Improving the effectiveness of extension and input delivery systems for wider adoption of agricultural technologies

Poster prepared for a share fair, Addis Ababa, May 201

Concept Validation for Selective Heating and Press Hardening of Automotive Safety Components with Tailored Properties

© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.A new strategy termed selective heating and press hardening, for hot stamping of boron steel parts with tailored properties is proposed in this paper. Feasibility studies were carried out through a specially designed experimental programme. The main aim was to validate the strategy and demonstrate its potential for structural optimisation. In the work, a lab-scale demonstrator part was designed, and relevant manufacturing and property-assessment processes were defined. A heating technique and selective-heating rigs were designed to enable certain microstructural distributions in blanks to be obtained. A hot stamping tool set was designed for forming and quenching the parts. Demonstrator parts of full martensite phase, full initial phase, and differentially graded microstructures have been formed with high dimensional quality. Hardness testing and three point bending tests were conducted to assess the microstructure distribution and load bearing performance of the as-formed parts, respectively. The feasibility of the concept has been validated by the testing results

The overexpression of homeotic complex gene Ultrabithorax in the post-embryonic neuronal lineages of the ventral nervous system in Drosophila melanogaster

This study uses a molecular technique called MARCM (Mosaic Analysis with a Repressible Cell Marker) to label neuronal lineages that overexpress the Hox gene Ultrabithorax (Ubx) in an unlabeled, wild type background. The results indicate that the overexpression of Ubx is sufficient to transform more anterior neuronal lineages to themorphology of their more posterior counterparts. The data presented here begin to elucidate the role that the Hox genes have in shaping segment-specific neural connections in the post-embryonic ventral nervous system

Epidemics for all? Governing Health in a Global Age

Current global health policy is dominated by a preoccupation with infectious diseases and in particular with emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases that threaten to ‘break out’ of established patterns of prevalence or virulence into new areas and new victims. This paper seeks to link a set of dominant narratives about epidemics and infectious disease with what is often called the architecture, or organizational landscape, of global health policy. A series of dichotomies helps to distinguish and valorise epidemics policies. Fast- versus slow-twitch models of disease, global versus local models of culture, and official versus unofficial models of knowledge provide categories according to which policies can be evaluated, designed and implemented. As a result, policy on the global scale has tended to be oriented towards addressing highly time-focussed outbreaks that threaten to cross international boundaries rather than longer-term endemic problems the affect the most vulnerable people. Failure to address such long-term changes may make the whole global system itself more vulnerable over time. Recent changes in the organizational landscape of global health have created new power relations, as well as uncertainty about which organizations, if any, are ‘in control’ of global health policy. In addition, the WHO’s revised International Health Regulations, fully implemented in 2007, entail significant changes for way epidemics are governed at a global scale, embracing unofficial sources of information for the first time. Issues of coordination, integration and harmonization have accordingly come to the fore. This paper will analyze how this new organizational landscape and the framing of epidemic disease interact. Centrally, it will explore what effect that interaction has on the ability of the global health community to respond to disease threats of all kinds. It will argue that neither organizational complexity or ‘openness’ nor rigid lines of command-and-control can ensure resilience in the face of unpredictable risks. Instead, methods are needed to encourage feedback and integration between competing narratives of health and diseasESR

The production of Y-linolenic acid by Choanephora curcubitarum

Bibliography: pages 158-164.Gamma linolenic acid (GLA) is an essential fatty acid which has been shown to be beneficial for a large number of diseases. At present the fatty acid is marketed as a health product and the prime source of GLA is the evening primrose flower. There are several problems associated with producing the oil and as there is a growing demand for GLA for pharmaceutical and clinical applications, alternative sources are being sought. Choanephora curcubitarum is known to produce GLA and the production of GLA by fermentation of this organism has been successfully achieved by National Chemical Products. The ultimate aim of this project is to genetically manipulate this organism in order to increase the yields of GLA. Tn this thesis the basic groundwork needed to develop a genetic system in C. curcubitarum has been covered

Corporate Governance in the Sultanate of Oman

While the United States’ capital market has had its headline-grabbing scandals involving companies such as World Com and Entron, the capital markey in the Sultanate of Oman (Oman) has also experienced its share of corporate troubles affecting not onlt large Omani companies such as National Rice Mills SAOG and Oman National Investment Company Holdings SAOG, but also dozens of smaller companies, which have had to turn to the government to assistance