This paper examined farmers’ perceptions and preferences for improved varietal traits in the Wenchi and Offinso North Municipalities of Ghana. Data from 306 randomly selected tomato farmers were analyzed using perception indices, Kendall’s Coefficient of concordance and the Poisson regression model. The results show that tomato farmers are willing to adopt an improved variety with long shelf life, good fruit quality and large fruit size. The study further indicates that tomato farmers lack requisite skills in pest and disease management. The number of varietal attributes preferred by farmers was positively influenced by sex of farmer, education, experience in tomato cultivation, household size, access to credit, FBO membership, extension contacts farm size and off-farm income. These factors and attributes need to be carefully considered by breeders and policy makers in the development of an improved tomato variety to enhance its uptake. The major constraints identified in tomato production include limited access to capital followed by low commodity prices coupled with low demand with the least constraint being access to tractors for land preparation. The potential of adoption of improved tomato varieties in Ghana will be augmented through paragenetic measures towards addressing these constraints.

The ASEAN charter is a treaty established by ten member countries in the Southeast Asia founded on December 2008. Prior to the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) charter, the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development Program was facing a challenge of disruptions relative to maritime events. Due to the disruptions of maritime events, challenges such as gap in international relations, lack of database integration in the field of maritime education and training, lack of knowledge transfer and no effective and proper framework of future development particularly in the areas of maritime education and training among the ASEAN countries existing. The goal of this paper is to motivate professionals and the relations society to collaborate in the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development: Today and Tomorrow, to be able to fill the gaps presented to this paper. In order to ensure this study can be completed in the right ways and times, the Critical Path Method (CPM) is used. As a finding of this study, all professional maritime members are expected to strengthening the international professional relations in maritime education and training system among the ASEAN region.

본 연구는 폐쇄형 식물공장에서 시금치 수경재배시 세가지의 인공광이 생육, 광합성 및 품질에 미치는 영향을 규명하기 위해 수행되었다. 세가지 광 처리구는 적색 (660nm), 청색 (450nm) 및 녹색 (550nm) LED를 사용하여, R660 / B450 = 4/1 (RBL), R660 / B450 / G550 = 5/2/3 (WWL); R660 / B450 / G550 = 1/1/1 (WL) 비율로 혼합하였고, 동일한 광도로 설정하였다 (PPFD = 190 μmol‧m-2 ‧s-1). 생육조사결과 초장, 엽수는 WL이 가장 적었다. SPAD, 순광합성율, Fv/Fm, LAI, 근권부 생육은 RBL이 가장 높았고 통계적으로 유의하였다. 줄기, 잎, 뿌리의 생체중, 뿌리의 건물중은 세가지 처리구에서 유의한 차이를 보였다. 대조적으로 WL의 칼륨의 함량은 WWL과 RBL 가운데 가장 높았지만, 반면 칼륨과 철의 함량은 RBL이 가장 높았다. 비타민C 함량도 시험구간 유의한 차이를 보였다. 질소와 옥살산 함량은 WL이 가장 높았고, 용해성 고체와 비타민C 함량은 RBL이 가장 높았다. 옥살산, 질소 함량은 WWL에서 감소하는 경향을 보였고, RBL의 옥살산 함량은 WL와 WWL과 차이가 없었다. 모든 처리구에서 Salmonella, E.coli.는 감염되지 않았다. 결론적으로, RBL이 시금치의 생육에 적합하지만, 적색, 청색과 적정하게 혼합된 녹색광은 시금치의 생육에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다고 판단된다.

At q = 1.81 ± 0.20 × 10-5, KMT-2018-BLG-0029Lb has the lowest planet-host mass ratio q of any microlensing planet to date by more than a factor of two. Hence, it is the first planet that probes below the apparent "pile-up" at q = 5-10 ×10-5. The event was observed by Spitzer, yielding a microlens-parallax πE measurement. Combined with a measurement of the Einstein radius θE from finite-source effects during the caustic crossings, these measurements imply masses of the host Mhost = 1.14+0.10-0.12 M⊙ and planet Mplanet = 7.59+0.75-0.69 M⊕, system distance DL = 3.38+0.22-0.26 kpc and projected separation a⊥ = 4.27+0.21-0.23 AU. The blended light, which is substantially brighter than the microlensed source, is plausibly due to the lens and could be observed at high resolution immediately.

Carbon fibers (CF) are predominantly being manufactured from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based precursors which require solution spinning utilizing health hazardous organic solvent. This also adds to the cost of production due to the investment for the solvent recovery. Study of melt processable precursors has long been sought as a solution for health and environmental problems associated with the use of hazardous solvent. No use of solvent for spinning will also reduce the cost of manufacturing. Our coworker Deng et al. reported the possibility of using acrylonitrile-co-1-vinylimidazole (AN/VIM) copolymer as melt processable CF precursor. Here we report a successful preparation of carbon fiber from the co-polymer. We successfully demonstrated the preparation of thinner precursor fibers and carbon fibers through our optimization study of melt spinning, annealing, stabilization and carbonization.

Growth factors and cytokines play an important role in delaying skin aging. However, there has been no animal stability test reported for them yet. In the present study, we examined the plausibility of Growth factor and Cytokine Mixtures (GCM) as a cosmetic ingredient by assessing skin irritation and ocular irritation for hypersensitivity using New Zealand white rabbits. Skin safety study was performed to evaluate the potential toxicity of GCM based on the irritation test. For the irritation test, GCM was applied to the rabbit skin, and no adverse reaction, such as erythema and edema, had been observed from the exposed skin sites. In the ocular irritation test, the treatment of GCM did not cause any adverse reaction on rabbit eyes, including cornea, iris, and conjunctiva tissues. From the results, both tests proved that GCM makes no irritable reaction on skin and eye mucous membrane of rabbit. Hence, it may be suggested that GCM can be safely applied as a cosmeceutical ingredient without causing any significant hypersensitivity reaction.

Vietnam is a developing country with impressive economic achievements in recent years. Efficient logistics system is considered the key to success of Vietnam’s development, especially when its economy relies on import, export and foreign investment. Since 2007, Logistics Performance Index (LPI) issued by the World Bank has been used as a trustworthy signal for the condition of a country’s logistics system. In 2018, Vietnam’s LPI shows a spectacular improvement by increasing 25 ranks and stands at the 39th position in the global ranking. It is also the best position for a lower-middle income economy in the ranking. The paper aims to reveal the current situation of Vietnam’s Logistics system behind this remarkable increase of the LPI ranking. Both the statistical and empirical analyses will be applied to answer the proposed Hypothesis and Sub-Questions for better understanding on Vietnam’s LPI. It is concluded that despite of a sudden rise in the LPI results, Vietnam’s logistics system has not shown a significant improvement. In order to maintain the LPI rank in the top 50 in the world, Vietnam needs to continue making efforts to develop synchronous logistics system to gradually solve current problems.

A warehouse is more than just a place to store goods but also creates a time utility gap between production and consumption that is important in the development of trade and commerce. Malaysia has a high aspiration to be the most popular gateway in Asia. However, Malaysia Productivity Corporation has claimed that particularly in efficiency and productivity aspects, the warehouse industry is less incline to innovate and make improvement to increase. There are ten failure factors that had been identified during literature survey affecting to the warehouse operations efficiency. Therefore, this study intends to analyse and select the main failure factors that mostly affecting the warehouse operations efficiency. A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) technique has been used in this study to calculate the weight value of each variable through a pair-wise comparison method. The finding highlighted the four main failure factors which are ‘equipment’, ‘environment concern’, ‘special handling consideration’ and ‘human factor’ that influence directly to the warehouse operations efficiency. This paper has contributed to a new knowledge of complex warehouse operation area with recommendations action that shall be taken to manage the possible risk in future, which will also contribute to achieve the government goals.

This study demonstrates that low processing rate for producing polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon fiber is a critical to obtain a homogeneous radial microstructure with high resistance to oxidation, thereby resulting in their improved mechanical strength. The dry-jet wet spun PAN organic fibers were processed (e.g., stabilized and then carbonized) utilizing two different rates; one is 1.6 times longer than the other. The effect of processing rate on the microstructural evolutions of carbon fibers was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy after slow etching in air, as well as Raman mapping after graphitization. The rapidly processed fiber exhibited the multilayered radial structure, which is caused by the radial direction stretching of the extrusion in the spinning. In case of the slowly processed fiber, the layered radial structure formed in the spinning process was changed into a more homogeneous radial microstructure. The slowly processed fibers showed higher oxidation resistance, higher mechanical properties, and higher crystallinity than the rapidly processed one. Raman mapping confirmed that the microstructure developed during spinning was sustained even though fiber was thermally treated up to 2800 °C.

Despite the various effects on the health of Chamaecyparis obtusa essential oil (COEO), an adverse effect on the skin has recently been reported. Therefore, in this study, the skin sensitization test of COEO was conducted to confirm the skin safety of the essential oil by the guinea pig maximization test. Guinea pigs were sensitized with intradermal injection of 0.1ml COEO for 24 h. After 1 week, 5% of COEO was treated on the site of injection and 2% of the essential oil was challenged 2 weeks later. The average skin reaction evaluated by erythema and edema on the challenge sites and sensitization rate in the COEO-treatment group at 24 h were 0.0 and 0%, respectively, which are substantially low compared with in the 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene-treatment group (positive control group) (average skin reaction: 3.0, sensitization rate: 100%) and identical with in the olive oil-treatment group (negative control group), representing a weak sensitizing potential. The average skin reaction and sensitization rate observed at 48 h were 0.0 and 0% in the COEO-treatment group, respectively, and 2.0 and 100% in the positive control group, respectively. It was concluded that 5% of COEO classified to Grade I, induced no sensitization when tested in guinea pigs.

In recent year, marine safety has been one of top concerns in Korea. In this paper, general statistics of ship in 159 waterways in Korea from 2007 to 2017 were considered. Main objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between the number of marine accidents and traffic conditions in narrow waterways by multiple regression analysis method. The result shows that the number of vessels, the width, the length and the depth of narrow waterway have an influence on the number of maritime accidents in corresponding area. Additionally, the number of vessels sailing has the most significant impact on the number of accidents in narrow waterway area.