Learning alliances: An approach for building multistakeholder innovation systems

Millions of dollars are spent each year on research and development (R&D) initiatives in an attempt to improve rural livelihoods in the developing world, but rural poverty remains an intractable problem in many places. There are many reasons for this; one being the limited collective learning that occurs between researchers, development workers, donors, policymakers and private enterprise. As a result, useful research results do not reach the poor, lessons learned do not influence research, and donor and policy agendas are less relevant than they could be. This Brief describes how the Rural Agroenterprise Development Project of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is addressing the problem. Through building learning alliances that engage multiple stakeholders in processes of innovation, the initiative is enhancing learning and improving effectiveness in rural enterprise development

Enhancing the benefits to biodiversity and ecosystem services within arable field margins

We need to move towards more sustainable farming methods that maximise yields whilst protecting the environment. One approach that would achieve this goal is ecological intensification, which seeks to manage the biodiversity and ecological processes underpinning agricultural production so that damaging farming practices can be replaced or reduced. Forb-rich arable field margins have been shown to benefit flower-visiting insects such as wild bees, and recent evidence suggests that they can also enhance the levels of pollination and pest control in adjacent crop fields. They may also promote a suite of additional ecosystem services of societal and agronomic importance, but this has yet to be established. Furthermore, the ability of forb-rich field margins to deliver multiple benefits (i.e. ecosystem multifunctionality), including pest control and pollination, is likely to be contingent on a range of local and landscape factors. Using a range of pre-existing field margin plots (n = 98) distributed across 16 arable farms in central eastern England, this study first sought to examine whether high quality forb-rich field margins promote ecosystem multifunctionality more effectively than low quality forb-poor field margins. This involved measuring a range ecosystem services within and adjacent to field margin plots, including pest control, pollination, soil carbon storage, flood alleviation, the abundance of invertebrate ecosystem service providers and the amount of invertebrate biodiversity. Secondly, it established whether arable field margins provide adequate foraging resources for flower-visiting insects. And thirdly, it determined the local and landscape factors (including margin quality) that best promote ecosystem service provision and invertebrate biodiversity within agro-ecosystems. The findings indicated that quality was the most important determinant of ecosystem multifunctionality within arable field margins, as high quality margins supported significantly greater levels of pest control, pollination, flood alleviation and invertebrate biodiversity. However, a range of additional local and landscape management prescriptions further enhanced the multifunctionality of arable field margins, such as the level of vehicle traffic margins receive, vegetation height, landscape complexity and the amount of floral resources provided by the adjacent hedgerow. Despite the multiple benefits of high quality field margins, they were also found to enhance invertebrate crop pests. This may reduce the willingness of farmers to adopt forb-rich habitats on their land. Finally, the present study highlights that more consideration should be given to the forb species included within field margin seed mixes, as certain species were found to promote agronomically damaging crop pests, whereas other species not currently included in field margin seed mixes were extremely attractive to several important flower-visiting taxa or flowered during spring; a period in which field margins are floristically poor. This thesis clearly demonstrates that forb-rich field margins provide multiple agronomic, societal and biodiversity benefits, and outlines the important drivers of ecosystem multifunctionality. As such, it provides farmers and landowners with a clear set of management guidelines for promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services within arable field margins

The Spitzer South Pole Telescope Deep Field Survey: Linking galaxies and halos at z=1.5

We present an analysis of the clustering of high-redshift galaxies in the recently completed 94 deg$^2$ Spitzer-SPT Deep Field survey. Applying flux and color cuts to the mid-infrared photometry efficiently selects galaxies at $z\sim1.5$ in the stellar mass range $10^{10}-10^{11}M_\odot$, making this sample the largest used so far to study such a distant population. We measure the angular correlation function in different flux-limited samples at scales $>6^{\prime \prime}$ (corresponding to physical distances $>0.05$ Mpc) and thereby map the one- and two-halo contributions to the clustering. We fit halo occupation distributions and determine how the central galaxy's stellar mass and satellite occupation depend on the halo mass. We measure a prominent peak in the stellar-to-halo mass ratio at a halo mass of $\log(M_{\rm halo} / M_\odot) = 12.44\pm0.08$, 4.5 times higher than the $z=0$ value. This supports the idea of an evolving mass threshold above which star formation is quenched. We estimate the large-scale bias in the range $b_g=2-4$ and the satellite fraction to be $f_\mathrm{sat}\sim0.2$, showing a clear evolution compared to $z=0$. We also find that, above a given stellar mass limit, the fraction of galaxies that are in similar mass pairs is higher at $z=1.5$ than at $z=0$. In addition, we measure that this fraction mildly increases with the stellar mass limit at $z=1.5$, which is the opposite of the behavior seen at low-redshift.Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures. Published in MNRA

An Investigation into the Effects of the E5 Family of Transforming Proteins on the Vacuolar Proton-Translocating ATPase

There are a number of viruses known to be causative agents of cancer (zur Hausen, 1991b). Most of these viruses act through expression of proteins that interfere with the action of cellular proteins involved in regulating cell division. This thesis examines the effects of various forms of E5 proteins, including a related protein from a retrovirus (HTLV-1) using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. Yeast was chosen as it can grow in the absence of V-ATPase activity, unlike higher eukaryotic cells, and much is known about its V-ATPase. As S. cerevisiae is not the host organism of papillomaviruses and HTLV-1, the binding of the E5 proteins to yeast form of ductin was first examined. In an in vitro assay using co-translation and immunoprecipitation, all E5 proteins were found to bind to the S. cerevisiae form of ductin. When E5 proteins were expressed in S. cerevisiae using a vector known to give high expression of membrane proteins, all E5 proteins were detected in the vacuoles, a membrane which is the main site for the V-ATPase. Monitoring growth of the transformed yeast strains showed the expression of E5 proteins was not cytotoxic. The effects of the E5 transforming proteins were next tested on the activity of the S. cerevisiae V-ATPase. This study was extended to include a mutant form of ductin in which a key glutamic acid residue (E137) had been changed to glycine and is known to act as a dominant negative (Hughes et al, 1996). This mutant prevented growth at pH 7.5 and in high extracellular Calcium, both restrictive growth conditions that require V-ATPase activity. However, none of the E5 proteins, despite binding to ductin, had any effect. The enzyme was then examined more directly by kinetic analysis of ATP hydrolysis. None of the E5 proteins perturbed the activity of the V-ATPase as measured by Km or Vmax. Replacing glucose with galactose/raffinose in the growth medium of yeast reduces the V-ATPases activity (Kane, 1995). Repeating these experiments showed an initial complete loss of V-ATPase activity but the activity recovered to approximately 40% of the original value. This compromised system was therefore used to examine any effects of E5 transforming proteins. Whilst the dominant negative form of ductin again disrupted growth in the restrictive conditions, none of the E5 proteins had any effect. The apparent lack of effect on V-ATPase activity by E5 proteins was further investigated by examining the locations of the V-ATPase and E5 proteins after separation by size fractionation on glycerol gradients after ultracentrifugation. This showed that a representative of the E5 transforming proteins, HPV-16 E5, did not co-purify with the V-ATPase indicating it became detached from the active enzyme. The separation explains why E5 transforming proteins, although capable of binding to yeast ductin, do not disturb V-ATPase function. A partially disabled V-ATPase was used to discover if the E5 proteins could disturb activity. This form contained the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) ductin tagged with hexa-histidine tail at the C-terminus, known to markedly elevate the Km for ATP (Harrison et al, 1994). Again, the dominant negative form of ductin ablated growth at high pH, but none of the E5 proteins had any effect. Therefore, the E5 transforming proteins do not affect V-ATPase activity and it seems likely that their transforming activity is not occurring through the V-ATPase as has been thought. A scheme is proposed which takes into account recent findings on the related enzyme F-ATPase by which the binding to ductin is part of the mechanism of targeting E5 transforming proteins from the Endoplasmic Reticulum to other cellular compartments. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

A critical review of the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s “Burning and Peatlands” Position Statement

Despite substantial contrary evidence, there has been a growing tendency to present prescribed vegetation burning as a management practice that is always damaging to peatland ecosystems in the UK. This is exemplified by the “Burning and Peatlands” position statement published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature UK Peatland Programme. Indeed, while we strongly agree with several of the statements made within this position statement, it also contains a series of unverified assertions and misleading arguments that seemingly serve to simplify the narrative and paint prescribed burning as a wholly damaging peatland management tool. Given that this position statement is published by one of the UK’s most prominent peatland conservation organisations, it is likely to be consulted when debating upland land use policy. Therefore, for the benefit of policymakers, we provide a point-by-point critical review of the “Burning and Peatlands” position statement. We also discuss several further points for researchers and policymakers to consider that are consistently ignored by those attempting to simplify the narrative about prescribed burning. Our aim in producing this discussion paper is to encourage the research and policy community to move towards an evidence-based position about prescribed burning impacts on UK peatlands

An outline summary document of the current knowledge about prescribed vegetation burning impacts on ecosystem services compared to alternative mowing or no management

Despite substantial contrary evidence, there has been a growing tendency to present prescribed burning as a management practice that is only ever damaging to peatland ecosystems in the UK (Thompson et al. 2016; Natural England 2019; Wild Justice 2019). This is exemplified by the recently released “Burning and Peatlands” position statement by the IUCN UK Peatland Programme (IUCN 2020). Indeed, while we strongly agree with several of the statements made within this position statement, it also contains a series of unverified assertions and misleading arguments that serve to simplify the narrative and paint prescribed burning as a peatland management tool that is only ever damaging. Given that this position statement is published by one of the UK’s most prominent peatland conservation organisations, it is likely to be consulted when debating and designing upland land use policy. Therefore, for the benefit of policymakers, we provided a point-by-point critical review of the “Burning and Peatlands” position statement (Ashby & Heinemeyer, 2021). We also discuss several further points that should be considered by practitioners and policymakers when inferring the impact of prescribed burning. We are neither pro nor anti burning; our aim in producing this summary document is to encourage robust research and evidence assessments and support the practitioner and policy community to move towards an evidence-based position about management impacts on UK upland peatlands, which considers burning as part of several options that can be deployed depending on site conditions and context (i.e. the right tool in the right place for the right reason). Given the uncertainties within the evidence base and practicalities of conducting robust experimental research, we suggest land managers follow an adaptive management approach when using prescribed burning. The fundamental tenet of adaptive management is to monitor management interventions and use the results to inform future actions (e.g. by halting any interventions that are found to be damaging) (Holling 1978). We propose that a ‘learning by doing’ approach should be endorsed within grouse moor management policy because it (i) allows various managements to continue as long as landowners monitor the environmental impacts of their interventions (ideally supported by scientific input at representative high-intensity monitoring sites); (ii) encourages landowners to adopt a more cautious approach to management (by realising the benefits and challenges of different options); (iii) potentially ensures more environmentally sensitive management techniques are trailed and tested (before being adopted in general); and, (iv) contributes to evidence base (in a real-world context)

Intelligent Engine Systems Work Element 1.3: Sub System Health Management

The objectives of this program were to develop health monitoring systems and physics-based fault detection models for engine sub-systems including the start, lubrication, and fuel. These models will ultimately be used to provide more effective sub-system fault identification and isolation to reduce engine maintenance costs and engine down-time. Additionally, the bearing sub-system health is addressed in this program through identification of sensing requirements, a review of available technologies and a demonstration of a demonstration of a conceptual monitoring system for a differential roller bearing. This report is divided into four sections; one for each of the subtasks. The start system subtask is documented in section 2.0, the oil system is covered in section 3.0, bearing in section 4.0, and the fuel system is presented in section 5.0

New risks and opportunities for food security: scenario analyses for 2015 and 2050

"Given the number of undernourished people in the developing world and the increasingly complex risks to food security, policymakers are faced with an enormous agenda. Freeing people from hunger will require more and better-targeted investments, innovations, and policy actions, driven by a keen understanding of the dynamic risks and forces that shape the factors affecting people's access to food and the links with nutrition. The International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI's) International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) provides insight into the management of these risks through appropriate policy actions. By projecting future global food scenarios to 2050, IMPACT explores the potential implications of policy action and inaction in several main risk areas as well as the effects on child malnutrition in the developing world, commodity prices, demand, cereal yields, production, and net trade. In the progressive policy actions scenario, which assumes increased investment in rural development, health, education, and agricultural research and development, developing country governments and the international community are able to dramatically reduce the number of food-insecure people, leading to a worldwide decline in hunger. Under these conditions, Latin America and China are able to virtually eliminate child malnutrition by 2050. Bolstered by the development and dissemination of improved technologies and better infrastructure, crop production and yields increase in developing countries. Notably, the bulk of the growth in production is driven by yield increases rather than by expanding land area. Spurred by growth in the agricultural sector, average incomes in developing countries increase. Rising incomes bolster demand for high-value agricultural products, such as meat, dairy, and fruits and vegetables; global livestock production more than doubles, for example. Average per capita calorie supplies for developing countries exceed 3,400 per day, well in excess of minimum requirements. The policy failure scenario assumes greater political discord and more extensive agricultural protectionism, together with the failure of policies to deal with food emergencies related to conflict. Slow growth and trade restrictions lead to stagnation in average per capita calorie availability, which remains only slightly above minimum requirements until after 2030, when availability increases. In addition, crucial investments in agriculture, rural development, and poverty reduction are forgone or displaced. Because of limited investment in agricultural research and technology, this scenario has a high level of crop area expansion as a result of relatively rapid population growth and slim yield improvements in developing countries. This scenario also results in flat maize prices, declining per capita cereal demand, falling beef prices, and relatively flat meat demand. As a result of the policies in this scenario, the number of malnourished children in developing countries rises between 1997 and 2015, after which there are only modest declines. In the technology and natural resource management failure scenario, yield growth falls even more than under the preceding scenario, forcing farmers to move into marginal producing areas, which causes a more rapid expansion of cereal area into less productive land that does not compensate for the yield shortfalls (and causes environmental degradation). As a result, cereal prices rise substantially through 2030 and then fall off only gradually. Beef and other meat prices, which are affected by the price of feed, follow a similar pattern. Developing-country per capita calorie availability is essentially unchanged over 1997–2050 and remains at a barely adequate average level. Given unequal access to the food that is available, millions of people actually consume less than the minimum. The occurrence of child undernourishment is even higher than under the policy failure scenario in all developing-country regions. Overall, the technology and natural resource management failure scenario results in the worst impact on food security and child malnourishment in the developing world. The progressive policy scenario outlines several of the most crucial positive steps. National governments and the international community must assume a new focus on agricultural growth and rural development, along with increasing their investments in education, social services, and health. Policies to encourage synergistic growth in the nonfarm sectors are also needed to spur broad-based economic growth. Underpinning these strategies and research agendas must be a firm commitment to reducing hunger and improving the welfare of the world's undernourished people." From Authors' Executive SummaryImpact model, Caloric intake, Safety nets,

Elements of construction: Minecraft and the periodic table

Minecraft is a popular computer game that allows the construction of almost limitless creations, and is used in learning contexts around the world. The widespread appeal and familiarity of the game makes it ideal for engaging children and young people with topics that might not otherwise interest them. With this in mind, the Science Hunters project, with support from a Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Outreach Fund grant, developed five Minecraft-based informal learning and engagement sessions about the periodic table, carbon, helium, uranium and gold, as part of the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT)