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Designing an efficient routing protocol that opportunistically forwards data to the destination node through nearby sensor nodes or devices is significantly important for an effective incidence response and disaster recovery framework. Existing sensor routing protocols are mostly not effective in such disaster recovery applications as the networks are affected (destroyed or overused) in disasters such as earthquake, flood, Tsunami and wildfire. These protocols require a large number of message transmissions to reestablish the clusters and communications that is not energy efficient and result in packet loss. This paper introduces ODCR - an energy efficient and reliable opportunistic density clustered-based routing protocol for such emergency sensor applications. We perform simulation to measure the performance of ODCR protocol in terms of network energy consumptions, throughput and packet loss ratio. Simulation results demonstrate that the ODCR protocol is much better than the existing TEEN, LEACH and LORA protocols in term of these performance metrics.

Twitter users’ generated data, known as tweets, are now not only used for communication and opinion sharing, but they are considered an important source of trendsetting, future prediction, recommendation systems and marketing. Using network features in tweet modeling and applying data mining and deep learning techniques on tweets is gaining more and more interest.

In this paper, user interests are discovered from Twitter Trends using a modeling approach that uses network-based text data (tweets). First, the popular trends are collected and stored in separate documents. These data are then pre-processed, followed by their labeling in respective categories. Data are then modeled and user interest for each Trending topic is calculated by considering positive tweets in that trend, average retweet and favorite count.

The proposed approach can be used to infer users’ topics of interest on Twitter and to categorize them. Support vector machine can be used for training and validation purposes. Positive tweets can be further analyzed to find user posting patterns. There is a positive correlation between tweets and Google data.

The results can be used in the development of information filtering and prediction systems, especially in personalized recommendation systems.

Twitter microblogging platform offers content posting and sharing to billions of internet users worldwide. Therefore, this work has significant socioeconomic impacts.

This study guides on how Twitter network structure features can be exploited in discovering user interests using tweets. Further, positive correlation of Twitter Trends with Google Trends is reported, which validates the correctness of the authors’ approach.

The aim of this study is to estimate the technical efficiency of the massive and economically important crop of rice in Ecuador, and then conduct a comparison between groups of farmers with and without insurance.

The authors use an input-oriented data envelopment analysis approach (DEA) to estimate technical efficiency scores. The DEA is combined with the double bootstrap approach in Simar and Wilson (2007) to study factors that may affect technical efficiency. This method overcomes the traditional two-stage DEA approach frequently used in the efficiency literature. The authors thus research the role of insurance on rice efficiency production using this technique and sizeable field-level survey data from 376 rice farmers distributed in five provinces during the 2019 winter cycle in Ecuador.

Most uninsured rice farmers operate with increasing returns to scale, which means that farms improve their resource use efficiency by increasing their size. However, since scale efficiencies are relatively high, it appears that inefficiencies are explained by inadequate input use. Also, the authors find evidence that insured farmers have a negative relationship with technical efficiency in rice production. In other results, when exploring the influence of additional variables on efficiency, the authors find that parameters related to transplanting, high education, farm size and some locations are positive and statistically significant.

The results of this work are relevant for policymakers interested in evaluating technology performance, risk management instruments and farm efficiency in an industry in a developing country such as rice production in Ecuador.

This paper is the first attempt to estimate farm-level technical efficiency employing the double bootstrap approach to assess the efficiency and its determinants of Ecuadorian rice producers.

Spatio-temporal variations in precipitation pattern of district Sargodha is one of the most significant researchable questions because of the massive reliance on rainfall for agricultural practice in the study area. The pattern of current rainfall in the study area is unexpectedly changed. The purpose of the present study is to examine the changing precipitation pattern and to link it with climate change.

The study was conducted by using rainfall data of the past 30 years collected from 8 meteorological stations around the study area. The averages of rainfall on monthly basis were temporally arranged, and the fluctuation trends were studied using GIS and statistics. The temporal data of rainfall were compared and contrasted with the precipitation normals of the study area from 1981to 2010. The rainfall deviation in the present study was calculated. The spatial pattern of rainfall was plotted by interpolating the eight points of Punjab around the study area for the first two decades, whereas the past decade was analysed by incorporating five more points of Tehsils in the existing eight. The spatial and statistical representation of data were examined by compare and contrast with the previous findings.

The rainfall in the study area showed remarkable changes in magnitude and spatiality. The rainfall in the district is on the rise, whereas the spatial pattern of rainfall is becoming more complex and anomalous in character. This paper provides convincing evidence about the impact of climate change on the magnitude and spatial patterns of precipitation in the study area.

It will be helpful for understanding the shifts in the rainfall pattern in future as well as for the preparation of response to the issue of climate change and its impacts.

The current manuscript, for the very first time, provided detailed insights about the precipitation pattern shifting during the last 30 years in district Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. Furthermore, agricultural sector would likely get severally affected because of seasonal changes in climatic factors like rainfall and have strong food security implications. The current findings will be useful to manage the climate change-related issues in Pakistan and helpful for the policy makers to design a coping strategy for climate change impacts.

Construction workers contribute significantly to the economic development of a country, but the working conditions and the living standard for construction workers in Bangladesh are inhumane. This study aims to focus on the actual scenario of the quality of work-life (QWL) of the construction workers who work without meeting basic human needs.

In this study, researchers used a mixed-method approach. An inclusive one-to-one (F to F) interview has operated at the beginning of the research; later on, focus group discussion (FGD) and a structured questionnaire have been used to investigate the construction workers' QWL workers in Bangladesh.

The findings showed that construction workers are highly dissatisfied with their position, working hours and leaves, payment system, accommodation, food, sanitation and drinking water, education, leisure, entertainment and religious freedom, health safety and security. Consequently, that hinders the natural growth of the said sector where there is no initiative to implement these rights.

Based on this study's findings, the construction industry's higher authority can make some policies to make workers' lives a little happier. Besides, this study will play a vital role in improving academic literature regarding the workers' current condition in Bangladesh's construction industry.

To best the authors' observation, this is the first study in the Emerald Insight publishers on the overall inhuman quality of construction workers' work-life in Bangladesh.

The continual onset of natural and manmade disasters propels the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) efforts (by organizations, groups and individuals) to always be on a stand-by mode with more and more sustainable solutions. Despite all the sincere and coordinated efforts from all the humanitarian agents and bodies, the likely sustainable outputs are hampered by certain barriers (impediments) which exist at different levels of the HSCs. A better understanding of such barriers and their mutual relationship is deemed helpful in improving the outcomes of humanitarian efforts. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore, refine, establish and classify these barriers which thwart the sustainable efforts of the HSCs individually as well as collectively.

An extensive literature review is conducted to identify these barriers which were followed by soliciting the experts’ inputs to update, refine and retain the contextually relevant ones. The opinions about the nine identified and refined barriers are taken from eight experts based in the Northern India who are having at least five years of experience in humanitarian operations. Fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (FISM) is used to examine and establish a hierarchical relationship among these barriers, whereas fuzzy Matrice d’impacts croisés multiplication appliquée á un classment analysis is carried out to further classify these barriers into dependent, autonomous, linkage and dependent barriers.

The analysis led to the formation of a FISM model where the operational challenges affecting the performance occupy the topmost position in the hierarchy. The results reveal that inconsistent motives, coordination and communication and operational challenges affecting the performance are the dependent, poor strategic planning, capacity-related challenges and poor performance measurement system are the autonomous, and financial challenges, locational challenges and lack of proper awareness are the independent barriers.

The focus of the researchers was to study and examine these barriers to sustainable HSCs with special reference to the epidemics and pandemics (especially COVID-19), and it sheds light particularly arising during and post disaster phases.

The structural model contributed by this study is expected to be meaningful for practitioners besides enriching the body of literature. In the context of pandemics, it distinguishes itself from the other available frameworks.

As this research has been carried out in the context of the novel COVID-19, the framework is expected to assist policymakers in comprehending the issues impeding the sustainability of noble humanitarian efforts. Thus, ultimately it is expected to contribute to the ultimate cause of society at large.

This research endeavor distinguishes itself from the other accessible published resources in terms of the specific context, the methodological approach and the nature of respondents. This paper concludes with the practical implications and directions for future research.

Balochistan is one of the earthquake disaster prone areas in Pakistan. Earthquakes adversely affect people and their economy, therefore disaster preparedness especially at the community level is imperative to avoid future damages. The purpose of this paper is to examine the issues associated with community preparedness in earthquake prone areas and recommend upgrading the community preparedness, and improving coordination between provincial and national agencies during disasters and seismic emergencies.

The study is based on field visits. Observations, key informant interviews and group discussions were conducted to analyze the preparedness, both at community and organizational levels.

Disaster impacts are still handled by provincial level organizations in Balochistan. Disaster management authorities do not implement any activities related to preparedness at local levels, and focus more on reactive and top‐down approaches. On the other hand, community is vulnerable to multiple hazards associated with earthquakes. The study reveals that the available institutional framework does not meet community needs. Both the government institutes and communities are not well prepared, therefore communities get affected from time to time due to earthquake hazards in Balochistan.

Disaster management authorities should implement projects and activities at the local levels to empower communities for disaster preparedness and for disaster risk reduction.

The paper concludes that for efficient preparedness the coordination should be improved between the provincial and national level agencies and community preparedness needs to be enhanced for upgrading people's awareness and defensive mechanism for safeguarding their lives with reference to seismic emergencies.

Even though many studies identify positive effects of contract farming (CF) on the livelihood of farmers, the use of CF as a tool to increase farm performance is unsettled debate. Information on CF is relatively not available in staple food chains. Theoretical considerations have shown that there are challenges in employing CF in staple food chains such as rice. With the increasing trend of rice CF in Ghana, it is very critical to establish its performance in rice production in Ghana. It is therefore imperative to analyse the impact of CF on the performance of smallholder rice farmers.

A survey was conducted where 350 rice farmers selected through a stratified sampling technique using structured questionnaires were interviewed. Descriptive and inferential statistics including stochastic frontier analyses and endogenous treatment effect regression were used to analyse the data.

The results from the endogenous treatment effect regression model show that CF improves rice farmers' technical, allocative and economic efficiencies by 21, 23 and 26%, respectively. Farm size and CF were identified as common factors influencing technical, allocative and economic efficiency measures of the farmers positively. It further identified age of farmer, educational level and household labour as factors influencing farmers' participation in CF positively.

It is recommended that CF is a good tool to enhance rice production efficiency, and hence, farmers should be encouraged to participate in CF as strategy to enhance the local rice production in Ghana.

The outcome of this study has the potential to influence rice production in the country. The country is a net importer of rice and just about 35% self-sufficient in rice production.

This study is the first to assess performance of CF in rice crop production in Ghana and also one of the few to use efficiency as a performance measure.

Mud architecture as one of the expressions of vernacular architecture illustrates the success of indigenous knowledge of traditional communities. Due to the pressure of industrialization, urbanization and globalization, the trend of using non-traditional measures guided by the Western-Euro-centric knowledge and technologies considers the traditional practices as expressions of backward past, under-development and poverty. Though mud as a building material is usually assumed as a fragile and ephemeral material that cannot survive against natural hazards, the surviving traditional mud buildings are needed to be investigated to know their performances during and after different types of natural hazard incidents.

This paper intends to study the available cases of mud architecture of Chattogram, Bangladesh to trace the history of their survival despite of experiencing multiple natural hazards and to understand their status and prospect of resisting hazards. Three individual homesteads are chosen as cases for conducting physical survey as well as engaging inhabitants and local masons of the locality in semi-structured interviews in a story telling mode to know the construction process and histories of experiencing natural hazards. Available literatures are reviewed, and experts are interviewed to understand the causes of their performances and possible ways to improve the quality.

Collected information on mud architecture demonstrates their quality of surviving against many natural challenges and this hazard-resilient quality can be enhanced through using contemporary building technologies and materials, promising to co-exist with the global trend.

This study as an attempt to reinvent the vernacular architectural heritage endorses the need of appreciating indigenous knowledge for enhancing community resilience against natural hazards.

This paper aims to address the relationship of teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and their technology proficiency according to the International Society for Technology in Education Standards for Teachers (ISTE-ST) in public and private universities of Karachi, Pakistan.

Quantitative approach with survey research design was used. In total, 520 teachers of public and private universities were selected on the basis of simple random sampling technique. Data was collected through questionnaire distribution.

Strong significant correlation was found between teacher’ TPACK and teachers’ technology proficiency, teachers’ ability to engage in professional development and teachers’ ability to promote digital citizenship and responsibilities in students.

TPACK and ISTE-ST are used for effective teaching. TPACK is used to measure teachers’ ability to integrate technology in their teaching, while ISTE-ST is used to measure the proficiency technology integration. This study is unique as it discusses the relationship of TPACK and ISTE-ST framework in term of teachers’ ability to promote digital citizenship and responsibilities in students and teachers’ ability to engage themselves in professional development program.