National governments and academic higher education institutions continue to realign human resource development (HRD) strategies to address the gaps in HRD mandate. This study will investigate new and recalibrated skills that higher institutions (HEIs) professionals and the labor force produce to reconfigure curriculum development in tertiary education. The study extracts narrative from 6 curriculum developers, 3 HRD heads and h3 manpower organizations on the labor landscapes from different local and multinational industries from entry-level to mid-career ranges through case scenario-based interviews and focus group discussions to determine the skills around motivation, innovativeness, and adaptability and subsequently integrate strategic initiatives to reconfigure the compatibility of these skills from higher education institutions to post-pandemic industries. The findings reveal skills that can be managed at the individual level, e.g., self-motivation and adaptability as well as the need to emerge from the technological pressures by adapting to organizational and clientele demands. These human resource traits become the mantra of surviving and progressing in a landscape shaped by the pre- and post-pandemic setting and become the basis of HEI programs to match the needs of the labor force and the industries.

Projects implemented under life cycle contracts have become increasingly common in recent years to ensure the quality of construction and maintenance of energy infrastructure facilities. A key parameter for energy facility construction projects implemented under life cycle contracts is their duration and deadlines. Therefore, the systematic identification, monitoring, and comprehensive assessment of risks affecting the timing of work on the design and construction is an urgent practical task. The purpose of this work is to study the strength of the influence of various risks on the duration of a project implemented on the terms of a life cycle contract. The use of the expert assessment method allows for identifying the most likely risks for the design and construction phases, as well as determining the ranges of deviations from the baseline indicator. Using the obtained expert evaluations, a model reflecting the range and the most probable duration of the design and construction works under the influence of risk events was built by the Monte-Carlo statistical method. The results obtained allow monitoring and promptly detecting deviations in the actual duration of work from the basic deadlines set in the life cycle contract. This will give an opportunity to accurately respond to emerging risks and build a mutually beneficial relationship between the parties to life cycle contracts.

This work aimed to evaluate the effects of using three different substrates in the semi-hydroponic culture of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) using two different nutrient solutions. A first trial was performed with a nutrient solution rich in macronutrients and micronutrients suitable for lettuce culture, and a second trial with a nutrient solution with pretreated wastewater from effluents of a cheese factory. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with three repetitions and three substrates were used: perlite, coconut fiber, and expanded clay, in both trials. The following parameters were observed: number of leaves, diameter of the cabbage, fresh and dry weight of the aerial part, chlorophyll index and mineral composition of the lettuce. For the first trial, the highest result for the number of leaves (20 leaves), fresh weight (142.0 g) and dry weight (7.2 g) of the aerial part was obtained in the plants growing on perlite. In the second trial, the highest result for the number of leaves (28 leaves), diameter of cabbage (26.7 cm), fresh weight (118.8 g) and dry weight (9.5 g) of the aerial part were achieved by the plants that were grown in coconut fiber. The nutrient solutions were analyzed after each irrigation cycle to verify the possibility of their discharge into the environment. Several parameters were analyzed: pH, conductivity, redox potential, nitrates, nitrites, ammoniacal nitrogen, chlorides, hardness, calcium, phosphates, sodium, potassium, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and magnesium. Ammoniacal nitrogen was found to be the only nutrient that can limits the discharge of nutrient solutions into the environment. It was also proven that the plants, besides obtaining the nutrients necessary for their development in the semi-hydroponic system with the nutrient solution with pre-treated residual water, also functioned as a purification system, allowing the said nutrient solution to be discharged into the environment at the end of each cycle.

To deal with problems of traditional geographic information collection, such as low real-time, poor authenticity of the data, and unclear description of detailed areas, a design scheme of remote sensing-based geographic information system is proposed. The system mainly consists of information collection, imaging processing, data storage management, scene control and data transmission module. By use of remote sensing technology, the reflected and radiated electromagnetic waves of the target area are collected from a long distance to form an image, and the hue–intensity–saturation (HIS) transformation method is used to enhance the image definition. Weighted fusion algorithm is adopted to process the details of the image. The spatial database stores and manages the text and image data respectively, and establishes the attribute self-correlation mechanism to render the ground objects in the picture with SketchUp software. Finally, using RS422 protocol to transmit information can achieve the effect of multi-purpose, and enhance the anti-interference of the system. The experimental results show that the practical experience of the proposed system is excellent, the geographic information image presented is clear, and the edge details are clearly visible, which can provide users with effective geographic information data.

Developing countries have witnessed a rise in infrastructure spending over the past decades; however, infrastructure spending in most developed countries, particularly the US, continues to decline. As a result, in 2021, the US Congress passed a Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which invests $1 trillion in the country’s infrastructure every year. Using the principal component analysis and VAR estimation, we analyzed the impact of infrastructure (transportation and water, railway networks, aviation, energy, and fixed telephone lines) on economic growth in the US. Our findings show that infrastructure spending positively and significantly impacted economic growth. Additionally, the impulse response analysis shows that shocks to infrastructure spending had positive and persistent effects on economic growth. Our results suggest that infrastructure investment spurs economic growth. Based on our findings, sustained public spending on transport and water, railway networks, aviation, energy, and fixed telephone lines infrastructure by the US government will positively impact economic growth in the country. The study also suggests that policies that promote infrastructure spending, such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) passed by the US Congress, should be enhanced to boost economic growth in the US. 

Magnetic graphene oxide nanocomposites (M-GO) were successfully synthesized by partial reduction co-precipitation method and used for removal of Sr(II) and Cs(I) ions from aqueous solutions. The structures and properties of the M-GO was investigated by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and N₂-BET measurements. It is found that M-GO has 2.103 mg/g and 142.070 mg/g adsorption capacities for Sr(II) and Cs(I) ions, respectively. The adsorption isotherm matches well with the Freundlich for Sr(II) and Dubinin–Radushkevich model for Cs(I) and kinetic analysis suggests that the adsorption process is pseudo-second-ordered.