SPEIR: Scottish Portals for Education, Information and Research. Final Project Report: Elements and Future Development Requirements of a Common Information Environment for Scotland

The SPEIR (Scottish Portals for Education, Information and Research) project was funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). It ran from February 2003 to September 2004, slightly longer than the 18 months originally scheduled and was managed by the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR). With SLIC's agreement, community stakeholders were represented in the project by the Confederation of Scottish Mini-Cooperatives (CoSMiC), an organisation whose members include SLIC, the National Library of Scotland (NLS), the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU), the Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL), regional cooperatives such as the Ayrshire Libraries Forum (ALF)1, and representatives from the Museums and Archives communities in Scotland. Aims; A Common Information Environment For Scotland The aims of the project were to: o Conduct basic research into the distributed information infrastructure requirements of the Scottish Cultural Portal pilot and the public library CAIRNS integration proposal; o Develop associated pilot facilities by enhancing existing facilities or developing new ones; o Ensure that both infrastructure proposals and pilot facilities were sufficiently generic to be utilised in support of other portals developed by the Scottish information community; o Ensure the interoperability of infrastructural elements beyond Scotland through adherence to established or developing national and international standards. Since the Scottish information landscape is taken by CoSMiC members to encompass relevant activities in Archives, Libraries, Museums, and related domains, the project was, in essence, concerned with identifying, researching, and developing the elements of an internationally interoperable common information environment for Scotland, and of determining the best path for future progress

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

Towards a Resilient Future: Experiences with Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

This testimony shows the urgency of the problems faced by people on the front line of climate change, which is exposing more and more people to increased risk of dis This testimony shows the urgency of the problems faced by people on the front line of climate change, which is exposing more and more people to increased risk of diaster and directly affecting their lives and livelihoods. Tragically, the global community turns a blind eye to the severity of the risks posed by climate change and is doing too little to help people prepare themselves for these risks. Community managed disaster risk reduction (CMDRR) is an effective strategy of addressing the impacts and effects of climate change and reducing communities' vulnerability to disasters

Online Permaculture Resources: An Evaluation of a Selected Sample

As a newly-emerging, sustainable approach to landscape management, permaculture seeks to integrate knowledge from several disciplines into a holistic system with emphasis on ecological and social responsibility. Online resources on permaculture appear to represent a promising direction in the movement by supplementing existing printed sources, serving to update and diversify existing content, and increasing access to permaculture information and praxis among the general public. This study evaluated a sample of online resources on permaculture using a framework of parameters reflecting website usability and content quality. Best practice for website usability, as well as diversity of information and applicability, was addressed. The evaluation revealed, overall, good quality and usability in the majority of cases, and suggests a strong online presence among the existing permaculture community, and accessible support for those with an interest in joining the movement

Aquaculture Asia, Vol.14, No.4, pp.1-52, October - December 2009

Sustainable aquaculture Peter Edwards writes on rural aquaculture Edwards, P. Mussel farming initiatives in North Kerala, India: A case of successful adoption of technology leading to rural livelihood transformation Laxmilatha, P., Thomas, S., Asokan, P.K., Surendranathan, V.G., Sivadasan, M.P., and Ramachandran, N.P. Selective study on the availability in indigenous fish species having ornamental value in some districts of West Bengal Panigrahi, A.K., Dutta, S. and Ghosh, I. Aquaculture livelihoods service centres in Aceh, Indonesia: A novel approach to improving the livelihoods of small scale fish farmers Ravikumar, B. and Yamamoto, K. Research and farming techniques e-Sagu Aqua - an innovative information and communication technology model for transfer of technology for aquaculture Vimala, D. D., Ravisankar, T., Mahalakshmi, P., and Kumaran, M. Freshwater pearl crop: an emerging enterprise in the Indian subcontinent Misra, G., Jena, J. and Kumar, K. Genetics and biodiversity Preliminary risk assessment of Pacific white leg shrimp (P. vannamei) introduced to Thailand for aquaculture Senanan, W., Panutrakul, S., Barnette, P., Chavanich, S., Mantachitr, V., Tangkrock-Olan, N., and Viyakarn, V. Farmer profile Aquatic animal health Asian fish health experts visit Australia Olsen, L. and Ingram, B. (Fisheries Victoria) Black gill disease of cage-cultured ornate rock lobster Panulirus ornatus in central Vietnam caused by Fusarium species Nha, V.V., Hoa, D.T. and Khoa, L.V. Marine Finfish Aquaculture Network Effects of the partial substitution fish oil by soybean oil in the diets on muscle fatty acid composition of juvenile cobia (Rachycentron canadum) Hung, P.D. and Mao, N.D. Growth response of cobia Rachycentron canadum (Pisces: Rachycentridae) under the hypersaline conditions of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi Yousif, O.M.*, Kumar, K.K. and Abdul-Rahman, A.F.A. NACA Newslette

Annual Report: 2013

I submit herewith the annual reports from the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, for the period ending December 31, 2013. This is done in accordance with an act of Congress, approved March 2, 1887, entitled, “An act to establish agricultural experiment stations, in connection with the agricultural college established in the several states under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862, and under the acts supplementary thereto,” and also of the act of the Alaska Territorial Legislature, approved March 12, 1935, accepting the provisions of the act of Congress. The research reports are organized according to our strategic plan and by broad subject, focusing on geography, high-latitude agriculture, forest sciences, and the interaction of humans and the environment. Research conducted by our graduate and undergraduate students plays an important role in these grants and the impact they make on Alaska.Financial Statement -- Funding & Grants -- Students -- Research at SNRAS & AFES -- Publications -- Facult

Uncovering the unarchived web

Many national and international heritage institutes realize the importance of archiving the web for future culture heritage. Web archiving is currently performed either by harvesting a national domain, or by crawling a pre-defined list of websites selected by the archiving institution. In either method, crawling results in more information being harvested than just the websites intended for preservation; which could be used to reconstruct impressions of pages that existed on the live web of the crawl date, but would have been lost forever. We present a method to create representations of what we will refer to as a web collection's (aura): the web documents that were not included in the archived collection, but are known to have existed --- due to their mentions on pages that were included in the archived web collection. To create representations of these unarchived pages, we exploit the information about the unarchived URLs that can be derived from the crawls by combining crawl date distribution, anchor text and link structure. We illustrate empirically that the size of the aura can be substantial: in 2012, the Dutch Web archive contained 12.3M unique pages, while we uncover references to 11.9M additional (unarchived) pages

Rural sustainable drainage systems:a practical design and build guide for Scotland's farmers and landowners

Soil cultivation, manure / fertiliser applications and chemical spraying can all contribute to diffuse pollution from agricultural land. Rainfall runoff from farm roads, tracks, yards and dusty roofs are also potential sources of diffuse pollution. Whilst many changes in farming practice have dealt with these sources of pollution there still remains instances where small amounts escape from a farmyard into a nearby ditch or where sediment laden overland field flows make their way into a ditch or burn, river or natural wetland and finally the sea. This not only has cost implications for a farmer but these incidents across a catchment have a huge impact on our water environment. Rural Sustainable Drainage Systems (Rural SuDS) will reduce agricultural diffuse pollution impacts as they are physical barriers that treat rainfall runoff. They are low cost, above ground drainage structures that capture soil particles, organic matter, nutrients and pesticides before they enter our water environment. Rural SuDS for steadings prevent blockages in drains and ditches. They contribute to good environmental practice and farm assurance schemes. In fields they can be used for returning fertile soil back to farmland and will help your business become more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Trapping soils, organic matter and nutrients means that valuable assets can be reclaimed – recent studies indicate savings of £88 per hectare per year! This Design and Build guide can be used by farmers and land managers to reduce diffuse pollution

Uncovering the unarchived web

htmlabstractMany national and international heritage institutes realize the importance of archiving the web for future culture heritage. Web archiving is currently performed either by harvesting a national domain, or by crawling a pre-defined list of websites selected by the archiving institution. In either method, crawling results in more information being harvested than just the websites intended for preservation; which could be used to reconstruct impressions of pages that existed on the live web of the crawl date, but would have been lost forever. We present a method to create representations of what we will refer to as a web collection's (aura): the web documents that were not included in the archived collection, but are known to have existed --- due to their mentions on pages that were included in the archived web collection. To create representations of these unarchived pages, we exploit the information about the unarchived URLs that can be derived from the crawls by combining crawl date distribution, anchor text and link structure. We illustrate empirically that the size of the aura can be substantial: in 2012, the Dutch Web archive contained 12.3M unique pages, while we uncover references to 11.9M additional (unarchived) pages