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Poor land preparation and late planting are among the factors responsible for the decline in food production on customary Swazi Nation Land (SNL). While efforts are being made to develop an improved national land cultivation programme, this process can be helped by identifying factors that influence farmers to use alternative technologies for land cultivation. Using cross-section data collected in 2009 from a random sample of 210 farmers in Komati, three land cultivation technologies were identified; (i) use of tractors; (ii) use of draught animals; and (iii) use of hand hoes. For a country like Swaziland where human health problems, particularly HIV/AIDS, make manual labour a scarce resource, the use of tractors is regarded as a modern technology that can achieve time and labour savings. The empirical evidence from this study indicates that the use of tractors is significantly influenced by household wealth and size of arable land used by households. However, given that land holdings on customary land are generally small, sparsely distributed and often fragmented, tractor hire service providers face relatively high overhead and transaction costs. Furthermore, investment in mechanised farming by individual SNL households is constrained by the lack of secure tenure. Given these challenges, this study makes recommendations for creating an enabling environment that could promote the adoption of improved land cultivation methods by smallholders on customary SNL.

This essay considers L. T. C. Rolt's writings and work about waterway revival and railway preservation in Britain between 1944 and 1954. Outlining his life up to 1954, the background to his first book Narrow Boat is discussed and set in context, stressing the working lives of people on the narrow English canals. The consequential founding of the Inland Waterways Association in 1946 and its campaigns to protect waterways for pleasure boating are contrasted with limited attempts to support freight carrying. Rolt's role in the preservation of the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway in Wales is considered, stressing its difficult reliance upon tourism. The notion of ‘golden ages' is applied to Rolt's visions of waterways and railways, set against contradictory historical evidence; problems with his attempts at conservation are stressed. It is concluded that although Rolt was a significant figure, his visions of conservation were unfulfilled. There remains a need to develop conservation history related to transport and to consider the role of the British middle class and manual labour.

There are a number of initiatives aimed at compiling large-scale global multi-region input–output (MRIO) tables complemented with non-monetary information such as on resource flows and environmental burdens. Depending on purpose or application, MRIO construction and usage has been hampered by a lack of geographical and sectoral detail; at the time of writing, the most advanced initiatives opt for a breakdown into at most 129 regions and 120 sectors. Not all existing global MRIO frameworks feature continuous time series, margins and tax sheets, and information on reliability and uncertainty. Despite these potential limitations, constructing a large MRIO requires significant manual labour and many years of time. This paper describes the results from a project aimed at creating an MRIO account that represents all countries at a detailed sectoral level, allows continuous updating, provides information on data reliability, contains table sheets expressed in basic prices as well as all margins and taxes, and co...

This article explores the application of data-driven machine translation (MT) to sign languages (SLs). The provision of an SL MT system can facilitate communication between Deaf and hearing people by translating information into the native and preferred language of the individual. In this paper we address data-driven SL MT predominantly for Irish SL (ISL) but also for German SL (DGS/Deutsche Gebardensprache). We take two different purpose-built corpora to feed our MaTrEx MT system and in a set of experiments translating both to and from the SLs, we investigate the effects of SL data on statistical MT (SMT). Exploiting the bidirectionality of the MaTrEx system, we demonstrate how additional modules, such as recognition and SL animation, can potentially build a full SL MT model for spoken and SL communication in addition to promising evaluation scores. A secondary focus of the article is on the two main issues affecting SL MT, those of transcription and evaluation. We offer a discussion on both these common problems before concluding.

The Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) process has grown in popularity with an increasing install base that realistically began within the last decade. This growing popularity stems from the technique’s promise of higher deposition rates (>10kg/hr), enhanced quality, and reduction of intensive manual labour. However, AFP machines are still relatively few in number as compared to other automated routes for fabrication; with only a few airframers and suppliers proactively developing the technique. The purpose of this paper is to report on the non-value adding activities that detrimentally impact on production rate capability. For example, inspection is typically carried out manually and can account for a large percentage of the cycle time. The risk therefore, is that by not adequately addressing non-value adding activities, a costly level of investment could be needed to achieve the production rates required. We provide a longitudinal case study, accounting for the non-value adding tasks that surround the process. Our results show that, by percentage, these activities have been targeted and reduced over a two year period. We are also able to demonstrate, through coefficient of variation, how the AFP process has stabilized over the two years. A 92% learning curve has emerged that better represents cycle time reductions for each successive part, as opposed to the 80% learning curve traditionally adopted.

After the 2004 and 2007 EU enlargements, large numbers of Eastern European labour migrants settled in rural destinations in Western Europe where they predominantly found low-skilled manual labour jobs in rural industries. These labour migrants differ from other types of rural migrants (e.g., domestic in- and out-migrants, lifestyle and amenity migrants, international refugees and asylum seekers) and represent distinct challenges and opportunities for the host rural communities—for example in terms of novel forms of social inequalities and cultural diversities. This paper discusses the dynamics of transnational labour mobilities and their consequences for rural Europe by investigating the case of the Hitra/Froya community, until recently a traditionalist rural community in Mid-Norway. As a result of large-scale labour migration, over the last decade the region has developed into a genuine high-mobility, transnational rural community and is now characterised by its heterogeneous social fabric. From the local elites’ perspective, which seems to have hegemonic status in the region, the transformation is a successful, triple-win situation: The community at large develops a more sustainable economy and sees population growth and reduced social problems, the locals enjoy the boosted economy and its many benefits, and the in-migrants escape economic austerity in their homelands and are successfully integrated into their host communities. However, stories told by labour migrants provide important nuances to the narrative of success and suggest processes of social fragmentation, polarisation, and contestation. The paper demonstrates how contemporary forms of rural mobilities may confront the traditional structures of rural societies, generate novel social divides and multi-local identities and everyday practices. Methodologically, the paper employs a mixed-methods approach and analyses a variety of materials: statistical materials, public documents, interviews with key informants in the local rural community, and in-depth individual interviews and focus group sessions with migrants.

The tribal populations are is recognised as socially and economically vulnerable. Their lifestyles and food habits are different from that of their rural neighbours. They depend on minor forest produce and manual labour for livelihood. They may not have adequate income. Their food consumption pattern is dependent on the vagaries of nature and varies from extreme deprivation (in the lean seasons) to high intakes (in the post-harvest period). About 21% of them are scheduled castes and 24% are tribes. Purulia suffers from very poor conditions in terms of hygiene, poverty, and lack of safe drinking water, resulting in major health problems such as diarrhoea, malaria, filarial, TB, anaemia, and others. Poor child birth and nutrition standards lead to high IMR and MMR. Open defecation, lack of sanitary latrines, poor educational standards for girl children, and poor awareness of HIV/AIDS also compound Purulia's health and development problems. Tribal people are known to have sexual practices that vary from those of mainstream cultures. Less or nothing is known about the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among tribal people in India, except perhaps in some of the tribal states of the North-East of India as these have high prevalence of drug use. HIV and AIDS has become the fourth largest killer worldwide, and in Asian counterpart which is scattering at an alarming rate. In developing countries, it was estimated that at least half of the non-pregnant and two thirds of the pregnant Women are anaemic. Maternal malnutrition which was quite common among the tribal women was also a serious health problem especially for those having numerous pregnancies too closely spaced and reflected the complex socio-economic factors that affected their overall condition.

Rousseau was profoundly opposed to the dominant tendencies of his times. We focus on two “Enlightenment establishments”—the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Both groups were leading forces behind the Enlightenment, and both were roundly condemned by Rousseau. He castigates the indulgent idleness characteristic of the aristocrat, and with comparable force, the misguided frenzy characteristic of the bourgeois. Surprisingly, however, in his own positive alternatives, he seems to readmit certain aspects of their ways of life. His first model—simple republican citizens—practice (seemingly bourgeois) economic diligence, yet in lacking ambition and vanity, they are able to find delight and leisure in their work itself. His second model is more aristocratic, yet it is far more involved in manual labour, and content with far simpler material attainments, than most of this rank. The second model was also influential in illustrating the natural and relational delights of times of pure repose.

The geologic and geomorphic expressions of a mineral deposit determine its location, size, and accessibility, characteristics which in turn greatly influence the success of artisans mining the deposit. Despite this critical information, which can be garnered through studying the surficial physical expression of a deposit, the geologic and geomorphic sciences have been largely overlooked in artisanal mining-related research. This study demonstrates that a correlation exists between the roles of female miners at artisanal diamond and gold mining sites in western and central Africa and the physical expression of the deposits. Typically, women perform ore processing and ancillary roles at mine sites. On occasion, however, women participate in the extraction process itself. Women were found to participate in the extraction of ore only when a deposit had a thin overburden layer, thus rendering the mineralized ore more accessible. When deposits required a significant degree of manual labour to access the ore due to thick overburden layers, women were typically relegated to other roles. The identification of this link encourages the establishment of an alternative research avenue in which the physical and social sciences merge to better inform policymakers, so that the most appropriate artisanal mining assistance programs can be developed and implemented.

This study examines fatalities of repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition (RMAA) works which occurred in Hong Kong between January 2000 and October 2011. A total of 119 RMAA fatalities were recorded. Particular emphasis was placed on fall from height accidents as they accounted for the vast majority of RMAA fatal accidents for the period. A cluster analysis was conducted on fall from height fatal cases. The cluster analysis clearly identified three groups of fall from height fatalities: (1) bamboo scaffolders aged between 25 and 34 who fell from external wall/facade in the beginning of weekdays; (2) miscellaneous workers aged between 45 and 54 who fell from other/unknown places in the end of weekdays; and (3) manual labour aged between 35 and 44 who fell at floor level/from floor openings in weekends. Unsafe process and improper procedures were the main unsafe condition leading to fatalities whereas safety belt not properly used was the main unsafe action leading to fatalities. Specific safety interventions were recommended for each of these groups to help avoid these fatalities.

The purpose of the two-wave panel study ‘lidA – leben in der Arbeit. German cohort study on work, age and health’ was to examine the relationship between work, health and work participation among ageing employees in Germany. It comprises a representative sample of persons who were born in 1959 and 1965 and were employed on 31 December 2009. They were questioned personally in the years 2011 (wave 1; N = 6,585) and 2014 (wave 2; N = 4,244). The study sample was drawn from the ‘Integrated Employment Biographies’, a dataset that includes all employees in Germany subject to social security, covering more than 80 percent of the German working population. The lidA data sets contains information on current employment characteristics, work demands, workloads, subjective health indicators, socio-economic status, household context, is using a number of establishes concepts and scales and allowing cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. At wave one, 65 percent of the participants work full-time; these numbers are slightly decreasing in wave two (63 percent). The jobs of the participants are less characterised by manual labour; only twelve percent report mainly physical work tasks. Regarding the individual health status, in the first wave, a smaller share of the older cohort (born in 1959) than the younger cohort (born in 1965) reports a good or very good health status. The numbers again are slightly lower in wave two. The range of publications demonstrates the analytic potential of the lidA data set, covering e.g. analysis about the relationship between individual psychosocial working conditions and mental health status or the question, whether there is a connexion to depressive symptoms for women working in male-dominated professions. The lidA dataset is now available as a Scientific Use File for the Scientific Community provided by the Research Data Centre of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research.

Este artículo analiza las estrategias de intervención más destacadas desde el último tercio del siglo XX en el patrimonio industrial español y de manera particular en una de sus regiones, Castilla y León. Tras una reflexión sobre los principales agentes que han propiciado la construcción social del concepto de patrimonio industrial, se hace una síntesis crítica de las intervenciones más frecuentes en España y caracterizadas por las limitaciones de la legislación protectora, así como por una extrema tolerancia urbanístico-legal, para proponer finalmente una clasificación de las mismas. La discusión se centra, a continuación, en el análisis empírico de tres casos singulares que afectan a sectores protagonistas de la industrialización histórica en el ámbito regional de estudio: el patrimonio minero-siderúrgico en zonas de montaña (Sabero-León) y las fábricas de harina (Valladolid) y de azúcar (León capital) localizadas en áreas urbanas. Desde el punto de vista de la gestión los resultados ponen de manifiesto el carácter tardío e incompleto de las intervenciones en el patrimonio industrial, la subordinación de las acciones de puesta en valor a las estrategias urbanísticas en las ciudades, y el peso de las políticas de desarrollo local en la recuperación y uso de la herencia industrial en los contextos rurales. En todos los casos el patrimonio industrial se perfila como un recurso de notable potencial, aunque su gestión pueda ser imperfecta y ofrecer luces y sombras.

Purpose: This study explored the experiences of people living with non-specific chronic low back pain (CLBP) in a rural Nigerian community. Method: Qualitative in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with purposively sampled participants until data saturation. Questions explored back pain beliefs, coping/management strategies and daily activities. Thematic analysis of transcripts was performed using the Framework approach. Results: Themes showed that back pain beliefs were related to manual labour/deprivation, infection/degeneration, spiritual/cultural beliefs and rural–urban divide. These beliefs impacted on gender roles resulting in adaptive or maladaptive coping. Adaptive coping was facilitated by positive beliefs, such as not regarding CLBP as an illness, whereas viewing CLBP as illness stimulated maladaptive coping strategies. Spirituality was associated with both adaptive and maladaptive coping. Maladaptive coping strategies led to dissatisfaction with health care in this community. Conclusions: CLBP-related disability in rural Nigeria is strongly influenced by beliefs that facilitate coping strategies that either enhance or inhibit recovery. Interventions should therefore target maladaptive beliefs while emphasizing behavioural modification. Implications for RehabilitationNon-specific chronic low back pain (CLBP) is highly prevalent and responsible for much pain and disability in rural Nigeria. No qualitative study has investigated the experiences of people living with CLBP in rural Nigeria or any other rural African context.Qualitative study of peoples’ experiences of living with CLBP in rural Nigeria has the potential of exposing complex socio-cultural and psychological factors associated with CLBP which has potential implications for designing effective interventions.The results of this study may inform the development of complex interventions for reducing the disability associated with CLBP in rural Nigeria and other rural African contexts. Non-specific chronic low back pain (CLBP) is highly prevalent and responsible for much pain and disability in rural Nigeria. No qualitative study has investigated the experiences of people living with CLBP in rural Nigeria or any other rural African context. Qualitative study of peoples’ experiences of living with CLBP in rural Nigeria has the potential of exposing complex socio-cultural and psychological factors associated with CLBP which has potential implications for designing effective interventions. The results of this study may inform the development of complex interventions for reducing the disability associated with CLBP in rural Nigeria and other rural African contexts.

Exploring the various educational reform programs implemented in primary schools and high schools in Keralam in India in the last two decades, this paper seeks to analyze the dichotomous concepts of mental and manual labour, theoretical and practical knowledge, and general and technical education which constituted the premise of these reform interventions. The paper attempts to understand the role of different conceptualizations of language and experience in reproducing the above dichotomies. Tracing the genealogy of the dichotomies in the colonial period, the paper argues that even in the educational reform programs which consciously challenge the colonial models, one can find the continuing separation of mental and manual labour in variety of forms and modes. This leads to the question (though not answered in this paper) whether the very concept of knowledge itself, deployed in the educational practice in India, is ordered through the prism of hierarchical practices of caste.

For geologists and antiquaries of the late 1850s debates over ancient stone tools were frustrated by a lack of accepted criteria. The artefacts were hard to interpret. It was not self-evident how to judge whether they were ancient or modern, natural or man-made; or indeed whether stone tools could pre-date the use of metal tools at all. Antiquary and papermaker John Evans provided a system that offered to resolve these issues. His criteria and his use of re-enactment, making his own stone implements, gained acceptance among flint experts across fluid disciplinary boundaries and enabled authoritative interpretations of the underdetermined objects. This paper explores how Evans drew on the concerns of his industrial culture to make sense of prehistoric artefacts and support his claim to access the past through his own actions. Situated industrial concerns provided the resources for his flint work: from a patent dispute with astronomer and fellow industrialist Warren de la Rue, through his role in the Victorian arms trade, to the struggle to displace skilled manual labour in his factories. Evans is remembered for pioneering the techniques and classificatory system of modern Palaeolithic archaeology and as one of the founders of the re-enactment science of experimental flint knapping. His work played a significant role in helping reconceive the antiquity of man, yet the system of proof for this grand claim was deeply situated in his industrial culture. This paper explores how the industrial resources of a Victorian papermaker made human history.

Excavation of the cemetery associated with Littlemore Baptist Chapel, Oxford, revealed a total of 31 graves and coffins dating to the second half of the 19th century. The remains of 30 individuals survived. Coffin fittings were not plain as expected, but rather followed the Anglican tradition of the time. The skeletal evidence indicated a population where some suffered nutritional deficiencies in childhood, while others experienced longevity in adulthood, with the majority of pathological conditions being linked to old age. Evidence of trauma and degenerative change linked to manual labour were largely absent. Two examples of neoplastic disease were identified and these are discussed in detail.

Canada, like many other developed countries, has implemented a temporary foreign workers’ programme, ostensibly to address temporary labour shortages within its domestic labour market. However, there is growing evidence of the programme being used to meet longer-term labour demands, with low-skilled migrant workers being marginalized into low paying service industry jobs and manual labour in the construction and manufacturing industries. Furthermore, there is evidence of these marginalized workers suffering human rights abuses and economic exploitation. This paper discusses some of these problems and presents a case for legislative reform.

Scarcity of labour, increased labour charges and shortage of both skilled and unskilled labour have become a major issue for coconut growers. This study aimed to assess the current labour availability in coconut cultivation sector. A field survey was conducted from October to December 2005, focusing four major coconut growing areas in the coconut triangle namely Kurunegala, Kuliyapitiya, Marawila and Gampaha. The findings show that an acute laboure shortage is experienced by 23% and 21% of the respondents in Kuliyapitiya and Gampaha regions respectively. Generally, 65% shortage in Gampaha, 60% in Kuliyapitiya, 50% in Kurunegala and 27% shortage in Marawila were reported. An acute shortage for skilled labour necessary for harvesting was reported in Gampaha and Marawila whereas in other two areas it was for unskilled labour. Irrespective of the region, young generation’s participation to the labour force was very poor. Generally, smallholders pay higher wage rates compared to estate sector. Skilled labour is 3 to 4 times highly paid compared to the unskilled labour in each region. In terms of wage rates a statistically significant gender disparity exists in each region favouring male labour. The findings suggest the need of inventing innovative mechanization technology in order to reduce the dependence on manual labour. The cost effectiveness of the mechanization technologies is also highlighted. A deep attitudinal change is a requisite to attract the young generation to cultivation sector and there is a possibility of reintroducing harvesting as a recognized commercial service by a company. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/cocos.v19i1.4747

The effect of mechanization on arable crops in Edu and Patigi local government areas of Kwara State where the majority of the farmers are beginning to adopt the use of modern technology on their agricultural activities was investigated. The Investigative Research Approach Method was employed to retrieve information from farmers through the use of structured questionnaire. The farmers were randomly selected and a total of one hundred farmers were interviewed in the two local government areas. It was observed that 95% of the respondents were males while the remaining 5% were females, 31% of the farmers were aged between 41 and 50 years and also 98% of the respondents went through primary, secondary or tertiary education, 75% of the farmers had less than 10 family members while 68% of the farmers inherited the land in which they are using for farming. This study also shows that 60% of the respondents adopted mechanization and it boosted their crop production and reduced the use of other forms of manual labour.

Background: The occupational health status scenario in unorganised sector is not impressive. There is a lack of awareness on occupational health and safety issues and manual labour is still obligatory . Ergonomic and work physiological studies conducted among different unorganised sector occupations are scanty. Aims and Objective: The present study intended a physiological evaluation of workload in small scale aluminium casting works. In accordance, cardiac strain of the workers is assessed in actual work situation. Methods: Seventeen regular male workers (mean age 32.6 ± 10.9; range 22 – 55) years, were examined for the magnitude of physiological strain. Different tasks performed were identified including work and rest hours. Working heart rate, net cardiac cost, relative cardiac cost and recovery heart rates were determined. Tasks performed were analysed in terms of heaviness, recommended strain level and thermal stress of the workplace. Results: Work study revealed the predominant static nature of the tasks performed. Overall strain of the job appeared to be moderate in nature with mean working heart rate of 99 ± 5.2 beats/min. Recovery patterns were inadequate for majority of the workers. Thermal stress prevailing was more than the recommended level. Conclusion: The subjects were exposed to cumulative circulatory stress which might have deleterious long term effect particularly on older workers. Interventions are required to ameliorate ergonomic stressors, which indicate further scope of study. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijosh.v2i2.6565 International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, Vol 2. No 2 (2012) 8-13

Safety critical railway assets need to be visible from prescribed distances, ensuring safety. Traditional methods for measuring these sighting distances involve manual labour and disruption of rail services. Drawing parallels with other areas, efficiency and cost of such a task can be improved with automation. Hence, in this work, we describe a framework providing such automation, using image frames captured from video equipment as input. Any such framework needs to meet a set of associated challenges, including: determining the image position of decreasing sized assets as they appear farther from the observer, extracting three-dimensional positioning information (relative to motion) from two-dimensional video information and determining when an asset can no longer be seen (i.e. the sighting distance). Results show that the methods included in this framework perform better than a traditional method and information regarding asset-sighting distance is accurately computed.

Mahatma Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India, he was very im- portant figure in Indian history, He thought that education is closely associated with the socio-economic devel- opment of the society. He took up scheme for basic education in which vocational training or work experience is the utmost important. It is due to the fact that it stimulates the human mind for creative thinking or dignity of manual labour. He thought that such creative thinking should be taken up from primary to higher-level education. His view on basic education is greatly influenced by his philoso- phy of satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), and firm belief in God, dignity of labour. His large contribution for Indian education and he was expected in Indian education system always remember 3H factors means Heart, Hand & Head these are very important things in education (It is not meant to make life worth living by imparting training in 3-H: Head - learning to know; hand - learning to earn livelihood, and Heart - learning to be.). He was continuing worked for education after Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj. Actually his thoughts implemented from 1st april 2010 and education is essential to the 6 to 14 years students. There are in the education system two meth- ods are used for student evaluation one is formative evaluation and another is summative evaluation. Economist Amartyasen and Meboob ul-haq said, "In humanities development primary education is very important factors." In our country total 100 districts are involving in rural and undeveloped. There are some district Maharashtra and Marathwada's all dis- tricts are involving (Eight District) and there are many problems are creating to students, parents and teachers in current education system. So this project presenting of his drawback and research on solving of his all drawback.

This work is based on the experience of the authors' involvement in the development of a Masters of Vocational Pedagogy program in Uganda and Southern Sudan between 2007 and 2011. This is also grounded in work with Vocational Education and Culture (VET) over many years. The terms VET and Culture are interdependent; both terms are highly contested in our classdivided world. Vocational, associated closely with the manual labour market, which is often stigmatized as a poor cousin of general education. Culture, on the other hand, from colere (Latin: to cultivate) has to do with patterns of human activity and symbolic systems that lend them meaning in both phylo- and ontogenetic senses. Implicitly or explicitly, VET studies focus on comparative policy content and standardization in the face of an ever-changing labour market. We argue that, given the sectional interests in society, epistemological honesty demands a clear exposition of the researcher's standpoint of knowing. Where does the VET analyst stand in society and in relation to comparative studies? What is demanded of the eyes and ears of researcher from the North working in the South? How about the colleagues in the South? Long ago Ngugi wa Thiong'o entitled one of his books Decolonizing the Mind (1981), which remains a useful descriptive endeavour for both North and South. The authors are both concerned with learning and teaching in communities of practice. Liv Mjelde has spent her working life learning/teaching in the working class culture of VET, and the other with learning and teaching in 'multicultural' under-class settings. A source of inspiration for this work has been critical voices from indigenous people and empirical work in VET done both in 'North and South'. The work discussed here draws on activity theory, or learning activity as a social relationship as discussed by Vygotsky, Leont'ev and Luria and using Dorothy Smith's 'standpoint of knowing' in relation to the social organization of knowledge.

Sugarcane is a major commercial crop consuming more labour force for planting. Sugarcane planting is a time consuming and labour intensive operation in sugarcane cultivation. In the traditional method in India, all the sugarcane cultivation processes are carried out by manual labour except land preparation. Sugarcane planting requires manual power and a pair of bullock or a tractor with ridger to plant sugarcane setts in one hectare on an average. Although number of useful machines have been designed, developed and being manufactured for cultivating sugarcane, but due to lack of extension and socio-economic reasons, still majority of the farmers are using indigenous tools and equipments. Shortage of timely labour availability and exorbitant wages compel our farmers to limit their acreage under sugarcane crop. Therefore there is an urgent need to mechanize sugarcane planting operations for reducing the cost of planting, as well as, for reducing the human drudgery involved. The field trials of Khalsa Make three row automatic sugarcane planter was conducted for planting of sugarcane at farmers’ field as well as at research farm. The performance indicators of the planter viz. field capacity, efficiency etc. were calculated. The effective field capacity was 0.38 ha/h with field efficiency up to 70.4%.

The social sciences have paid little sustained attention to society's relations with the universe. This paper attempts to redress this failure, arguing that human beings have been increasingly alienated from the cosmos. This estrangement is a product of three closely related processes. These are the division between mental and manual labour in master-slave societies, the strengthening of abstraction due to the market, and the tendency of human beings to dichotomize a world they do not understand or experience as threatening. Alienation from the cosmos is a dominant feature of all master-slave societies but it has been made an ingrained, all-pervasive feature of capitalism. Contemporary liberation theology, prefigured by movements such as the peasant revolts of the fifteenth century and the Diggers of the seventeenth century, have attempted to resist this alienation, making new ‘heavens on earth’. Alternative cosmologies are also being made by scientists that describe the cosmos in forms that can b...

SummaryThis article addresses two separate but interlinked questions relating to India in Mughal times (sixteenth to early eighteenth century). First, the terms on which labour was rendered, taking perfect market conditions as standard; and, second, the perceptions of labour held by the higher classes and the labourers themselves. As to forms of labour, one may well describe conditions as those of an imperfect market. Slave labour was restricted largely to domestic service. Rural wage rates were depressed owing to the caste system and the “village community” mechanism. In the city, the monopoly of resources by the ruling class necessarily depressed wages through the market mechanism itself. While theories of hierarchy were dominant, there are indications sometimes of a tolerant attitude towards manual labour and the labouring poor among the dominant classes. What seems most striking is the defiant assertion of their status in relation to God and society made on behalf of peasants and workers in northern India in certain religious cults in the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

A virtual fence can be defined as a structure serving as an enclosure, a barrier, or a boundary without a physical barrier. The concept of virtual fencing occurs increasingly in discussions wherever free-ranging livestock is managed. It is especially interesting because of its potential to initially enhance ecological management, improve management by turning manual labour into cognitive labour as well as improve the life-style of livestock managers. All of these have the potential to reduce costs. Moreover, it opens up the possibility of managing areas that are not manageable at the moment. Therefore, a patent and literature search was conducted to investigate what virtual fencing involves, what opportunities there are for implementing it and what issues still need to be tackled. It was found that there are many different approaches in the development of virtual fencing, which can be split into three categories: first, to contain animals in a defined area or keep them out of a defined area using devices that are animal-borne; second, to contain animals without mounting a device onto the animal; and third, keeping animals apart with a moving fence line or using a virtual fence as a remote gathering device. The first two categories deal with static control of livestock, whereas the third category could be described as a control within moving boundaries. However, despite many patents having been found, only very few products are available on the market. Two important development areas are the energy use of the device and provision of a system that animals can easily understand, in order to assure welfare standards. The paper critically analyses the wide range of developments to date and points out the advantages and challenges virtual fencing offers. It also provides an indication of how far we are from a marketable product.

Background Mid-life is a neglected stage of women’s lives, particularly in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Birth injuries, menopause and manual labour can contribute to health problems in the mid-life. Objectives This study analyses the relationship between women’s health deterioration and age across socio-economic groups in 6 countries (China, Ghana, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and India). Methods Using constrained cubic splines, I analysed data from the WHO SAGE survey to examine age and wealth patterns in the onset of deterioration in objective proxies of ageing. Results Results show a clear pattern of deterioration in health in middle-aged women. Ageing processes differ dramatically between rich and poor strata within countries and between countries. Discussion This study clearly shows that the onset of ageing in women in LMICs begins in the early forties. The paper highlights the need to focus more on mid-life health of women, in particular poorer ones., Highlights • Mid-life is a neglected stage of women’s lives, particularly in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). • This study analyses the relationship between women’s health deterioration and age across socio-economic groups in 6 countries • The analyses reveal how physical – and to a lesser extent mental – declines in health occur early during the mid-life (35–65) in women. • Inequalities in health deterioration are observed in all regions with poorer strata of the population experiencing an earlier onset of health deterioration. • Interventions to prevent, delay or reduce disability in older age should begin early in midlife.

Technology, in the nineteenth-century sense of ‘science of the industrial arts’, comes in two varieties. The tradition of special technology began in 1777, when Beckmann published his Anleitung zur Technologie. The tradition of general technology began in 1806, when Beckmann published his Entwurf der allgemeinen Technologie. The former tradition entered France at the turn of the century. One of the more important French technological productions is the Dictionnaire technologique, launched by Lenormand and Francœur in 1822. Examples of the latter tradition are Christian’s Plan de technonomie and Ure’s Philosophy of Manufactures. Ure was also active in the field of special technology. In 1839, he published the first edition of his Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines. This dictionary has 1 million words, the Dictionnaire technologique four million. The difference of three million words has to be explained by the fact that Ure explicitly omitted various parts of human industry, particularly the mere handicrafts. It turns out that he is especially interested in automatic manufactures operating with self-acting machines, the most perfect manufacture being that which dispenses entirely with manual labour. In this technological utopia, the mere handicrafts would have become obsolete, and the workshop of the artisan would have been replaced by the automatic factory. Il y a deux genres de technologie, ou « science des arts industriels », comme on disait au dix-neuvième siècle. La tradition de la technologie spéciale commençait en 1777, au moment où Beckmann publiait son Anleitung zur Technologie. La tradition de la technologie générale commençait en 1806, au moment où Beckmann publiait son Entwurf der allgemeinen Technologie. Celle-là a été introduite en France à la fin du dix-huitième siècle. L’un des plus importants ouvrages technologiques français est le Dictionnaire technologique, inauguré, en 1822, par Lenormand et Francœur. Celle-ci est représentée par le Plan de technonomie de Christian et la Philosophy of Manufactures d’Ure. Ure a aussi bien contribué à la technologie spéciale. En 1839, il a publié la première édition de son Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines. Ce dictionnaire contient environ un million de mots. Le Dictionnaire technologique en contient quatre million. La différence de trois millions de mots doit être expliquée par le fait que Ure a omis, d’une manière explicite, plusieurs branches de l’industrie humaine, en particulier les purs métiers. Il paraît qu’il s’intéresse principalement aux manufactures où les fonctions productives sont exercées par des machines automoteurs, et qu’il est d’avis que la plus parfaite manufacture est celle qui peut se passer entièrement du travail des mains. Dans cette utopie technique, les purs métiers seraient devenus obsolètes, et l’atelier de l’artisan serait remplacé par la manufacture automatique.

The Sicily is the first region for orange cultivation in Italy. This sector, throughout the ages, has been characterized by a decrease of the invested areas and by a reduction of the fresh product’s demand; in the meantime, the competitiveness of the new producer countries is increased for a better commercial organization and for lower production costs. The aim of the paper is to improve the knowledge of orange cultivation in Ribera area, in the province of Agrigento (Sicily). It is carried out a microeconomic analysis on a sample of 20 farms to determine profitability of orange cultivation by means of various economic indicators (production costs, profits, net incomes). The business survey has regarded 30 plants, distinguished by the two principal variety of the area: Brasiliano and Naveline. The cropping techniques generally adopted in the farm sample are characterized by high manual labour inputs. This doesn’t depend by the variety, but it’s due to a low mechanization degree of the plants and to a different businessman management. Microeconomic analysis has showed similar average values of the production costs among the two variety. The profit average value, whereas, has resulted more elevated in the Naveline plants than Brasiliano ones, because of the high value of the Gross Saleable Product of Naveline oranges. The net incomes values, finally, are resulted higher in the direct management plants. With regard to commercial aspects, the most part of the farm product has been destined to the national market through some commercialization centres located in the Ribera area.

Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain is a major concern among manufacturing-based companies as they are still very reliant on manual labour. A better understanding whether musculoskeletal pain differ between gender and would enable organizational intervention to improve employees' health and safe working conditions. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the current prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among production workers and differences of musculoskeletal pain between gender and across age groups. A cross-sectional survey involving 324 shop-floor manufacturing workers was done using Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaires (CMDQ). No significance differences were observed between female and male employees in terms of right hand, left hand, lower extremity, neck and lower back. However, there is a significance difference of pain at the upper extremity with female operators experienced more pain compared to their male counterparts. No significance differences were found among age categories for lower back, right hand, left hand, upper and lower extremity. However, neck pain and left hand was significantly different. The age effects indicate non linear association.

Modern aerospace structures tend to consist of large numbers of geometrically complex structural components which by their very nature tend to suffer from significant levels of physical distortion and are thus difficult to assemble. One solution to this problem is to use large complex jigs which physically control the shape of the parts. These jigs are usually loaded using either direct manual labour or manual labour assisted by cranes or lifting devices. The use of manual operations represents a significant health and safety risk and increased likelihood of damaging components during assembly. The application of automation in the processing of such structures has so far been confined to small product specific cells owing to difficulties in pre-defining and fixing the exact geometry and positioning of parts within the work volume. The use of specially designed jigs, fixtures and aids such as drilling templates can be adapted to support automation but are expensive, have long manufacturing lead times and cannot be economically modified for use on other aircraft types. The paper proposes a solution to the above problems using standard industrial robots and an advanced control and non-contact metrology systems. The developed methodology is generic and has been evaluated and demonstrated in a number of different applications. The application described in this paper is the assembly of regional jet fuselage panels. Results are presented along with an analysis of the accuracy and repeatability of the system and its elements.

Matters of border control in twenty-first-century Japan interact with current social issues involving demography, the labour market and economic relationships with other countries in the region. Japan faces a rapidly ageing population, the highest life expectancy in the world, a birth rate well below replacement level and a shrinking population. Smaller families find it difficult to provide primary care for the sick, the elderly and those with disabilities, and the welfare system is stretched to the limit. At the same time, Japanese people are increasingly unwilling to undertake work regarded as ‘manual labour’ or ‘unskilled labour’. Thus, the management of border control is related to the labour market and the management of welfare. This is a range of policies which I would like to refer to as involving the management of bodies. This paper thus focuses on ‘the management of borders’ and the ‘management of bodies’ in contemporary Japan.

Starting from the present knowledge society with its social overvaluing of cognition and white‐collar jobs at the expense of manual labour, this article examines whether school type—academic versus technical/vocational schools—relates to students’ sense of futility. It assesses the schools’ culture of futility and investigates the explanatory value of sense of futility and culture of futility in the relation of school type with study involvement and study culture. Multilevel analyses of data from 6,373 students in 44 Flemish schools (2004–2005) show that students in technical/vocational schools share higher feelings of futility, suggesting the existence of cultures of futility. The students’ study involvement relates to their sense of futility. The schools’ futility culture affects the students’ study involvement independent of their sense of futility. Finally, futility culture explains the association between school type and study involvement, and is responsible for less study‐oriented cultures in techni...

There have been varying perceptions of manual labour in different societies, cultures and thought systems. However, in most pre-modern stratified societies, manual work was considered demeaning. In pre-colonial India, despite various dissenting traditions and protest movements, the dominant ideology continued to privilege non-manual work while degrading manual labour. Thus, the Dalits, most of whom were poor manual workers, remained at the receiving end of this ideology. The colonial regime, owing to its peculiar inherent contradictions, created a dual labour regime for the Dalits whereby their subjection was further strengthened in the rural areas while they experienced some measure of freedom in the cities. The consequent contradictory experiences gave impetus to Dalit movements which sharply attacked the caste system. The Dalit autobiographies emerged in the post-independence period as the most important component of Dalit literature which was a product of the Dalit movement. This article endeavours to analyze some of these texts for their explicit and underlying ideas and notions about work.

This chapter discusses Issues within the Fashion Supply Chain, Globalization and International Sourcing, The Ethics of Textile Production and the Evolution of Ecofashion, and Ecofashion Strategies, Standards, and Labeling Consumer Behaviour. Abstract: Although the fashion industry is fast-moving and often dismissed as frivolous, it represents one of the major global economic players. Fashion is one of the few remaining craft-based industries, relying on skilled manual labour for manufacturing across its wide spectrum of levels, which raises particular issues for production. There is an urgent need to reconcile ethical, environmental, social, and personal agendas through future product development and manufacturing cycles in the fashion industry, with an increasingly important role for the designer in making and influencing choices. Systemic environmental and ethical issues arise at each stage of the complex textile- and fashion-production process, including: constantly shifting global sourcing of manufacturing, working conditions and employment practices in garment factories, environmental impact of textile raw materials and processing, garment recycling and disposal, and pay and conditions for retail staff. Campaigns by nongovernmental organizations such as War on Want, and investigative journalists, have exposed iniquitous working conditions endured by garment factory workers in developing countries. However, for those living below the poverty line in such countries, jobs in clothing factories often offer a better alternative than subsistence farming. The early years of the twenty-first century saw a convergence of various high-profile initiatives in the United Kingdom and Europe, on ethical and environmental issues, such as Make Poverty History, The Clean Clothes Campaign, and Labour Behind the Label. Increased environmental awareness has stimulated closer consumer scrutiny of manufacturing and service industries, from transportation and electrical goods to food and fashion.

Economic compulsions coerce the vast majority of poor women workers to perform strenuous manual labour for survival. This is a report on the conditions that are debasing and discriminatory of women workers in brick production.

The revolution in information and communication technology, the shrinking of time and space and the creation of what Marshall McLuhan called ‘the global village’ have transformed the way the children of today are experiencing childhood. A major contributing factor in this transformation has been the enormous increase in leisure tools and easy access to them. Technological advance paves the way for not only a reduction in manual labour but also in community time. Leisure tools like radio, television, ‘Gameboy’, PSPs, mobiles and gaming stations have been targeted to provide leisure for the lonely. They work as vehicles for the segregation of human beings. The booming toy industry, the emergence of exclusive kids' stores, early brand imaging, and innovative promotional schemes are responsible for creating Little Adults. The early decision-making, peer pressure, me-too and me-alone syndrome, the portrayal of the child as an adult, double incomes, greater affordability of children-related leisure goo...

This paper is concerned with the alienation between the self and the cosmos. On the one hand, the binaries involved in this process (including the division between society and nature and between mental and manual labour) have been widely described and commented on. Social scientists and activists alike have shown that dichotomies of this kind are used by social elites to legitimate control over nature and over ‘inferior’ human beings. These insights are all vital but this paper attempts to combine them with elements of psychoanalysis. Binary ways of thought also appeal to elements (especially infantile elements) of the human psyche that divide parts of society and nature into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. These binaries are the product of psychic defence mechanisms operating under uncertain, challenging or difficult- to-understand circumstances. They result in a narcissistic rather than an anaclytic relation to the cosmos, one in which a divided cosmos is mirroring a divided self rather than (as in archaic societies) a self which develops in close relation to ‘others’ on which it depends. The paper concludes by arguing that a highly general, ‘universal’, knowledge of the cosmos and external nature is unstable and eminently challengeable.

Udgivelsesdato: 2009-Jun OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyse to what extent individuals with coronary heart disease (CHD) leave the labour market earlier than individuals without CHD and to discuss the implications for rehabilitation. DATA AND METHODS: Individuals with CHD were identified from the Danish National Cohort study and were followed from the year of their first hospital admission for CHD and onwards for up to 23 years. Individuals with CHD were individually matched with individuals without CHD. We analysed their short-term labour market participation and compared the long-term withdrawal risk for the two groups through Cox regression. RESULTS: In the year after the first CHD-related admission, 79% of individuals with CHD maintained their labour force participation compared with 93% of individuals without CHD. Individuals with CHD had a hazard ratio of 1.32 for withdrawal compared with their matched counterparts. This means that the individuals with CHD were on the labour market, on average, for 0.8 years less than the individuals without CHD. Stratified analyses showed that, in particular, individuals with CHD aged below 60 years and individuals employed as manual labour may benefit from cardiac rehabilitation, which aims to maintain labour market participation. CONCLUSION: Individuals with CHD have a significantly increased risk of withdrawing from the labour market. Especially younger individuals and those employed as manual labour seem to have greater problems in maintaining labour market participation. This suggests that greater focus in cardiac rehabilitation on returning these individuals to the labour market might be worthwhile.

Since the late 1990s, Israel has become a new destination for Chinese migrant workers. In the view of many studies conducted in Israel, the Chinese migrant workers are often a neglected and almost invisible group. The purpose of this paper is to explore the initiation of this migration trend and its social consequences. The major discussion of this study focuses on how the whole process of migration is carried out at the interface between legality and illegality. Research in the sending area suggests that the urgent need for manual labour in Israel provides possibilities to attract both documented and undocumented migrant workers and therefore turns labour transportation into a profitable business. Although no one agrees that undocumented working activities should continue, all of the factors interact and result in a permissive situation allowing this particular combination of the illegal but licit to persist in transnational labour migration. More than anything else, this micro-level study attempts to find the true story from the individual voices of local people.

Rural communities have over the years lived together and do things in common. They eat and sleep together; they go to their farms together, help the weak on the farm, during marriage and in home construction. In fact, the way their houses are built gives room for the sharing of ideas and for consultation. They have for their common benefits constructed roads, schools, health centres and also made bridges through manual labour and personal contributions. Having lived a life of togetherness and of sharing of ideas over a long period of time, it sounds strange, if not unacceptable to some of them that they will find projects in their communities without the slightest idea about it either in conception or in implementation. They therefore do not see the projects as part of them. The projects in most cases, therefore suffer abandonment or at best low maintenance. For projects to be sustained, the communities must be carried along during conception and implementation. More importantly, however there must be government support either in cash or in kind. Community leaders must also accept the challenge for project sustainability.

The shipbreaking industry seems to be an indispensable part of the economy for developing countries since it requires a small amount of investment and, being mainly dependent on manual labour, is locally a major source for employment. From the point of ship owners, it provides a cash flow for the renewal of fleet, by dispensing aged or irreparably damaged ships or vessels that cannot be used further due to the changing international legislation. Properly carried out, it also meets a key sustainability requirement in recycling of resources. One of the major shipbreaking sites is in Aliaga, Turkey; where 2.8% by number and 1.1% by tonnage of the World's global fleet scrapped per year, was scrapped during the 1994-2002 period. The recycled steel from the Aliaga shipbreaking yards is an important component of the steel supply in Turkey, but only recently have the yards begun to care for environmental issues and occupational health. This study addresses these challenges of the Aliaga shipbreaking yards: are the recent improvements of the procedures of the yards and Turkish legislation regarding environment sufficient to allow Aliaga to claim "green recycling" capacity, and thus, allowing ship owners to scrap vessels in a responsible way. The ever-expanding and constantly modernized world fleet has an increasing demand for shipbreaking, and the capacity in responsible recycling is still limited, but Aliaga has taken the first important steps. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was born in the Rostov-on-Don region of Russia, in the stanitsa Veshenskaya. Sholokhov began writing at earlier ages nearly 17. In 1922 he moved to Moscow to become a journalist, but he had to support himself through manual labour. He worked in very different works to earn his life from 1922 to 1924, but also attended to writers seminars to improve his writing talent. In 1924 Sholokhov returned to Veshenskaya and devoted himself entirely to writing. His first study Tales from the Don, is a book about his native region during World War I and the Russian Civil War. Stories from this selection are largely based on his personal experiences and his own region. In the same year Sholokhov began writing And Quiet Flows the Don which his biggest, most famous and most speculative work, earned the Stalin Prize and took his time more than fourteen years to complete (1926-1940). It became the most-read work of Soviet and world literature and won him the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. It deals with the experiences of the Cossacks before and during the First World War, The Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Sholokhov in this study tries to show human behaviourism in the period of war. Revolution, war and death are tightly interlinked with each other and human behaviour can change due to situations of war. This study is going to analyse these themes by textual analysis method.

© 2016, National Research Council of Canada. All rights reserved. This study investigated the effects of wearing compression garments during and 24 h following a 4-h exercise protocol simulating manual-labour tasks. Ten physically trained male participants, familiar with labouring activities, undertook 4 h of work tasks characteristic of industrial workplaces. Participants completed 2 testing sessions, separated by at least 1 week. In the experimental condition, participants wore a full-length compression top and compression shorts during the exercise protocol and overnight recovery, with normal work clothes worn in the control condition. Testing for serum creatine kinase and C-reactive protein, handgrip strength, knee flexion and extension torque, muscle stiffness, perceived muscle soreness and fatigue as well as heart rate and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) responses to 4-min cycling were performed before, following, and 24 h after exercise. Creatine kinase, muscle soreness, and rating of perceived fatigue increased following the exercise protocol (p < 0.05) as did RPE to a standardised cycling warm-up bout. Conversely, no postexercise changes were observed in C-reactive protein, handgrip strength, peak knee flexion torque, or stiffness measures (p > 0.05). Knee extension torque was significantly higher in the control condition at 24 h postexercise (3.1% ± 5.4% change; compression: 2.2% ± 11.1% change), although no other variables were different between conditions at any time. However, compression demonstrated a moderate-large effect (d > 0.60) to reduce perceived muscle soreness, fatigue, and RPE from standardised warm-up at 24 h postexercise. The current findings suggest that compression may assist in perceptual recovery from manual-labour exercise with implications for the ability to perform subsequent work bouts.

Climate change is projected to further increase heat waves in number, intensity and duration over most land areas in the twenty-first century. Among the urban population persons with migrant background are particularly considered to be at risk during heat waves due to the intersection of several risk factors: social status (poverty, manual labour), residential area (densely populated, disadvantaged urban areas, heat islands) and health condition. In this chapter we pledge for a differentiated approach in studying heat-related health outcomes and present first descriptive outcomes of two explorative case studies of multi-generation-families in Vienna, comparing a family with Turkish migrant background with a family without migrant background. The data consists of participant observation and in-depth interviews and has been generated in the course of the research project “Vulnerability of and adaption strategies for migrant groups in urban heat environments (EthniCityHeat)” between June and September 2014.

A great technology-driven process of change is at work in today’s world. Information and communication technology is transforming many day-to-day activities, even in the workplace. Technology is replacing manual labour and transforming the nature of work, and employees might lose the race against the machines. Work life has become more technologically intensive (Wajcman, 2008), and for those with know-how, the threshold to the world of technology has been lowered: it now takes only days for the technologically competent to master new computer programmes and new technological solutions (Cuban, 2009).

One of the major sources of fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission in South and South-East Asia is brick manufacturing. One of the most commonly implemented technologies for brick manufacturing in this region is the fixed chimney Bull’s trench kiln (FCBTK). This type of technology largely depends on manual labour and is very inefficient when compared to more modern technologies. Because the adoption of more advanced technologies is hindered by the socio-economical background, the much needed innovations in the brick sector are necessarily related to improving/modifying the FCBTK already operational. However, few scientific studies have been conducted on FCBTK probably due to the basic level of technological development. Such studies are however important to systematically and methodologically assess the challenges and solutions in FCBTK. In this study we develop a thermo-energetic model to evaluate the importance of the parameters pertained to FCBTK construction and operation. The prospective of this study is to build an initial thermo-energetic framework that will serve as a basis to investigate possible energetic improvements.

The American educationalist David Blacker has proposed a challenging thesis about the relation between university education and what he calls ‘the eliminationist project — the neoliberal endgame’.1 His argument derives from a controversial proposition of Karl Marx, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Desperate measures are taken to buck this trend by boosting capital accumulation, typically displacement and technological substitution of labour. Blacker claims that increasing segments of the population are morally written off as no longer exploitable and hence irrelevant to capital accumulation’.2 The validity of Blacker’s abstract thesis would seem to be evident in actual developments since the 1970s: with a decreasing number of manual jobs in the West; with widespread youth unemployment in comparatively wealthy countries; with the growth of precarious and lowly paid employment everywhere; with the scandalously intensive and extensive exploitation of manual labour, especially of young women and children, in low-pay locations; and, more generally, in increased inequality within countries and around the whole world.3