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1 – 10 of over 1000Chris-Valentine OGAR Eneji, Nkanu Usang Onnoghen, Joseph Odama Acha and Juliana Bebuo Diwa
The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of climate change awareness among the rural farmers of Northern Cross River state, investigate the gender role analyzes of some…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of climate change awareness among the rural farmers of Northern Cross River state, investigate the gender role analyzes of some daily routine activities carried out by these rural farmers, ascertain the difference in workload burden of the impacts of climate change between men and women, identify the strategies adopted by these rural farmers to mitigate the effects of climate change in their agricultural activities and investigate the roles Environmental Education (EE) can play in helping the rural farmers to design and adopt sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies to reduce or completely eradicate their vulnerability to climate change effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design adopted for this study is the cross-sectional survey method. Five research questions guided the study. Two sets of instruments were used for data collection, a sample of 1,258 respondents (0.1%) were selected for the study. The researchers personally administered the instruments and collected the same back, two instruments were not properly filled, so they were rejected.
Findings
The finding of the study revealed that rural farmers have some level of climate change awareness, which they got from radio, newspapers, awareness campaigns, flyers, billboards, among others. Six out of the nine strategies listed were adopted by the rural farmers to mitigate climate change effects among these rural farmers. There is a significant difference in gender workload burden between women and male in the area, the result is positively skewed toward women, implying that the burden of workload for women increased over those of men. The result also shows that EE can influence their attitude toward climate change through awareness creation, knowledge provisions and also encourage members participation in climate change effect mitigation, prevention and adaptation.
Research limitations/implications
With this result, EE can be used as a tool for the creation of knowledge, awareness, attitude and encourage the participation of these rural farmers toward mitigating and prevention climate change effects among these rural farmers. It was recommended among others that deliberate policies should be designed to make EE help create the needed awareness on climate change, beginning from the causes, effects and mitigation strategies among rural farmers in their community.
Practical implications
Already, most Environmental Educators have been trained, the government should design and formulate practical policies to use them as extension agent on climate change effort to go to these rural communities and create the needed awareness, knowledge, skills and attitude to help them combat climate change effects including trees and cover crops planting and also re-introducing the use of irrigation agriculture in these farming communities.
Social implications
With the creation of awareness, social groups and individuals can also make a social investment from these activities and also improve their social capitals, thereby reducing social burdens and improving their living conditions within the rural settings.
Originality/value
This research is an original research paper from the effort. the purpose is to assess the extent of climate change awareness level and how the effects of climate change increase or reduces the burden of gender workload among rural farmers and the strategies which can be used by these rural farmers to prevent, mitigate and adapt to climate change effects and the roles EE can play. This study has an original value in the sense that in the course of the study, the study hardly saw articles on these specific variables in whole research, hence the resolve to assess these variables.
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Ondřej Bublík, Libor Lobovský, Václav Heidler, Tomáš Mandys and Jan Vimmr
The paper targets on providing new experimental data for validation of the well-established mathematical models within the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), which…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper targets on providing new experimental data for validation of the well-established mathematical models within the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), which are applied to problems of casting processes in complex mould cavities.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental campaign aiming at the free-surface flow within a system of narrow channels is designed and executed under well-controlled laboratory conditions. An in-house lattice Boltzmann solver is implemented. Its algorithm is described in detail and its performance is tested thoroughly using both the newly recorded experimental data and well-known analytical benchmark tests.
Findings
The benchmark tests prove the ability of the implemented algorithm to provide a reliable solution when the surface tension effects become dominant. The convergence of the implemented method is assessed. The two new experimentally studied problems are resolved well by simulations using a coarse computational grid.
Originality/value
A detailed set of original experimental data for validation of computational schemes for simulations of free-surface gravity-driven flow within a system of narrow channels is presented.
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Dandan Qiu, Lei Luo, Zhiqi Zhao, Songtao Wang, Zhongqi Wang and Bengt Ake Sunden
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of film holes’ arrangements and jet Reynolds number on flow structure and heat transfer characteristics of jet impingement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of film holes’ arrangements and jet Reynolds number on flow structure and heat transfer characteristics of jet impingement conjugated with film cooling in a semicylinder double wall channel.
Design/methodology/approach
Numerical simulations are used in this research. Streamlines on different sections, skin-friction lines, velocity, wall shear stress and turbulent kinetic energy contours near the concave target wall and vortices in the double channel are presented. Local Nusselt number contours and surface averaged Nusselt numbers are also obtained. Topology analysis is applied to further understand the fluid flow and is used in analyzing the heat transfer characteristics.
Findings
It is found that the arrangement of side films positioned far from the center jets helps to enhance the flow disturbance and heat transfer behind the film holes. The heat transfer uniformity for the case of 55° films arrangement angle is most improved and the thermal performance is the highest in this study.
Originality/value
The film holes’ arrangements effects on fluid flow and heat transfer in an impingement cooled concave channel are conducted. The flow structures in the channel and flow characteristics near target by topology pictures are first obtained for the confined film cooled impingement cases. The heat transfer distributions are analyzed with the flow characteristics. The highest heat transfer uniformity and thermal performance situation is obtained in present work.
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C. Ahamed Saleel, Saad Ayed Alshahrani, Asif Afzal, Maughal Ahmed Ali Baig, Sarfaraz Kamangar and T.M. Yunus Khan
Joule heating effect is a pervasive phenomenon in electro-osmotic flow because of the applied electric field and fluid electrical resistivity across the microchannels. Its effect…
Abstract
Purpose
Joule heating effect is a pervasive phenomenon in electro-osmotic flow because of the applied electric field and fluid electrical resistivity across the microchannels. Its effect in electro-osmotic flow field is an important mechanism to control the flow inside the microchannels and it includes numerous applications.
Design/methodology/approach
This research article details the numerical investigation on alterations in the profile of stream wise velocity of simple Couette-electroosmotic flow and pressure driven electro-osmotic Couette flow by the dynamic viscosity variations happened due to the Joule heating effect throughout the dielectric fluid usually observed in various microfluidic devices.
Findings
The advantages of the Joule heating effect are not only to control the velocity in microchannels but also to act as an active method to enhance the mixing efficiency. The results of numerical investigations reveal that the thermal field due to Joule heating effect causes considerable variation of dynamic viscosity across the microchannel to initiate a shear flow when EDL (Electrical Double Layer) thickness is increased and is being varied across the channel.
Originality/value
This research work suggest how joule heating can be used as en effective mechanism for flow control in microfluidic devices.
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Susanne Sackl-Sharif, Eva Goldgruber, Julian Ausserhofer, Robert Gutounig and Gudrun Reimerth
The 2013 Central European floods were not only one of the most severe natural disasters in Austria in the last decades, but also constituted a landmark in crisis communication…
Abstract
The 2013 Central European floods were not only one of the most severe natural disasters in Austria in the last decades, but also constituted a landmark in crisis communication. For the first time, social media and online newspapers were important news channels, creating a need for new crisis communication strategies. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews and an analysis of online data, we reconstruct in this chapter the online communication of different stakeholders such as the authorities, rescue organisations and journalists during this emergency situation. The study shows that the use of social media was a weak point in official crisis communication. Through detailed analyses of information flows and the requirements of different stakeholders, the study reveals new challenges and possibilities for crisis communication in the digital age.
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T.O.M. Forslund, I.A.S. Larsson, J.G.I. Hellström and T.S. Lundström
The purpose of this paper is to present a fast and bare bones implementation of a numerical method for quickly simulating turbulent thermal flows on GPUs. The work also validates…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a fast and bare bones implementation of a numerical method for quickly simulating turbulent thermal flows on GPUs. The work also validates earlier research showing that the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) method is suitable for complex thermal flows.
Design/methodology/approach
A dual lattice hydrodynamic (D3Q27) thermal (D3Q7) multiple-relaxation time LBM model capable of thermal DNS calculations is implemented in CUDA.
Findings
The model has the same computational performance compared to earlier publications of similar LBM solvers. The solver is validated against three benchmark cases for turbulent thermal flow with available data and is shown to be in excellent agreement.
Originality/value
The combination of a D3Q27 and D3Q7 stencil for a multiple relaxation time -LBM has, to the authors’ knowledge, not been used for simulations of thermal flows. The code is made available in a public repository under a free license.
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Anna Maria Ferragina, Stefano Iandolo and Erol Taymaz
This study aims to consider how migrants may act as channel of diffusion of knowledge which contributes to the dynamics of trade and comparative advantages of EU and MENA…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to consider how migrants may act as channel of diffusion of knowledge which contributes to the dynamics of trade and comparative advantages of EU and MENA countries for the period 1990–2015.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting an IV approach and a gravity framework to instrument for migration, the authors document how variations in stocks of migrants coming from (in) countries that are already competitive exporters of a given product impact on the probability that the destination (home) country starts to export competitively new products or succeed in exporting more intensively.
Findings
Controlling for potential confounding factors which can be correlated to knowledge flows and productivity shifts, the authors find trade-promoting effects via migration flows (mostly immigration) between the two areas, testing our hypotheses by different technology classes of products and different specifications.
Originality/value
The contribution of this work to the literature is threefold. First, by providing evidence on international knowledge diffusion induced by migration flows between MENA and EU regions, like no other work before, the authors document the effects of migration on trade and comparative advantages. Second, unlike standard literature on migration-trade link, the authors focus more on long-term structural changes in comparative advantages than on trade volumes. Third, we exploit how the effect of migration on margins of trade varies according to different types of goods, classified by technological level.
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Mbali Cynthia Valashiya and Rose Luke
This study evaluated the enhancement of information sharing practices with third party logistics service providers (3PLs) in a supply chain solutions company that provides…
Abstract
Purpose
This study evaluated the enhancement of information sharing practices with third party logistics service providers (3PLs) in a supply chain solutions company that provides transport and warehousing software in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed methods case study was conducted to investigate the problem. Both strands of quantitative and qualitative data were given equal priority. Three rounds of primary data were sequentially collected, analysed and triangulated. An online questionnaire was distributed to a sampling frame of seventeen companies which were randomly selected from the population. Three company executives were purposively sampled to participate in a focus group interview. Data from an open-ended questionnaire were used to explain and validate the findings from clients and executives who participated in the two preceding rounds of data collection.
Findings
It was found that information sharing improves the collaboration of channel members, increases competitive advantage and ultimately leads to better customer service. The improvement of relationships and continuous technological upgrades are recommended for improving visibility of information and effectiveness in the management of supply chains.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by the characteristics of the case study methodology. Case study research suffers from restricted generalisability, problems with cross-checking and the risk of bias and subjectivity. This implies that the results of this case study may not be generalised to the overall population. The selection of a mixed methods design was intended to curb the limitations that are inherent to this study.
Practical implications
This study was limited to a few respondents and participants, which raises concerns about both the statistical power and the generalisability of the results. However, the results provide useful insights into some of the information sharing practices in the industry.
Originality/value
The value of the study contributes to the supply chain's dependence on 3PLs for value creation and the reliance on technology to share information amongst channel members. This study highlights a need for organisations to build collaborative relationships with 3PLs and continuously update technological infrastructure in order to meet supply chain network goals.
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Amira Mohamed Emara and Nashwa Mostafa Ali Mohamed
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between global economic fluctuations and human development through four transmission channels (foreign direct investment (FDI)…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between global economic fluctuations and human development through four transmission channels (foreign direct investment (FDI), official development aid (ODA), remittances and export earnings) in Egypt as an open developing economy, in the period 1990–2015.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a vector autoregressive model, which implies examining the impulse response functions and variance decompositions.
Findings
The results indicate that human development is negatively affected by global economic fluctuations through the four channels, namely, ODA, FDI, export earnings and remittances. In addition, the most effective transmission channels are FDI in the short run and export earnings in the long run.
Originality/value
While a large body of literature addresses the direct impact of business cycles and economic shocks on human development, only some studies focus on the indirect impact. The contribution is to identify the indirect impact of global economic fluctuations on human development in a developing economy, considering four transmission channels and to determine the most important of these channels. Moreover, using the human development index is an addition in this paper as most previous literature depends on other human development indicators such as children’s health, employment and schooling.
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Shian Li, Zhi Yang, Yihui Liu, Qiuwan Shen, Guogang Yang and Bengt Ake Sunden
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the heat and mass transport characteristics in microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the heat and mass transport characteristics in microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-dimensional model is developed to study the heat and mass transport characteristics in microchannel reactors. The heat and mass transport processes in the microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distribution in the catalytic combustion channel are also studied.
Findings
The simulated results are compared in terms of the distributions of species mole fraction, temperature and reaction rate for the conventional and new designed reactors. It is found that the chemical reaction, heat and mass transport processes are significantly affected and the maximum temperature in the reactor is also greatly reduced when a non-uniform catalyst distribution is applied in the combustion catalyst layer.
Practical implications
This study can improve the understanding of the transportation characteristics in microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions and provide guidance for the design of microchannel reactors.
Originality/value
The design of microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions can be used in methane steam reforming to reduce the maximum temperature inside the reactor.
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