Space, the new frontier

Space program - high thrust boosters with greater payload capabilities, superior guidance and control, and astronaut trainin

Program on Earth Observation Data Management Systems (EODMS)

An assessment was made of the needs of a group of potential users of satellite remotely sensed data (state, regional, and local agencies) involved in natural resources management in five states, and alternative data management systems to satisfy these needs are outlined. Tasks described include: (1) a comprehensive data needs analysis of state and local users; (2) the design of remote sensing-derivable information products that serve priority state and local data needs; (3) a cost and performance analysis of alternative processing centers for producing these products; (4) an assessment of the impacts of policy, regulation and government structure on implementing large-scale use of remote sensing technology in this community of users; and (5) the elaboration of alternative institutional arrangements for operational Earth Observation Data Management Systems (EODMS). It is concluded that an operational EODMS will be of most use to state, regional, and local agencies if it provides a full range of information services -- from raw data acquisition to interpretation and dissemination of final information products

Understanding and enabling nutrition and agriculture linkages: development and implementation of home-grown school feeding in Nepal

Providing nutritionally balanced diets through ecologically sustainable and equitable food systems is the most profound challenge facing us today. The current state of food and nutrition security is in many ways is a legacy of the green revolution and neoliberal market based political economy. Technocratic and market- based approaches have contributed to creating a highly homogenised food system at the expense of diversity, ecological sustainability and nutrition quality. The origin of agriculture around 10000 years ago and the processes of domestication provide useful insights on the key drivers of food production that influence policy and programmes even today. More importantly there is compelling evidence which shows how the transition to agriculture adversely impacted human health in a wide range of contexts. The study is an action research project primarily based on design, implementation and evaluation of ‘Home Grown School Feeding’ in eight districts across the three main agroecological zones of Nepal. It provides important policy and programmatic evidence on enabling decentralized food systems which are nutritionally and ecologically sensitive, as part of a government led universal food-based safety net project. Based on action research inquiry process, the thesis develops concepts and theories through the different chapters to contribute to our understanding of food systems and programme design. The intervention creates an effective platform for food system mediation through different pathways. Evidence on intervention governance through ‘food sovereignty’ lens demonstrates how HSGF interventions can also promote equity in food systems in terms of policies, funding and knowledge. COVID-19 pandemic control measures have contributed to undermining food and nutrition security, with the poorest being hit the hardest and young children potentially facing life-long consequences. Overall evidence from the thesis including the recent Covid crisis highlights the importance of resilient and context sensitive food production and it is an emphatic reminder of the need to have integrated public health-nutrition-ecology approach to food systems.Open Acces

Five criteria for choosing among poverty programs

The author addresses the issue of how to choose among discreet poverty interventions such as food stamp programs, public works, or small enterprise credit schemes where little formal policy modeling is done prior to decisionmaking. The minimum criteria on which to judge the relative merits of poverty programs are the following. Administrative feasibility. This depends on the detailed designof the program, the level of resources available for administration, and the degree of imperfection that can be tolerated. Political feasibility. This depends on how the program is promoted to the public, how coalitions of supporters or detractors are built, and the relative power of beneficiaries, suppliers, and administrators. Collateral effects on the poverty strategy. How will a safety net program affect, for example, the participants'labor supply, participation in other programs, and receipt of private interhousehold transfers, and how will those changes affect markets and government finances? What will be the net effect on poverty reduction. Potential for targeting the poor. Will the program reach significant number of the poor? How much leakage of benefits will there be to the nonpoor? Tailoring the solution to the problem. The program choice should address the real problem. Where the poor have suffered a loss of real wages rather than a loss of jobs, for example, transfers to the working poor may be more relevant than creating jobs. This criterion may seem obvious, but many proposals seem to ignore it. The author illustrates her main points by applying these criteria to a range of poverty programs commonly used in Latin America. General subsidies of food prices, for example, are administratively and politically feasible and lower food costs to the consumer, but they may distort the economy, harming growth. Food stamps are easy to target to the poor, are fairly difficult to administer, depending on program design, but depending on program design, may encourage the use of schools and primary health care. But there is controversy about whether they encourage dependency and diminish the work ethic.Rural Poverty Reduction,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Services&Transfers to Poor,Safety Nets and Transfers

Building written language: A program for second language literacy in English

The purpose of this project is to provide an instructional program for students learning English as a second language that will meet their academic needs and facilitate full literacy

Information in Mechanism Design

We survey the recent literature on the role of information for mechanism design. We specifically consider the role of endogeneity of and robustness to private information in mechanism design. We view information acquisition of and robustness to private information as two distinct but related aspects of information management important in many design settings. We review the existing literature and point out directions for additional future work.Mechanism Design, Information Acquisition, Ex Post Equilibrium, Robust Mechanism Design, Interdependent Values, Information Management

Enhanced recording paradigms and advanced analyses of peripheral nerve fibers SPiike software

[eng] The aim of this work is to investigate the human nociceptive system at the peripheral level. Researchers are still debating how the pain perception arises from this very intricate network. The human perception is the most elusive part of our knowledge since different subsystems are involved. The external information such as noxious stimuli must be processed at the peripheral level and through signal cascades and transduction this signal must reach the brain. At the brain level the information is processed and some decisions are taken, such as the well-known fight-or-flight response. In the introduction, the author describes how the human nociceptive system works and in which way the noxious stimulus is converted into a signal understandable by the brain. Several cortical and subcortical areas are involved in this signal processing and going deeper in this assembly line the information becomes more abstracted. The whole pathway is fundamental for pain perception, however some diseases start at the peripheral level. This in turn makes wrong signals reaching the brain. The brain is then processing information that are not real and the responses do not suit with the needs. Therefore, the peripheral system must be investigated and understood firstly, since some central diseases may have a peripheral component as well. With this purpose in mind the microneurography technique has been used. This technique has got some complexity and a computer-aided system must be implemented. The hardware aims to filter out the noisy signal and perform recording and stimulation of the neural fibers. The software is instead used to make the stimulation and recording as automatic as possible in a way that researchers do not have to deal with a lot of parameters and steps to carry out this powerful but also time consuming technique. Some software are already available in the market however even if they work fine with slow conduction fibers such as C-fibers they cannot cope with faster neurons (e.g. Aδ fibers). The aim of this work is to create a software (i.e. SPiike) able to stimulate and record every type of fibers implementing advanced analysis technique as well. Furthermore, considering that some in vivo experiments have been pursued within the project to check the functionality of the software, more specifically in rats and mice, the comparison between human nociceptors and mouse nociceptors is depicted in this section. In the method section, the experimental approach is described step by step. This is composed by several systems that work together for the stimulation, recording and analysis of the neural fibers. The control and acquisition module is composed by the software and a data acquisition board that trigger the stimulator and record the filtered signal. The stimulation module is composed by a stimulator that can be tuned as wish through dedicated knobs. Then the stimulus is delivered to the animal model (or the human patient) and the signal is recorded though a microelectrode inserted into the sciatic nerve. The amplification module is filtering out the noisy signal and is feeding a audio monitor for helping the researcher during the insertion of the electrode inside the nerve and it provides support during the whole experiment giving insights on fiber discharges. In this section the whole setup is described in details as well as the devices needed for the recording. Furthermore, the software development that is the core of this project is described as well, with all the considerations that must be considered during coding. Indeed, the flow chart must be followed methodically in order to minimize bugs and errors that may arise in the final product. Thus a description of the compiler and the Matlab IDE is given along with system and software requirements for the making of the SPiike software. Eventually the explanation of embedded functionalities and capabilities of SPiike is depicted in the final part of this section. This software is indeed able to stimulate slow conducting fibers as well as faster ones, and enhanced analysis techniques such as supervised machine learning are implemented. In the results section, the graphical user interface of the Spiike software is reveled. It resembles the one of another software already available in the market, with a filtered signal and a raster plot embedded on it. However, this software is more user-friendly and it accounts with icons and drop-down menus that enhance the experience of the users during the use of the tool, making their interactions smooth and intuitive. The SPiike software is subdivide into two different tools, a recording module and a analysis module. The former allows the stimulation and recording of neural fibers with a stimulation frequency up to 1000Hz and some online analysis can be conducted to have insights on fibers type and behavior. The analysis module is instead a more powerful analysis environment that can retrieve the dataset recorded with the other module or with the LabChart software. Advanced analysis techniques are implemented in this module, this is meant to speed up fiber classification and analysis. Conclusion and discussion provide a overview on some results. These will be compared to those obtainable through other software available in the market. In this section, pros and cons of the new implemented software, SPiike, will be described as well