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It has become standard practice for governments and transportation engineers around the world to infuse sustainability principles into their plans as higher-level goals and priorities, with indicators to reflect the same. The transformation towards sustainable mobility should involve the three interconnected pillars of sustainable development: environment, social equity, and economy. These pillars, known in the business field as the 'triple-bottom-line', require specific indicators that can be used to measure the attainment of each pillar. There is evidence that the social equity impacts of construction projects, such as transport projects, and their distributional effects across various segments of society have traditionally been viewed as secondary or subsidiary concerns relative to their economic and environmental impacts. Recognizing the relative relegation in both academic and policy circles of social impacts and the 'weak' tools to identify such impacts, this research aims to employ a hybrid decision method based on the analytic network process and Delphi method to identify the major adverse impacts of highway automobiles on health and social equity in the UAE. In doing so, governments will be better positioned to mitigate adverse impacts through engineering, urban planning, technological, and other appropriate initiatives. Throughout the Delphi process, 15 health and social equity indicators have been validated by experts in the field of sustainability and transportation through an iterative process. Then, experts in the same field were chosen to develop and validate the ANP model based on the validated indicators through pairwise comparison questionnaires. The results and findings revealed that the experts' judgment preferences are consistent (inconsistency value less than 0.1), wherein the highest priority is the 'Safety' indicator, and the lowest priority is the 'Public participation in transport decision' indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive application of mineral fertilizers in maize cultivation leads to progressive soil contamination in the long term and increases the cost of production. An alternative to reduce over-fertilization is to perform a partial replacement with microbes that promote nutrition and growth, such as Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF). A pot experiment which was followed by two field experiments was performed with and without the application of indigenous AMF in combination with five nitrogen–phosphorus–potassium (NPK) fertilization rates (100% NPK = N120P60K60; 75% NPK = N90P45K45; 50% NPK = N60P30K30; 25% NPK = N30P15K15; control = N0P0K0). The objective was to investigate whether the soil application of indigenous mycorrhizal fungi inoculum combined with NPK fertilization can provide higher maize yields and soil-available N, P, and K than chemical fertilization can alone. The greenhouse results showed that the application of AMF with a 50% NPK treatment significantly increased the plant's growth, root colonization, leaf chlorophyll content, and N, P, and K tissue content. The results from the field conditions showed that there was a highly significant yield after the treatment with AMF + 50% NPK. The study also revealed that mycorrhizal fungi inoculation increased the available soil N and P concentrations when it was combined with a 50% NPK dose. This suggests that the inoculation of fields with AM fungi can reduce the chemical fertilizer application by half, while improving soil chemistry. The results suggested that AMF inoculation can be used in integrated soil fertility management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many plant species adapted to semi-arid environments are grown in the Sahelian region in northern Africa. One such species is Acacia seyal (Delile), a multipurpose leguminous tree grown in various agroecological zones, including saline soils. These challenging arid and semi-arid environments harbor a diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) communities that can develop symbiotic associations with plants to improve their hydromineral nutrition. This study compared the effects of native AMF communities isolated from semi-arid sites (high, moderate, and low salinity zones Ndiafate, Ngane, and Bambey, respectively) and the AMF Rhizoglomus aggregatum on the development and phosphate nutrition of A. seyal seedlings subject to three salinity treatments (0, 340, and 680 mM). Plant height, dry matter weight of the shoots and roots, and phosphorus uptake from the soil were measured. Plants inoculated with AMF native species from each site that were provided with up to 340 mM of NaCl had greater shoot height than plants grown under 680 mM salinity. At NaCl concentrations above 340 mM, shoot and root development of A. seyal seedlings diminished. However, dry matter production of shoots (7%) and roots (15%) improved following AMF inoculation compared with the control (respectively 0.020 and 0.07 g for shoots and roots). When inoculated with AMF isolates from the high salinity zone (Ndiafate), phosphate content/nutrition was increased by 10% around 30 days after inoculation compared with non-inoculated seedlings (2.84 mg/kg of substrate). These results demonstrate that native AMF inoculants are capable of helping plants withstand environmental constraints, especially those exposing plants to harsh climatic conditions. We discuss insights on how AMF influences the interplay between soil phosphorus and perceived salinity that may have implications for broader relationships between plants and symbiotic fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving maize yield is an objective of utmost importance for food security in Uganda. In the evaluation of soil microorganisms in crop production, it is important to assess the composition and diversity of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species in different agroecosystems. AMF play an important role in improving crop growth and yield. We present a study of the morphological diversity of native AMF species associated with the rhizosphere of maize in two locations in eastern Uganda (the Amuria and Serere districts). The effects of soil chemical properties on this diversity are also assessed. AMF diversity is assessed by the morphological identification of the spores extracted from soils samples by the wet sieving method. Spores abundance, species richness, and diversity are determined. A total of 19 AMF morphotypes distributed in 7 genera (Gigaspora, Scutellospora, Glomus, Acaulospora, Archaeospora, Entrophospora, and Paraglomus) are observed. Glomus species are abundant in all sites. Spore densities are higher in Amuria than in Serere. Soil pH, CEC, and phosphorus content influence AMF distribution. Finding the species in various agroecological environments indicates that they are adapted to the environments. Maize grown in eastern Uganda is associated with a diversity of AMF that could be selected as bio-fertilizers to improve crop production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial data supply chain is vital to the economy, especially for banks. It affects their customer service level, therefore, it is crucial to manage the scheduling of the financial data supply chain to elevate the efficiency of banking sectors' performance. The primary tool used in the data supply chain is data batch processing which requires efficient scheduling. This work investigates the problem of scheduling the processing of tasks with non-identical sizes and different priorities on a set of parallel processors. An iterative dynamic scheduling algorithm (DCSDBP) was developed to address the data batching process. The objective is to minimize different cost types while satisfying constraints such as resources availability, customer service level, and tasks dependency relation. The algorithm proved its effectiveness by allocating tasks with higher priority and weight while taking into consideration customers' Service Level Agreement, time, and different types of costs, which led to a lower total cost of the batching process. The developed algorithm proved effective by testing it on an illustrative network. Also, a sensitivity analysis is conducted by varying the model parameters for networks with different sizes and complexities to study their impact on the total cost and the problem under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introducing sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) genotypes into new environments is necessary for expanding the production of food and fuel, but these efforts are complicated by significant genotype × environment interactions that can reduce their effectiveness. This study set out to thoroughly analyze genotype × environment interactions and assess trade-offs between the agronomic performance and the stability of grain and biomass yields of ten contrasting genotypes under Sudano-Sahelian conditions. Experiments were carried out in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. They were conducted from 2013 to 2016 in Bambey, Sinthiou Malem and Nioro du Rip in Senegal. The joint analysis of variance revealed a highly significant effect (p < 0.0001) of genotypes (G), environments (E) and G × E interaction. Most genotypes showed specific adaptations. The best grain yields were obtained by the Nieleni and Fadda hybrids, while the improved varieties IS15401 and SK5912 were best for biomass production. An Additive Main effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis showed that good grain yields were associated with environments having good soil fertility and good rainfall, while biomass yields were more influenced by the sowing date and rainfall. Similarly, we were able to confirm for our 10 sorghum genotypes that yield stability was generally associated with low performance, except for the Nieleni and Fadda hybrids, which performed well for grain and biomass production regardless of the environment. The Senegalese control genotype, 621B, showed particular susceptibility to growing conditions (soil), but remained very productive (more than 3 tons per hectare) under good agro-pedological conditions. These results lead us to recommend the Fadda and Nieleni hybrids for the entire study region, while 621B can also be recommended, but only for highly specific environments with good soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil nutrient deficiency and rainfall variability impair the production of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L). Moench) in Sudano-Sahelian zone. The aim is to study the environmental factors that can determine the effect of fertilizer application on sorghum grain yield and to formulate tailored fertilization strategies according to sorghum varieties (hybrid and open pollinated improved varieties) and environmental context. Field experiments were conducted during the 2015 and 2016 growing seasons in Nioro du Rip and in Sinthiou Malème (Senegal). In a randomized complete block design arranged in a split-plot with four replications, three factors were tested: sorghum genotype (G: Fadda, Faourou, Soumalemba and Soumba with different cycle lengths), environment (E: irrigation and rainfed, different soil types and fertility levels), and fertilization management (M: five different combinations of application dose and application time) including T1 = no fertilizer applied; T2 (recommended practice, 100%) = 150 kg/ha of NPK (15-15-15) at emergence + 50 Kg/ha of urea (46%) at tillering + 50 kg/ha of urea at stem extension; T3 = 50% T2; T4 (100% delay) = 150 kg/ha of NPK +50 kg/ha of urea at stem extension +50 kg/ha of urea at heading ; T5 = 50% T4. Results showed that: (i) in most environments, stressed plants under late application treatments (T4 and T5) recovered biomass once the fertilizer was applied (ii); grain yield with T5 was higher than with T4 under well-watered conditions (sufficient and well distributed rainfall and eventual complementary irrigations) ; (iii) Fadda, a hybrid, responded differently to fertilization than the other varieties only for biomass production, (iv) late fertilizer application treatment (T4) gave higher grain yield than the recommended practice (T2) in the environment with low yield potential, and (v) long cycle duration genotypes benefited better from late fertilization compared to short cycle duration genotypes. This study showed that under Sudano-Sahelian conditions late fertilization of sorghum can be beneficial to grain yield if the rainy season has a slow start, depending on sorghum genotypes (i.e., cycle length), and on the initial N content of the soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]