148 research outputs found
SOIL CARBON AND NITROGEN STOCKS IN TRADITIONALLY MANAGED RANGELAND BIOMES IN KARAMOJA SUB-REGION, UGANDA
Rangelands are known for their potential in mitigating rising
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the world. The
objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of soil organic
carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) in rangelands under traditional
management systems in Karamoja sub-region in Uganda, with a view to
facilitating the development of appropriate and strategic management
practices for the rangeland resources. The study was conducted during
the wet season of the sub-region. Four land use/cover types (cropland,
grassland, woodland and thickets/shrubland) were laid out in a
completely randomised design. Soil samples were collected from four
plots each one measuring 50 m x 40 m in each land use/cover type. A
diagonal design was used for sample collection at depths of 0 - 15 and
15 - 30 cm. Results showed that at both soil depths, croplands had the
lowest mean SOC and highest N; while grasslands had the highest SOC.
Also, cropland recorded the highest mean soil bulk density at both
depths. Based on soil analysis only, this study showed that conversion
to cropland over a specified period of time can considerably reduce the
ability of rangelands to sequester carbon. Further studies to include
assessment of carbon stocks in the respective vegetation biomass are
recommended.Les p\ue2turages sont connus pour leur potentiel
d\u2019att\ue9nuation des concentrations croissantes de dioxyde de
carbone (CO2) atmosph\ue9rique dans le monde. L\u2019objectif de
cette \ue9tude \ue9tait d\u2019\ue9tudier les mod\ue8les de
carbone organique du sol (COS) et d\u2019azote (N) dans les
p\ue2turages sous les syst\ue8mes de gestion traditionnels dans la
sous-r\ue9gion de Karamoja en Ouganda, en vue de faciliter le
d\ue9veloppement de pratiques de gestion appropri\ue9es et
strat\ue9giques pour les ressources des p\ue2turages.
L\u2019\ue9tude a \ue9t\ue9 men\ue9e pendant la saison des
pluies de la sous-r\ue9gion. Quatre types d\u2019utilisation/de
couverture des terres (terres cultiv\ue9es, prairies, terres
bois\ue9es et fourr\ue9s/arbustes) ont \ue9t\ue9 d\ue9finis
dans un plan compl\ue8tement al\ue9atoire. Des \ue9chantillons de
sol ont \ue9t\ue9 pr\ue9lev\ue9s dans quatre parcelles mesurant
chacune 50 m x 40 m dans chaque type d\u2019utilisation/couverture des
terres. Une conception diagonale a \ue9t\ue9 utilis\ue9e pour la
collecte d\u2019\ue9chantillons \ue0 des profondeurs de 0 - 15 et
15 - 30 cm. Les r\ue9sultats ont montr\ue9 qu\u2019aux deux
profondeurs du sol, les terres cultiv\ue9es avaient le COS moyen le
plus bas et le N le plus \ue9lev\ue9 ; tandis que les prairies
avaient le COS le plus \ue9lev\ue9. De plus, les terres
cultiv\ue9es ont enregistr\ue9 la densit\ue9 apparente moyenne du
sol la plus \ue9lev\ue9e aux deux profondeurs. Bas\ue9e
uniquement sur l\u2019analyse des sols, cette \ue9tude a montr\ue9
que la conversion en terres cultiv\ue9es sur une p\ue9riode de
temps sp\ue9cifi\ue9e peut r\ue9duire consid\ue9rablement la
capacit\ue9 des terres des p\ue2turages \ue0 s\ue9questrer le
carbone. D\u2019autres \ue9tudes pour inclure
l\u2019\ue9valuation des stocks de carbone dans la biomasse
v\ue9g\ue9tale respective sont recommand\ue9es
'Lad culture' in higher education: agency in the sexualisation debates
This paper reports on research funded by the National Union of Students, which explored women studentsâ experiences of âlad cultureâ through focus groups and interviews. We found that although laddism is only one of various potential masculinities, for our participants it dominated social and sexual spheres of university life in problematic ways. However, their objections to laddish behaviours did not support contemporary models of âsexual panicâ, even while oppugning the more simplistic celebrations of young womenâs empowerment which have been observed in debates about sexualisation. We argue that in their ability to reject âlad cultureâ, our respondents expressed a form of agency which is often invisibilised in sexualisation discussions and which could be harnessed to tackle some of the issues we uncovered
Developing Dementia-Friendly Tourism Destinations: An Exploratory Analysis
Dementia is emerging as a global issue. Increases in life expectancy create an older population structure with accompanying health needs but also high lifestyle expectations. For example existing generations have come to expect to be able to participate in leisure and tourism activities in later life, which can be constrained by the onset of dementia. Leading healthy lifestyles and engaging in tourism activities are viewed as fundamental to remaining active and contributing to slowing the progress of dementia. This study is the first to examine the challenges and implications of the growing scale of dementia and the business opportunities this may create for destinations wishing to achieve dementia-friendly status. The paper reports results from an initial scoping study with tourism businesses in a coastal resort in the United Kingdom with such ambitions to assess the nature of the issues that arose from a series of face-to-face interviews
Adopting the International Standard 'Becoming a human-centred organization (ISO 27500)' supports a strategic approach to internationalisation.
Educational development is increasingly focussed on quality assurance and enhancement. Individual states/countries have their own mechanisms for assuring the student experience, and this has been accompanied by development of tools (including the UKâs National Student Survey) for capturing student opinion of our efforts. Areas where more work is needed include equity and diversity and it is perhaps time for a fresh approach. In other sectors, International Standards ensure safety, reliability and quality of products and services. Such standards also represent a stakeholder-negotiated (and therefore shared) understanding of âgood qualityâ, supporting organisations in accessing new markets and permitting a fair global trade, an approach relevant to higher education. Recent publication of ISO (The International Organization for Standardization) Standard 27500 (the International Standard describing the principles and rationales behind becoming a humancentred organization) seems timely. Encouraging educational institutions to adopt this Standard may offer a strategy for addressing several issues, including internationalisation
-dimensions Dirac fermions BEC-BCS cross-over thermodynamics
An effective Proca Lagrangian action is used to address the vector
condensation Lorentz violation effects on the equation of state of the strongly
interacting fermions system. The interior quantum fluctuation effects are
incorporated as an external field approximation indirectly through a fictive
generalized Thomson Problem counterterm background. The general analytical
formulas for the -dimensions thermodynamics are given near the unitary limit
region. In the non-relativistic limit for , the universal dimensionless
coefficient and energy gap are
reasonably consistent with the existed theoretical and experimental results. In
the unitary limit for and T=0, the universal coefficient can even
approach the extreme occasion corresponding to the infinite effective
fermion mass which can be mapped to the strongly coupled
two-dimensions electrons and is quite similar to the three-dimensions
Bose-Einstein Condensation of ideal boson gas. Instead, for , the
universal coefficient is negative, implying the non-existence of phase
transition from superfluidity to normal state. The solutions manifest the
quantum Ising universal class characteristic of the strongly coupled unitary
fermions gas.Comment: Improved versio
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Does the Millennium Challenge Corporation reinforce capitalist power structures or empower citizens?
In development practice, how does âmutual benefitâ accrue, and to whom? China criticises America for perpetuating capitalist power relations and claims it can seek a new geo-political order based on South-South cooperation. Meanwhile, there has been an extraordinary shift of emphasis toward the private sector as a driver of development, but this shift is attracting increasing criticism. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) - the only development agency to grow in influence under the Trump administration - is evaluated in the light of these two key themes. Neither China nor the private sector are successful in achieving âmutual benefitâ for ordinary citizens â both replicate existing power inequalities. As with the rise of both China and the private sector, the MCC also enmeshes developing countries further into the existing neoliberal capitalist structures. However, the advantages of the agency should not be dismissed outright, as its Ruling Justly and Investing in People indicators can enhance the capacity of citizens to challenge these power structures themselves
Transcendence over Diversity: black women in the academy
Universities, like many major public institutions have embraced the notion of âdiversityâ virtually uncritically- it is seen as a moral âgood in itselfâ. But what happens to those who come to represent âdiversityâ- the black and minority ethnic groups targeted to increase the institutions thirst for global markets and aversion to accusations of institutional racism? Drawing on existing literature which analyses the process of marginalization in higher education, this paper explores the individual costs to black and female academic staff regardless of the discourse on diversity. However despite the exclusion of staff, black and minority ethnic women are also entering higher education in relatively large numbers as students. Such âgrassrootsâ educational urgency transcends the dominant discourse on diversity and challenges presumptions inherent in top down initiatives such as âwidening participationâ. Such a collective movement from the bottom up shows the importance of understanding black female agency when unpacking the complex dynamics of gendered and racialised exclusion. Black womenâs desire for education and learning makes possible a reclaiming of higher education from creeping instrumentalism and reinstates it as a radical site of resistance and refutation
Internationalisation and migrant academics: the hidden narratives of mobility
Internationalisation is a dominant policy discourse in higher education today. It is invariably presented as an ideologically neutral, coherent, disembodied, knowledgedriven policy intervention - an unconditional good. Yet it is a complex assemblage of values linked not only to economic growth and prosperity, but also to global citizenship, transnational identity capital, social cohesion, intercultural competencies and soft power (Clifford and Montgomery 2014; De Wit et al. 2015; Kim 2017; Lomer 2016; Stier 2004). Mobility is the sine qua non of the global academy (Sheller 2014). International movements, flows and networks are perceived as valuable transnational and transferable identity capital and as counterpoints to intellectual parochialism. Fluidity metaphors abound as an antidote to stasis e.g. flows, flux and circulations (Urry 2007). For some, internationalisation is conceptually linked to the political economy of neoliberalism and the spatial extension of the market, risking commodification and commercialisation (Matus and Talburt 2009). Others raise questions about what/whose knowledge is circulating and whether internationalisation is a form of re-colonisation and convergence that seeks to homogenise higher education systems (Stromquist 2007). Internationalisation policies and practices, it seems, are complex entanglements of economic, political, social and affective domains. They are mechanisms for driving the global knowledge 2 economy and the fulfilment of personal aspirations (Hoffman 2009). Academic geographical mobility is often conflated with social mobility and career advancement (Leung 2017). However, Robertson (2010: 646) suggested that âthe romance of movement and mobility ought to be the first clue that this is something we ought to be particularly curious about.
Black Holes, Mergers, and the Entropy Budget of the Universe
Vast amounts of entropy are produced in black hole formation, and the amount
of entropy stored in supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies is now
much greater than the entropy free in the rest of the universe. Either mergers
involved in forming supermassive black holes are rare,or the holes must be very
efficient at capturing nearly all the entropy generated in the process.
We argue that this information can be used to constrain supermassive black
hole production, and may eventually provide a check on numerical results for
mergers involving black holes
A Three-Stage Search for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in LISA Data
Gravitational waves from the inspiral and coalescence of supermassive
black-hole (SMBH) binaries with masses ~10^6 Msun are likely to be among the
strongest sources for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We
describe a three-stage data-analysis pipeline designed to search for and
measure the parameters of SMBH binaries in LISA data. The first stage uses a
time-frequency track-search method to search for inspiral signals and provide a
coarse estimate of the black-hole masses m_1, m_2 and of the coalescence time
of the binary t_c. The second stage uses a sequence of matched-filter template
banks, seeded by the first stage, to improve the measurement accuracy of the
masses and coalescence time. Finally, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo search is used
to estimate all nine physical parameters of the binary. Using results from the
second stage substantially shortens the Markov Chain burn-in time and allows us
to determine the number of SMBH-binary signals in the data before starting
parameter estimation. We demonstrate our analysis pipeline using simulated data
from the first LISA Mock Data Challenge. We discuss our plan for improving this
pipeline and the challenges that will be faced in real LISA data analysis.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Proceedings of GWDAW-11 (Berlin,
Dec. '06
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