Empowering women through livelihoods orientated agricultural service provision: A consideration of evidence from Southern Africa

The paper considers the impact of livelihoods oriented agricultural service provision for smallholder farmers on gender relationships and food security. The paper contents that the democratization and liberalization of agricultural services towards participatory, bottom-up approaches, from the early 1990s has brought favourable gender gains to women. The paper examines the background to this shift in agricultural service provision. The resulting gender gains, we argue, should be seen in terms of Sen’s notion of entitlements. We examine evidence of these gains from developments and cases in Malawi and Zambia and draw supporting evidence from Zimbabwe and South Africa Through a range of interventions – initially driven by NGOs and subsequently adopted within public programmes – women have gained entitlements, including new knowledge of crop production, a firm stakeholding in informal markets, access to adaptable and affordable technologies, and a legitimate role in farmer organizational structures. Through their strengthened legal status and organizational position, women have gained better access to finance and loan package. The impact of these gains is especially evident in the significant expansion of those crops in which women have secured entitlements (in terms of labour, trade and production), notably legumes, vegetables and root and tubers. While the growth in the production of these crops has contributed towards more sustainable livelihoods, it has not translated into improved food security. The paper argues that food security in the case countries remains conditional on maize production, a male controlled crop which underpines patrichal power and political patronage. Until women are afforded full entitlement to produce and own maize, the attainment of food security will remain gender contested

Robust autoresonant excitation in the plasma beat-wave accelerator: a theoretical study

A modified version of the Plasma Beat-Wave Accelerator scheme is introduced and analyzed, which is based on autoresonant phase-locking of the nonlinear Langmuir wave to the slowly chirped beat frequency of the driving lasers via adiabatic passage through resonance. This new scheme is designed to overcome some of the well-known limitations of previous approaches, namely relativistic detuning and nonlinear modulation or other non-uniformity or non-stationarity in the driven Langmuir wave amplitude, and sensitivity to frequency mismatch due to measurement uncertainties and density fluctuations and inhomogeneities

Using stochastic acceleration to place experimental limits on the charge of antihydrogen

Assuming hydrogen is charge neutral, CPT invariance demands that antihydrogen also be charge neutral. Quantum anomaly cancellation also demands that antihydrogen be charge neutral. Standard techniques based on measurements of macroscopic quantities of atoms cannot be used to measure the charge of antihydrogen. In this paper, we describe how the application of randomly oscillating electric fields to a sample of trapped antihydrogen atoms, a form of stochastic acceleration, can be used to place experimental limits on this charge

Analysis of the potential impact of the current WTO agricultural negotiations on government strategies in the SADC region

This study aims to help identify how the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) could potentially constrain government action to achieve food security in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The paper considers the proposed tariff and subsidy reduction modalities of the current round of WTO negotiations. The main focus is on the potential direct effects of the AoA, in terms of proposed reductions to domestic subsidies and tariffs, on food security policy in SADC countries. The study examines the argument that subsidy reductions and further liberalizing market access may pose constraints on the food security policy options of governments within the region. – SADC ; trade ; WTO ; Agreement on Agriculture ; subsidies ; market acces

Translating Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM) scores into clinical practice by suggesting severity strata derived using anchor-based methods

Background: The Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM) is a validated, patient-derived assessment measure for monitoring atopic eczema severity, although further information on how different POEM scores translate into disease severity categories is needed for clinical trials, epidemiological research and audit. Objectives: We sought to determine the relationship between Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM) scores (range 0–28) and two Global Questions (GQ1 and 2) concerning patients’/parents’ views of the overall severity of their/their child’s atopic eczema, in order to stratify POEM scores into five severity bands. Methods: POEM scores and GQs were completed by 300 patients from general practice and 700 patients from dermatology outpatient clinics, including 300 adults aged ≥ 16 years and 700 children. Results: The mean POEM score was 136 (range 0–28), and standard deviation (SD) was 72. Mean GQ1/GQ2 scores were 21/21, respectively (range 0–4 and SD 11 for both). The mean, mode and median of the GQ scores for each POEM score were used to devise possible POEM bandings. The proposed banding for POEM scores are: 0–2 (clear/almost clear); 3–7 (mild); 8–16 (moderate); 17–24 (severe); 25–28 (very severe), kappa coefficient 046. Conclusions: Severity banding of the POEM will allow more clinically meaningful use in everyday clinical practice and as a core outcome measure in future atopic eczema research

Self-consistent Langmuir waves in resonantly driven thermal plasmas

The longitudinal dynamics of a resonantly driven Langmuir wave are analyzed in the limit that the growth of the electrostatic wave is slow compared to the bounce frequency. Using simple physical arguments, the nonlinear distribution function is shown to be nearly gaussian in the canonical particle action, with a slowly evolving mean and fixed variance. Self-consistency with the electrostatic potential provide the basic properties of the nonlinear distribution function including a frequency shift that agrees well with driven, electrostatic particle simulations. This extends earlier work on nonlinear Langmuir waves by Morales and O'Neil [G. J. Morales and T. M. O'Neil, Phys. Rev. Lett. 28, 417 (1972)], and could form the basis of a reduced kinetic treatment of Raman backscatter in a plasma.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physics of Plasma

Vertical zonation of testate amoebae in the Elatia Mires, northern Greece : palaeoecological evidence for a wetland response to recent climate change or autogenic processes?

The Elatia Mires of northern Greece are unique ecosystems of high conservation value. The mires are climatically marginal and may be sensitive to changing hydroclimate, while northern Greece has experienced a significant increase in aridity since the late twentieth century. To investigate the impact of recent climatic change on the hydrology of the mires, the palaeoecological record was investigated from three near-surface monoliths extracted from two sites. Testate amoebae were analysed as sensitive indicators of hydrology. Results were interpreted using transfer function models to provide quantitative reconstructions of changing water table depth and pH. AMS radiocarbon dates and 210Pb suggest the peats were deposited within the last c. 50 years, but do not allow a secure chronology to be established. Results from all three profiles show a distinct shift towards a more xerophilic community particularly noted by increases in Euglypha species. Transfer function results infer a distinct lowering of water tables in this period. A hydrological response to recent climate change is a tenable hypothesis to explain this change; however other possible explanations include selective test decay, vertical zonation of living amoebae, ombrotrophication and local hydrological change. It is suggested that a peatland response to climatic change is the most probable hypothesis, showing the sensitivity of marginal peatlands to recent climatic change