Gender in Water and Sanitation

The report highlights the experiences of mainstreaming gender at various levels in the water and sanitation sector. It begins with a discussion on gender responses to policy and its requirement for analysis and clear policy objectives to guide operations. The report touches on experiences of mainstreaming gender within sector operations, beginning with the importance of mainstreaming in the workplace, and describes how gender can be addressed within service delivery in urban water, in sanitation, in small towns and rural water operations. The report also addresses gender responses to monitoring and evaluation processes, examines responses to gender issues within accountability and voice initiatives, assesses gender responses within hygiene and behavior change programs, and examines the linkages between water, sanitation and HIV/AIDS

Superb and Marketable Meat from Efficient and Robust Animals

With the aim to increase the production and market share of organic meat (pork, poultry and young beef), an integrated research and de-velopment effort will take place along the food chain (primary production, product development and market-ing). The hypothesis is that this product segment is presently underdeveloped due to incompatibility between production costs/consumer prices and the experienced quality of the products, and that this incompatibility primarily should be overcome by adding quality in a broad sense to the organic meat products. Among the immaterial qualities are that the animals are healthy as well as robust, are free-ranged, and is more integrated in the land use (relying to a large extent on on-farm resources) than actually present. In the project these qualities are investigated, while at the same time focusing on appearance, new cuts, taste and technological quality of the final product, including consumer perceptions and preferences. Specifically we will investigate how much foraging can contribute to the nutritional needs for pigs and poultry and its interaction with genotype, age at slaughter and product quality, how the quality of the sward and genotype affect product quality in young intact bulls, how the free range impact upon animal robustness, how marketing strategies can be formed complying with consumer perceptions, and how such production strategies support a profitable high-value production along with environmental benefits. This is expected to stimulate to more diversified meat products, a higher total organic meat production and consequently a higher organic share of total meat con-sumption

Distributed classifier based on genetically engineered bacterial cell cultures

We describe a conceptual design of a distributed classifier formed by a population of genetically engineered microbial cells. The central idea is to create a complex classifier from a population of weak or simple classifiers. We create a master population of cells with randomized synthetic biosensor circuits that have a broad range of sensitivities towards chemical signals of interest that form the input vectors subject to classification. The randomized sensitivities are achieved by constructing a library of synthetic gene circuits with randomized control sequences (e.g. ribosome-binding sites) in the front element. The training procedure consists in re-shaping of the master population in such a way that it collectively responds to the "positive" patterns of input signals by producing above-threshold output (e.g. fluorescent signal), and below-threshold output in case of the "negative" patterns. The population re-shaping is achieved by presenting sequential examples and pruning the population using either graded selection/counterselection or by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). We demonstrate the feasibility of experimental implementation of such system computationally using a realistic model of the synthetic sensing gene circuits.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure

Linking Research and Policy: Assessing a Framework for Organic Agricultural Support in Ireland

This paper links social science research and agricultural policy through an analysis of support for organic agriculture and food. Globally, sales of organic food have experienced 20% annual increases for the past two decades, and represent the fastest growing segment of the grocery market. Although consumer interest has increased, farmers are not keeping up with demand. This is partly due to a lack of political support provided to farmers in their transition from conventional to organic production. Support policies vary by country and in some nations, such as the US, vary by state/province. There have been few attempts to document the types of support currently in place. This research draws on an existing Framework tool to investigate regionally specific and relevant policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops a case study of Ireland within the framework of ten key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, consumer issues, inter-agency activities, and future developments. Data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies provide the basis for an assessment of support in each category. Assessments are based on the number of activities, availability of information to farmers, and attention from governmental personnel for each of the ten categories. This policy framework is a valuable tool for farmers, researchers, state agencies, and citizen groups seeking to document existing types of organic agricultural support and discover policy areas which deserve more attention

On the role of Prognostics and Health Management in advanced maintenance systems

The advanced use of the Information and Communication Technologies is evolving the way that systems are managed and maintained. A great number of techniques and methods have emerged in the light of these advances allowing to have an accurate and knowledge about the systems’ condition evolution and remaining useful life. The advances are recognized as outcomes of an innovative discipline, nowadays discussed under the term of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM). In order to analyze how maintenance will change by using PHM, a conceptual model is proposed built upon three views. The model highlights: (i) how PHM may impact the definition of maintenance policies; (ii) how PHM fits within the Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) and (iii) how PHM can be integrated into Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) programs. The conceptual model is the research finding of this review note and helps to discuss the role of PHM in advanced maintenance systems.EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020, 645733 - Sustain-Owner - H2020-MSCA-RISE-201

Continuous maintenance and the future – Foundations and technological challenges

High value and long life products require continuous maintenance throughout their life cycle to achieve required performance with optimum through-life cost. This paper presents foundations and technologies required to offer the maintenance service. Component and system level degradation science, assessment and modelling along with life cycle ‘big data’ analytics are the two most important knowledge and skill base required for the continuous maintenance. Advanced computing and visualisation technologies will improve efficiency of the maintenance and reduce through-life cost of the product. Future of continuous maintenance within the Industry 4.0 context also identifies the role of IoT, standards and cyber security

Aquaculture Asia, vol. 8, no. 4, pp.1-52, October - December 2003

CONTENTS: Freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium nobilii a promising candidate for rural nutrition, by Pitchimuthu Mariappan, P. Balamurugan, and Chellam Balasundaram. Snapshots of a clean, innovative, socially responsible fishfarm in Sri Lanka, by Pedro Bueno. Introduction of rainbow trout Onchorynchus mykiss in Nepal: Constraints and prospects, by Tek Bahadur Gurung, Sadhu Ram Basnet. Tilapia seed production in Ho Chi Minh City, Southern Vietnam, by H. P. V. Huy, A. MacNiven, N. V. Tu, Ram C. Bhujel and David C. Little. Seaweed Mariculture: Scope And Potential In India, by Sajid I. Khan and S. B. Satam. Growth enhancement of carp and prawn through dietary sodium chloride supplementation, by P.Keshavanath, B. Gangadhara and Savitha Khadri. Fertilization, soil and water quality management in small-scale ponds, by S. Adhikari Shrimp harvesting technology on the south west coast of Bangladesh, by S. M. Nazmul Alam, Michael J. Phillips and C. K. Lin. The “Gher Revolution”, by M.C. Nandeesha [Farmers as Scientists series] Aquaculture Compendium – case study component, by Peter Edwards. Rice-Fish Culture in China, by Fang Xiuzhen. Exercising responsibilities to tackle aquatic animal diseases, by CV Mohan. Application of immunostimulants in larviculture: Feasibility and challenges, by ZhouJin. Marine Finfish Sectio