships among safety leadership, safety climate, psychological contract of safety (PCS), risk perception, and deep compliance and surface compliance behavior of workers. In addition, the effects of both deep and surface compliance on safety outcomes were considered.
Methods: Workers’ perceptions in terms of safety leadership, safety climate, PCS, risk perception, deep compliance, and surface compliance were measured by appropriate questionnaires. Three questions were asked to measure undesired safety outcomes. Structural equation modeling and correlation analysis were applied to examine the research model and relationships among variables.
Results and discussion: The results of the current study showed that deep compliance was positively predicted by safety leadership, safety climate, and PCS and negatively predicted by risk perception. Surface compliance was positively predicted by safety leadership and safety climate and negatively predicted by risk perception. Surface compliance is not significantly predicted by PCS. With regard to the adverse safety outcomes, the results showed that both deep and surface compliance were negatively associated with adverse safety outcomes, however, deep compliance had a stronger negative correlation with adverse safety outcomes than surface compliance.Frontiers in Public Healt
Perception of causal factors in flight operations between ab-initio and expatriate pilots
Get PDFThe establishment of objectives in organizational safety management systems (SMS) are dependent on how the workforce perceives hazards and deficiencies. In the Asia region, it is common for airlines to recruit pilots through both ab-initio cadet programs, as well as to hire experienced expatriates from predominantly Western countries. When the workforce contains a mix of cultures and training backgrounds, perceptual differences may affect the relevance of SMS objectives and the effectiveness of consequential safety interventions. The present research compared experienced airline pilots from Asian ab-initio backgrounds with their Western, expatriate counterparts on the attribution of safety conditions related to hierarchical relations, organizational faults, human performance limitations, external faults, and human-machine interface conflicts. It was discovered that cultural values on interpersonal relations, desire for guidance, and social distance to an ‘in-group’ influenced the classification of safety deficiencies. The findings encourage SMS practitioners to include a wider diversity of perspectives when carrying out organizational SMS processes.2023 7th International Conference on Transportation Information and Safety (ICTIS
Impacts of alternative aviation fuels on engine cycle design and aircraft mission capability
Get PDFRecent 2050 net zero targets for aviation have sparked interest among the industry players to seek alternative aviation fuels as a pathway for the immediate alleviation of its carbon footprint. This paper aims to shed light on the opportunities and challenges that zero & low-carbon alternative fuels can provide from a technical standpoint. To address this aim, candidate fuels for aviation were selected from five broad classes of fuels. Then, a preliminary thermodynamic engine cycle design space exploration of a modern three spool turbofan is conducted to identify the fuel impact on cycle performance. Following that, an integrated Engine-Aircraft mission assessment for a Boeing 787 style aircraft with a three spool turbofan is conducted to assess performance at the mission level and explore opportunities and challenges for both powerplant and aircraft, accounting for fuel storage. Finally, an investigation of the opportunities available for the proposed fuels to be used as a heat sink is presented. The results indicate that zero-carbon fuels expand the design space for the powerplant cycle, allow for higher BPR, lower energy specific fuel consumption, lower peak cycle temperatures compared to the rest of the fuels, and provide significant cycle redesign opportunities. On a mission level, cryogenic fuels are penalized for block energy consumption due to the significant weight and size of the fuel storage system, while liquid alternative fuels are comparable to kerosene in terms of emissions and block energy consumption. Concerning Hydrogen, Methane, and Ammonia, the thermal power requirement for fuel conditioning (pressure and temperature rise) is calculated to be 2.2MW, 1.3MW, and 1MW respectively for a 240kN SLS thrust class engine during take-off.ASME Turbo Expo 2023: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Expositio
A review of task allocation methods for UAVs
Get PDFUnmanned aerial vehicles, can offer solutions to a lot of problems, making it crucial to research more and improve the task allocation methods used. In this survey, the main approaches used for task allocation in applications involving UAVs are presented as well as the most common applications of UAVs that require the application of task allocation methods. They are followed by the categories of the task allocation algorithms used, with the main focus being on more recent works. Our analysis of these methods focuses primarily on their complexity, optimality, and scalability. Additionally, the communication schemes commonly utilized are presented, as well as the impact of uncertainty on task allocation of UAVs. Finally, these methods are compared based on the aforementioned criteria, suggesting the most promising approaches.Journal of Intelligent & Robotic System
Near-surface defect detection in additively manufactured components using laser induced phased arrays with surface acoustic wave crosstalk suppression
Get PDFIn-process inspection of the additive manufacturing process requires a technique that can provide reliable measurements given the extreme operating environments, the small size of the defects and the cyclic melting and heating of the material, caused by subsequently deposited layers. A remote and couplant-free ultrasonic inspection technique using bulk waves that can image near-surface defects could address these in-process inspection requirements. Laser induced phased arrays (LIPA) generate and detect ultrasound based on laser ultrasonics principles, while the array is synthesised in post-processing. However, when using LIPAs for inspection, the surface acoustic waves (SAWs) interfere with the bulk wave modes giving rise to crosstalk and artefacts, which makes near-surface defect imaging difficult. This work experimentally validates and compares five techniques for SAW suppression: amplitude thresholding, mean waveform subtraction, principal component subtraction, frequency-wavenumber filtering, and phase coherence imaging. SAW suppression is demonstrated in ultrasonic images of transverse waves based on 71-element LIPA data synthesised on a Ti-6Al-4V directed energy deposition-arc (DED-Arc/Ti6Al4V) sample with a ∼1 mm diameter side drilled hole, located at ∼4 mm below the inspected surface. The reported results show that the principal component subtraction approach achieved the highest ‘signal-to-crosstalk ratio’ improvement of 16 dB, while successfully suppressing the SAW.This work was supported by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/T012862/1, EP/R513349/1, EP/V051814/1, EP/S023275/1, EP/S023879/1, EP/R027218/1].Materials & Desig