Contribution of ecotourism to poverty alleviation in Nyanga,Zimbabwe

This paper assesses the contribution of ecotourism to local communities and the environment.Livelihoods of local communities are examined to understand the socioeconomic situation of people living in proximity to ecotourism areas and their participation in ecotourism activities. The impact of ecotourism on the environment in Nyanga is also examined. The paper employs both literature review(secondary data) and a field survey(primary data) to achieve these objectives. To gather socioeconomic data of households and tourist traits, questionnaires were administered to120 households and 30 tourists in the study area. Key informant interviews were held in the survey to gather expert knowledge about ecotourism trends and environmental data in the area.Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used for quantitative data while content and structural-functional analyses were used for qualitative data. The research revealed that ecotourism offers the highest salaries when compared to other sources of formal employment. Ecotourism activities were shown to positively impact the environment through the protection, preservation, and management of natural resources. The study concludes that ecotourism is a useful and sustainable poverty alleviation strategy which has not yet been fully exploited in Zimbabwe.

Research on the Relationship of Grammar and English Learning

The grammar is an important part of English learning, but grammar learning has been a controversial topic in English learning profession, gone the process from worship to abandonment and then to a rational understanding. Firstly, this paper makes a brief introduction of the process, then introduces and discusses the significance, including sentence production, function of adjustment, fossilization solution, focusing on grammar phenomenon and grasping the components of language. Then, this paper presents two types of grammar, namely, tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Last, four approaches to obtain grammar ability are proposed.

Tunnelling through weak and fragile rocks of Himalayas

A considerable amount of tunnelling has been going on in India for various projects such as hydroelectric power, irrigation, roads and railways. Most of these projects are located in Himalayas, far away from the urban areas. Tunnelling through weak and jointed rock masses such as the one in the Himalayas is a challenging task for the planners, designers, engineers and geologists because of high overburden, thickly vegetated surface, weak, poor and fragile rocks and highly varying geology with the presence of numerous small and big shear zones, faults, etc. Due to these reasons, various tunnelling problems have been faced in the past and are still being encountered. Failures and the problems may be regarded as challenges and opportunities for generating new knowledge base and thereby increasing self-reliance in tunnelling. The experiences of Himalayan tunnelling through weak and fragile rocks covering varying and mixed geology, understanding on tunnelling in squeezing ground conditions and applicability of TBM in Himalayas are presented. It has also been highlighted that the probe holes planning, drilling and monitoring shall be followed seriously to reduce the geological surprises.

Knowledge Management Practices for Improvement of Brazilian Hospital Websites

This work aims to verify how the Web portals of Universities Hospital located in the northeast of Brazil are contributing to the expansion of knowledge of its users from the analysis of interactive features associated with the three mechanisms of knowledge management： knowledge access （KA）, knowledge creation （KC）, and knowledge transfer （KT）. The study is exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative type, such as a survey, developed through an adaptation of a relevant research, which involves the standardization of data collection instruments （questionnaires and interviews） applied directly to persons of a specific population, to assess knowledge management tools present in the University Hospital portals in the northeast region of Brazil. The results indicated that the resources from knowledge access were more prevalent than the others, ratifying the results found in research developed in Asian and North American Hospital portals.

Design and Development of a Forest Nursery, for the Enhancement of Multi-Functional Agriculture and for a Didactical Purpose

The experimental idea of the present project was elaborated in order to create a structure where different categories and institutions could collaborate, with the common aim to develop a sustainable and profitable agriculture in mountain and marginal areas. The target was the recovering of an abandoned agricultural site, throughout its re-organisation, re-qualification and auto-sustainability, involving local citizens. This approach was based on three further broad functions such as environmental, economic and social purposes. This cooperation, that allows the capitalization of local knowledge and the forging of relationships between local and external sources of expertise, information and advice, is fundamental to the future of existing rural communities, in particular in mountain areas. The model proposed, with the elaboration of a management software and technical agronomic sheets, could be an incentive for the activities already present in that region and to stimulate new ones. The enhancing of the native ecological system, the biodiversity tutelage and the valorization of the knowledge of the territory is the basic requirement for the successful of any land management.

A ubiquitous knowledgeable data representation model(UKRM) for three-dimensional geographic information systems(3D GIS)

In the face of complicated, diversified three-dimensional world, the existing 3D GIS data models suffer from certain issues such as data incompatibility, insufficiency in data representation and representation types, among others. It is often hard to meet the requirements of multiple application purposes(users) related to GIS spatial data management and data query and analysis, especially in the case of massive spatial objects. In this study, according to the habits of human thinking and recognition, discrete expressions(such as discrete curved surface(DCS), and discrete body(DB)) were integrated and two novel representation types(including function structure and mapping structure) were put forward. A flexible and extensible ubiquitous knowledgeable data representation model(UKRM) was then constructed, in which structurally heterogeneous multiple expressions(including boundary representation(B-rep), constructive solid geometry(CSG), functional/parameter representation, etc.) were normalized. GIS's ability in representing the massive, complicated and diversified 3D world was thus greatly enhanced. In addition, data reuse was realized, and the bridge linking static GIS to dynamic GIS was built up. Primary experimental results illustrated that UKRM was overwhelmingly superior to the current data models(e.g. IFC, City GML) in describing both regular and irregular spatial objects.