Advances in Research

Mathematical programming techniques are commonly used by decision makers for achieving efficiency in agricultural production planning. Due to increasing demands of growing population of world, one needs to utilize the limited available resources in the most efficient and economic way. In this paper, the fractional programming problem is formulated and is used to determine the optimal cropping pattern of vegetable crops in such a way that the total profit is maximized. The solution of the formulated Fuzzy programming problem is obtained using LINGO.

Background: Like most of countries, medical education in Iran consists of undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing medical education (CME). The use of Internet technologies, have been integrated into all three level of medical education. The effect of Electronic medical education on application of health care knowledge in compare with traditional medical education could show the effectiveness of program.

Aims: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of E-Learning on application level of knowledge &clinical reasoning issues as compared to lecture-based learning in a medical education program.

Study Design and Methodology: This randomized controlled trial was conducted in scientific meetings for 68 Physicians. Knowledge assessment tests were performed before and immediately after E-Learning and lecture-based educational session.

Results: A significant improvement at the application level of knowledge & clinical reasoning was found in both groups (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference between the E-Learning & traditional educational approaches. Course completers had significant improvements in application level of health care knowledge.

Conclusion: The effect of E-Learning in medical education and on learner basic knowledge, application of health care knowledge in response to clinical vignettes is comparable to a lecture-based approach. Therefore, E-Learning can be effective in all levels of Medical Education, and it will enable Physicians to have a self-directed learning with choosing the place and time of their lifelong learning process.

Aims: Megaprojects development has generated changes in the socioeconomic and environmental structure of several regions. This paper aims to analyse socioenvironmental changes in 10 municipalities located along the D. Pedro I - Tamoios road axis, São Paulo state, Brazil, chosen for their regional relevance, and transformations caused by the roads duplication.

Study Design: Analysis on how megaprojects influence the urban structure, the environment and different social groups, focusing in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in different productive sectors (agricultural, services and industrial), in population growth and rural and urban scenarios.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was realized in São Paulo State, Brazil, during 36 months, starting in July 2015 until July 2018, and the data used and analyzed to diverse indicators were from 1950 to 2014.

Methodology: Sociodemographic data, the expansion of industry, services, tourism development and agricultural production of these municipalities were collected in government databases and through field surveys. They were analysed through integrated methodologies with qualitative and quantitative approaches, based on temporal variations for the studied municipalities and for the average of São Paulo State, Brazil, with focus on social and environmental changes that took place in this study area.

Results: The results indicate that an intense process of industrialisation, tourism development, urban growth and population dynamics has accompanied the recent decade’s expansion of major roads in São Paulo State, Brazil, and that these processes contribute to changes that affect natural systems and may accelerate climate changes.

Conclusion: It verified that this megaproject development had not considered the sustainability of regional natural resources, in a manner that promotes environmental and living quality to the population.

This paper presents the numerical study to simulate the fatigue crack growth of artificially damaged steel Broad Flange I- beams section by single edge notched repaired with carbon fiber reinforced polymer CFRP strips. The study is carried out using ANSYS classic modeling approach is suggested to simulate the fatigue response of the beams, based on the cumulative damage theory and strain life method. Experimental test results were compared with FE results obtained. A parametric study was conducted using the validated model. The considered parameters were the number of CFRP strip layers used in the repair, the applied load range, initial crack length at time of strengthening and the thickness of CFRP strip. The numerical results indicated that the CFRP increased the critical crack length at which fracture occurred, and the strengthening was more effective at lower stress ranges. Moreover, the CFRP Strips can substantially delay failure and the results demonstrate the possibility of technique and highlight the importance of early intervention when repairing fatigue critical details. The ultimate load and ductility decreased substantially with increasing initial crack length at the time of installing the strengthening layer. Furthermore, increased capacity was achieved by increase the CFRP thickness and layers.

The study was conducted in two purposively selected districts of Indian north-eastern state of Tripura viz. West Tripura and Gomati, during September, 2017 to February, 2018 with objective to examine the functional status of fishermen's cooperative societies in the light of financial performance vis-a-vis perception of the society members regarding their own societies. While from West Tripura district five active societies were pooled through list sampling, those were four in case of Gomati district. Primary data was collected from 189 respondents of which ordinary cooperative members were 169 as chosen through probability proportionate to size (PPS) sampling at 10% level of probability and twenty executive body members. Results revealed that merely 4.28% of the ordinary members were having good to very good level of awareness on their society activities. Though the fishermen's cooperative societies are supposed to offer some common benefits, 87.16% of the ordinary members expressed accrual of little to very little of any such benefits from their societies. Contrarily, 70.77% of cooperative functionaries had expressed accrual of high to very high level of benefits. Analyses of quinquennial trend of business reflected accumulation of a negative value of (-) 2.21 in terms of overall Net Profit Ratio of the studied cooperatives to indicate their sickly business performance. Again, barring only one, all the other remaining societies could not be found satisfactory contextual to quinquennial Efficiency Ratio signifying their incapability to use assets for generating income. As mark of challenge to the basic tenets of cooperative societies that repose faith on mutual-help, a meagre 8.84% of the ordinary members were detected to have their regular participation in various functional domains of cooperative societies. Garrett ranking identified 'casual approach towards timely disbursement of dividend/share of profit etc.', 'lack of transparency in fund management', and 'inadequate water area before hand for culture and fishing activity' to be the three topmost perceived deterring factors on the functional performance of societies in order of importance.