Does Cooking Technology Matter? Fuelwood Use and Efficiency of Different Cooking Technologies in Lilongwe District, Malawi

Biomass, mainly firewood and charcoal contributes over 90% of Malawi’s total energy demand. As a result, deforestation is increasing at unprecedented rate and firewood is becoming scarce. Individual assessment of various cooking technologies has been widely done without comparison of various cooking technologies. Therefore, this study has been devoted to compare the performance, cooking time and fuelwood usage of the three-stone fireplace, Rocket and Chitetezo cooking technologies. The study used Specific Fuel consumption (SC) as a proxy for principal indicator of cooking technology efficiency. It measures the amount of wood used per kg of food. Rocket stove has been found to use less time, less fuelwood and produces less smoke.Cooking Technology, Fuelwood, Stove Efficiency

The Banks of the Cohomology River

We give sharp bounds on the vanishing of the cohomology of a tensor product of vector bundles on the n-dimensional projective space in terms of the vanishing of the cohomology of the factors. For this purpose we introduce regularity indices generalizing the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity. As an application we give a sufficient condition for a vector bundle to have an unobstructed deformation theory that depends only on the cohomology table of the bundle. We construct complete families of bundles with such cohomology tables.Comment: 16 page

Central limit theorems for additive functionals of ergodic Markov diffusions processes

We revisit functional central limit theorems for additive functionals of ergodic Markov diffusion processes. Translated in the language of partial differential equations of evolution, they appear as diffusion limits in the asymptotic analysis of Fokker-Planck type equations. We focus on the square integrable framework, and we provide tractable conditions on the infinitesimal generator, including degenerate or anomalously slow diffusions. We take advantage on recent developments in the study of the trend to the equilibrium of ergodic diffusions. We discuss examples and formulate open problems

Effects of high energy radiation on the mechanical properties of epoxy graphite fiber reinforced composites

The effects of high energy radiation on mechanical properties and on the molecular and structural properties of graphite fiber reinforced composites are assessed so that durability in space applications can be predicted. A listing of composite systems irradiated along with the maximum radiation dose applied and type of mechanical tests performed is shown. These samples were exposed to 1/2 MeV electrons

Conformally equivariant quantization: Existence and uniqueness

We prove the existence and the uniqueness of a conformally equivariant symbol calculus and quantization on any conformally flat pseudo-Riemannian manifold (M,\rg). In other words, we establish a canonical isomorphism between the spaces of polynomials on $T^*M$ and of differential operators on tensor densities over $M$, both viewed as modules over the Lie algebra \so(p+1,q+1) where $p+q=\dim(M)$. This quantization exists for generic values of the weights of the tensor densities and compute the critical values of the weights yielding obstructions to the existence of such an isomorphism. In the particular case of half-densities, we obtain a conformally invariant star-product.Comment: LaTeX document, 32 pages; improved versio

Sandy Jordan

[Excerpt] After 28 years, Sandy Jordan is saying goodbye to her career at ILR on August 31, 2006. Sandy started out in ILR in 1978 as an administrative assistant working on a small grant administered by Prof. Robert Doherty and Prof. Ronald Donovan. She had been laid off from the local telephone company and was desperately searching for another job when Mary Tucker off ered her the position mainly because Sandy “happened to be the only applicant that did not remind Mary of her mother.” During the summer of 1978, she applied for and was offered a position in the ILR Extension Division Fiscal Office working for David Stotz and Merle Hayes. She worked in the Extension Fiscal Office until June 1991 when she transferred to the ILR Human Resources Office working with Pam Strausser and Gail Hendrix and has remained in the HR office ever since. After retiring, Sandy plans to ride off into the sunset on a big orange motorcycle

Effects of high energy radiation on the mechanical properties of epoxy/graphite fiber reinforced composites

Publications and theses generated on composite research are listed. Surface energy changes of an epoxy based on tetraglycidyl diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM)/diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS), T-300 graphite fiber and T-300/5208 (graphite fiber/epoxy) composites were investigated after irradiation with 0.5 MeV electrons. Electron spin resonance (ESR) investigations of line shapes and the radical decay behavior were made of an epoxy based on tetraglycidyl diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM)/diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS), T-300 graphite fiber, and T-300/5208 (graphite fiber/epoxy) composites after irradiation with Co(60) gamma-radiation or 0.5 MeV electrons. The results of the experiments are discussed

Assessing the impact of loal content policy on youth culture in Mbare Harae: the case of Youth.com

The study sought to establish the impact of using the local content policy in reducing television cultural influences on Mbare youth in Zimbabwe. It is assumed that television has ideological and hegemonic functions which have come to dominate the life styles of the youths on issues of dress styles, musical tastes and language, thus threatening and weakening the long established local cultures. Hence the Zimbabwean government’s local content policy was established to reduce influences of alien cultures. This study, therefore, sought to establish if Mbare youth cultures confirm or reject the imitation of television cultures with regard to dress styles, music tastes and language. In addition, the investigation aimed at establishing the feasibility of using the local content policy to reduce foreign cultural intrusions vis-à-vis globalisation challenges. The three theories utilised in the discussion of the influence of television on Mbare youth culture in this study include the cultivation theory, the theory of hegemony and the uses and gratification theory. A qualitative study was adopted to gather data using focus group discussions, questionnaires and semiotic analysis. The sample of the study consisted of 87 participants and 4 Youth.com programmes. The study revealed that television has ideological and hegemonic functions. As such, it tends to be a dominant influence on the life styles and culture of Mbare youths. The study also established that Youth.com influences youth culture through music. In Zimbabwe music has become the most influential aspect of Youth.com despite not being specified in the local content policy on television broadcasting. Furthermore, the study shows that the implications of globalisation on local television content are undermining government efforts to preserve local cultures through the local content policy. The primary reason for this has to do with the fact that Youth.com programme does not contain a higher quota of local content as stipulated in the policy. However, although the local content policy was viewed as a political gimmick, the the study revealed that it was necessary in view of youths’ vulnerability to television’s ideological and hegemonic influences. Nevertheless, in view of the loopholes revealed by this study, the policy requires to be revised to cater for all the essential cultural elements, such as, music, which are allowing alien cultures to penetrate local ways of life. For instance, the urban groove music has major impacts on the culture of Mbare youths

Lawrence K. Williams

[Excerpt] In 1952, Professor Williams graduated cum laude from Tufts University. He received his Masters Degree in 1954 from the University Illinois. In 1960, he earned a PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan. Professor Williams served in the U.S. Army from 1954-56, and worked as a research psychologist. In 1961 he came to Cornell University as an assistant professor, and became a full professor in 1969. When he retired in 1999, his colleagues awarded him an emeritus professorship. During his long career, Professor Williams served for a period as chairman of the Department of Organizational Behavior and for 25 years was the director of graduate studies for the school of Industrial and Labor Relations. He served on the committees of over 250 graduate students and was chairman for more than 70 students. He was also one of the founders and directors of GOALS, a foundation to support under represented minority graduate students in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. Professor Williams was also a Fulbright scholar in Peru during 1967-72