Conservation of millets: the role of community leaders in Kolli Hills, South India

Traditional knowledge is based on vast experiences gained over centuries that is communicated from one generation to another. With growing concerns of malnutrition and dietary diversity, traditional food and cultivation practices are gaining attention of scientific and development communities. Efforts to extract this knowledge apart, there is also a need to understand how this has been transmitted. A shift from focus on knowledge to focus on practice may provide pathways to understand how communities adopt and sustain certain practices over generations. This study is on the role of community influencers – known as ‘Oor Goundars’ (village leaders) among the tribal communities of Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu, South India – in conserving millet landraces. Using the Social Practice Theory, the existing role and importance of these community leaders is analyzed. The study finds that conservation of rich knowledge of social, cultural and agricultural practices reposed with traditional community influencers such as Oor Goundars is diminishing. It probes whether it may be possible to preserve or enhance traditional knowledge within its setting by increasing focus and attention on these influencers and the cultural practices that they impact

Conservation of millets: the role of community leaders in Kolli Hills, South India

101-110Traditional knowledge is based on vast experiences gained over centuries that is communicated from one generation to another. With growing concerns of malnutrition and dietary diversity, traditional food and cultivation practices are gaining attention of scientific and development communities. Efforts to extract this knowledge apart, there is also a need to understand how this has been transmitted. A shift from focus on knowledge to focus on practice may provide pathways to understand how communities adopt and sustain certain practices over generations. This study is on the role of community influencers – known as ‘Oor Goundars’ (village leaders) among the tribal communities of Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu, South India – in conserving millet landraces. Using the Social Practice Theory, the existing role and importance of these community leaders is analyzed. The study finds that conservation of rich knowledge of social, cultural and agricultural practices reposed with traditional community influencers such as Oor Goundars is diminishing. It probes whether it may be possible to preserve or enhance traditional knowledge within its setting by increasing focus and attention on these influencers and the cultural practices that they impact

Human-centred design methods : developing scenarios for robot assisted play informed by user panels and field trials

Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/ Copyright ElsevierThis article describes the user-centred development of play scenarios for robot assisted play, as part of the multidisciplinary IROMEC1 project that develops a novel robotic toy for children with special needs. The project investigates how robotic toys can become social mediators, encouraging children with special needs to discover a range of play styles, from solitary to collaborative play (with peers, carers/teachers, parents, etc.). This article explains the developmental process of constructing relevant play scenarios for children with different special needs. Results are presented from consultation with panel of experts (therapists, teachers, parents) who advised on the play needs for the various target user groups and who helped investigate how robotic toys could be used as a play tool to assist in the children’s development. Examples from experimental investigations are provided which have informed the development of scenarios throughout the design process. We conclude by pointing out the potential benefit of this work to a variety of research projects and applications involving human–robot interactions.Peer reviewe

The critical elements of effective academic-practice partnerships: a framework derived from the Department of Veterans Affairs Nursing Academy.

BackgroundThe nursing profession is exploring how academic-practice partnerships should be structured to maximize the potential benefits for each partner. As part of an evaluation of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Nursing Academy (VANA) program, we sought to identify indicators of successful partnerships during the crucial first year.MethodsWe conducted a qualitative analysis of 142 individual interviews and 23 focus groups with stakeholders from 15 partnerships across the nation. Interview respondents typically included the nursing school Dean, the VA chief nurse, both VANA Program Directors (VA-based and nursing school-based), and select VANA faculty members. The focus groups included a total of 222 VANA students and the nursing unit managers and staff from units where VANA students were placed. An ethnographic approach was utilized to identify emergent themes from these data that underscored indicators of and influences on Launch Year achievement.ResultsWe emphasize five key themes: the criticality of inter-organizational collaboration; challenges arising from blending different cultures; challenges associated with recruiting nurses to take on faculty roles; the importance of structuring the partnership to promote evidence-based practice and simulation-based learning in the clinical setting; and recognizing that stable relationships must be based on long-term commitments rather than short-term changes in the demand for nursing care.ConclusionsDeveloping an academic-clinical partnership requires identifying how organizations with different leadership and management structures, different responsibilities, goals and priorities, different cultures, and different financial models and accountability systems can bridge these differences to develop joint programs integrating activities across the organizations. The experience of the VANA sites in implementing academic-clinical partnerships provides a broad set of experiences from which to learn about how such partnerships can be effectively implemented, the barriers and challenges that will be encountered, and strategies and factors to overcome challenges and build an effective, sustainable partnership. This framework provides actionable guidelines for structuring and implementing effective academic-practice partnerships that support undergraduate nursing education

Personal Digital Marketing Influence on Successful Marketing Campaign in Today’s Digital Age

Personal digital marketing is an essential aspect of modern marketing campaigns. It involves using digital channels such as social media, email marketing, and content marketing to create a unique identity and promote it to a target audience. The article aims to examine the influence of personal digital marketing on successful marketing campaign. This study uses a descriptive and quantitative approach to test the effect of independent variables (digital personal marketing elements) on the degree of success in personal marketing campaign. The data were collected by a questionnaire distributed to 300 marketers, owners, and young entrepreneurs. A regression analysis was applied to test the study hypothesis. The results showed that personal marketing elements: branding, content creation, networking, social media management, personal website and personal development, directly affect the degree of success in personal marketing campaign

Gravitational partition function modified by super-light brane world perturbative modes}

In this paper, we will analyze the effects of super-light brane world perturbative modes on clustering of galaxies.In present manuscript, we use the Boltzmann and Tsallis statistical approaches to study the large distance modification of gravity in the brane world. The impact of modified potential on clustering of galaxies is analyzed in both the approaches.The infinities associated with Newtonian point mass approximation of gravity models is removed using the analytical extensions.The regularized and finite partition function is obtained for the system of galaxies in the brane world model and is used to evaluate the regularized thermodynamic properties of the system in the form of equations of state. Hence, we study thermodynamic quantities and discuss about the thermodynamic stability of the model. We find that large number of galaxies may lead to the thermodynamic instability.d The appealing feature of the paper revolve around the generalization of the dimensional regularization (GDR) of Bollini and Giambiagi supplemented with the statistical adequacy of Boltzmann and Tsallis.Fil: Hameeda, Mir. Kashmir University; IndiaFil: Pourhassan, B.. Damghan University; IránFil: Rocca, Mario Carlos. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Brzo, Aram Bahroz. University of Sulaimani; Ira

Radiation from a charge circulating inside a waveguide with dielectric filling

The emitted power of the radiation from a charged particle moving uniformly on a circle inside a cylindrical waveguide is considered. The expressions for the energy flux of the radiation passing through the waveguide cross-section are derived for both TE and TM waves. The results of the numerical evaluation are presented for the number of emitted quanta depending on the waveguide radius, the radius of the charge rotation orbit and dielectric permittivity of the filling medium. These results are compared with the corresponding quantities for the synchrotron radiation in a homogeneous medium.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, four EPS figure