Youths put skills ahead of money

Youths put skills ahead of money

 About 50 students and recent graduates took part in the forum held a day before the Emiratisation Summit. They were from universities. In a live voting session, 30 per cent of participants said the opportunity for growth and promotion was the most important factor when considering a job offer; 20 per cent said learning new skills was the top factor; while 18 per cent said work environment and culture was the main factor. Only 10 per cent said they would consider salary first. A mere 2 per cent said working hours were the most important criterion. Voting results also showed that students believed working in the private sector would present more demands than working for the government. The main concern about working in the private sector was competition for promotion and recognition; in the government, it was dealing with routine. Job fairs, career guidance and workshops with corporate guests are ways that universities can help create new perceptions about working in the private sector. To do its bit, the business world can offer internships and trainee programmers to young graduates. A survey of Emirati youth found that nearly 70 per cent of respondents consider factors other than salary and benefits to be the most important criteria when deciding on a job. The survey, which was conducted in the capital as part of an Emirati youth forum, revealed that 30 per cent of the university students and fresh graduates polled place utmost importance on growth and promotion opportunities when selecting a job. Following the UAE government declaration of 2013 as the year of Emiratisation, this edition of Tawdheef will see a renewed focus on the recruitment of Emiratis. A number of positions will also be open for expatriates.

Farmers in the UAE

Farmers in the UAE

 This is hydroponics inside a greenhouse, an agriculture system without soil. It gives at least 30 per cent more productivity and saves up to 40 per cent of water compared to conventional agriculture. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water, without soil.  Most of the plant nutrients are supplied by the nutrient solution, rather than by the media in which the plants are grown. The ADFSC expects to produce more vegetables using hydroponics in Abu Dhabi farms, said Dr Robert Caudwell, technical development section manager at the Centre. The UAE farms produce vegetables and fruit mostly during winter. Productivity goes down considerably during summer. The new system is expected to change that and may ensure the presence of local vegetables and fruit throughout the year. The irrigation system includes a desalination plant too, which highlights the problem of growing salinity in ground water. The comparatively less amount of water used for irrigation in open hydroponics farms is further recycled and used in the openfield farm.  In the closed hydroponic systems under construction at Emiratis' farms, rock wool is the medium. In this system, most of the plant nutrients are supplied by the nutrient solution, rather than by the media in which the plants are grown. In the closed hydroponics system the same nutrient solution is re-circulated and the nutrient concentrations are monitored and adjusted accordingly. Farmers in Al Gharbia who have slowly been converting to hydroponics - which allows them to grow fruit and vegetables using less water and energy - are now being offered loans to help them make the switch. This technology uses 80 per cent less water, fewers pesticides and less fertilizer than traditional farming. It's better because it's a more controlled system. But the system can be complicated to understand for farmers used to traditional methods.

How do Gulf corals beat the heat?

How do Gulf corals beat the heat?

So how do the corals and reef fish in Abu Dhabi's coastal waters survive? could it be that as coral larvae float into this region and settle into their new surroundings, they somehow switch on a genetic protective mechanism to handle the heat? The aim is to work out the molecular basis of the corals' acclimatization to hot water. The coral live in symbiosis with zooxanthellae, a type of algae that lives inside the coral's tissue. The algae photosynthesises producing sugars that provide up to 90 per cent of the coral's energy, and in return, the coral provides shelter, nutrients - mostly nitrogen and phosphorus - and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. At temperatures above 35C, the algae's photosynthesis goes into overdrive, producing oxygen radicals that damage the coral tissue. To protect itself, the coral essentially spits out the zooxanthellae. Those kinds of temperatures could become the norm as climate change sets in. By 2100, the world's oceans are expected to be an average of 2° to 3°C warmer than now. Not only that, the predicted rise in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide would have its own corrosive effect.

Otherwise, the benefits of the reefs for the Gulf ecosystem could be lost forever. Still, the recovery of the corals so far gives cause for hope. If the corals here can survive without bleaching at temperatures higher even than those predicted elsewhere, perhaps the world's reefs have a chance.