Why village institutions matter

International best practices, and case studies in village institutional development or local governance systems are reviewed in this paper. It argues that village development committees (VDC) have the potential to provide stronger community-led governance, empower communities, and support more effective rural development. As well, it proposes some framing questions to help the Myanmar Department of Rural Development (DRD) develop policy options for enacting the 2019 Rural Development Law. It provides guidelines for organizing village development committees, drawing from the manuals currently used by the DRD in village committee formation

Prevalence of working smoke alarms in local authority inner city housing: randomised controlled trial

Objectives To identify which type of smoke alarm is most likely to remain working in local authority inner city housing, and to identify an alarm tolerated in households with smokers. Design Randomised controlled trial. Setting Two local authority housing estates in inner London. Participants 2145 households. Intervention Installation of one of five types of smoke alarm (ionisation sensor with a zinc battery; ionisation sensor with a zinc battery and pause button; ionisation sensor with a lithium battery and pause button; optical sensor with a lithium battery; or optical sensor with a zinc battery). Main outcome measure Percentage of homes with any working alarm and percentage in which the alarm installed for this study was working after 15 months. Results 54.4% (1166/2145) of all households and 45.9% (465/1012) of households occupied by smokers had a working smoke alarm. Ionisation sensor, lithium battery, and there being a smoker in the household were independently associated with whether an alarm was working (adjusted odds ratios 2.24 (95% confidence interval 1.75 to 2.87), 2.20 (1.77 to 2.75), and 0.62 (0.52 to 0.74)). The most common reasons for non-function were missing battery (19%), missing alarm (17%), and battery disconnected (4%). Conclusions Nearly half of the alarms installed were not working when tested 15 months later. Type of alarm and power source are important determinants of whether a household had a working alarm

Alarm design for SCADA system of assembly cell-200 trainer

Alarm systems play a vital role in maintaining the safe operation in process plant. Moreover, the safety and efficiency of a plant's operation is assured by the usage of a reliable and user friendly alarm system. In this project, the main objective is to introduce an alarm feature inside the SCADA system. Identification of suitable guidelines in designing a good alarm system display is also part of the project's objective. Introduction of alarm feature inside the SCADA system is done by putting the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to Assembly Cell-200 Trainer. Here, the SCADA system is equipped with an alarm system as the mean to monitor and control the trainer. The alarm design adopts the available alarm system guidelines as to figure out and judge the most suitable guidelines to be applied in this project. This exercise proves that general guidelines (e.g., use of an alarm philosophy) are essential in developing this projects. However, detailed guidelines (e.g., colour coding and symbol features) should be used more carefully and consistent to ensure the creation of understandable and recognizable display. From this project, a properly designed alarm system is developed, which provides the operators with enough information to prevent any abnormalities, fault conditions or undesired errors in the plant. This project also summarizes the principal guidelines to consider when designing and developing alarms in SCADA environment

A High-confidence Cyber-Physical Alarm System: Design and Implementation

Most traditional alarm systems cannot address security threats in a satisfactory manner. To alleviate this problem, we developed a high-confidence cyber-physical alarm system (CPAS), a new kind of alarm systems. This system establishes the connection of the Internet (i.e. TCP/IP) through GPRS/CDMA/3G. It achieves mutual communication control among terminal equipments, human machine interfaces and users by using the existing mobile communication network. The CPAS will enable the transformation in alarm mode from traditional one-way alarm to two-way alarm. The system has been successfully applied in practice. The results show that the CPAS could avoid false alarms and satisfy residents' security needs.Comment: IEEE/ACM Internet of Things Symposium (IOTS), in conjunction with GreenCom 2010, IEEE, Hangzhou, China, December 18-20, 201

Sound the Alarm: Limitations of Liability in Alarm Service Contracts

Home and business owners increasingly rely on alarm systems to protect against theft and property damage. When a burglary or fire occurs and an alarm service customer discovers that the alarm company negligently failed to call the police or fire department, the customer understandably would expect redress for the company’s failure to provide its service. Many customers would be surprised, though, to discover that an alarm company’s liability is often contractually limited to a relatively token amount unrelated to the cost of the service, even when the alarm company is negligent. Some states view these limitations of liability as exculpatory clauses and determine their enforceability based on whether they are unconscionable or violate public policy. Other states view them as liquidated damages and apply a penalty test to determine their enforceability. This Note addresses the differences between these two approaches in the context of the unique remedy difficulties inherent in alarm service contracts. This Note then argues that the prevailing policy rationales for enforcing alarm service provisions that limit a party’s liability for its own negligence are misguided and advocates that these provisions should not be enforced as a matter of public policy

Selfish or altruistic? An analysis of alarm call function in wild capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella nigritus

Alarm calls facilitate some antipredatory benefits of group living but may endanger the caller by attracting the predator's attention. A number of hypotheses invoking kin selection and individual selection have been proposed to explain how such behaviour could evolve. This study tests eight hypotheses for alarm call evolution by examining the responses of tufted capuchin monkeys to models of felids, perched raptors and vipers. Specifically, this study examines: (1) differences between individuals in their propensity to call in response to different threat types, (2) whether there is an audience effect for alarm calling and (3) the response of conspecifics to alarms. Results indicate that the benefits likely to be afforded to the caller vary with stimulus type. Alarm calling in response to felids is most likely selfish, with calls apparently directed towards both the predator and potential conspecific mobbers. Alarm calling in response to vipers attracts additional mobbers as well, but also appears to be driven by kin selection in the case of males and parental care benefits in the case of females. Alarm responses to perched raptors are rare, but seem to be selfish, with callers benefiting by recruiting additional mobbers