Poultry producers’ perceptions of changing market conditions : a field study of the poultry production in Khartoum state of Sudan

Sudan has always showed great potential in the poultry industry, but it has not been until now that this potential has blossomed and is growing quickly. As large agribusinesses1are taking over the market shares within the urban areas, smallholders2 have been put out of business. They are not able to compete with mass production and lack financial assets to improve their production techniques. Contract farming is defined as initiatives from agro industrial companies to secure access to smallholder produce and has in developing countries become a way of allowing the poor to participate in a larger market (Farrington, 1999). The aim with this study was to investigate the suitability of implementing the contract farming concept within the poultry industry in Sudan today. The study is a qualitative field study and the authors have conducted qualitative interviews with respondents involved in the poultry industry in Sudan. For an overall perspective the respondents represented different parts of the poultry industry. The empirical results were later analysed in relation to the assumptions of agency theory. The results found imply that it would be difficult to introduce contract farming in Sudan’s poultry industry today. This is mainly explained by the agribusinesses unwillingness to take on more responsibility as they already are under stress because of government interference. Other findings are that the agribusinesses see no benefits from entering a contract agreement with a smallholder. The study also found that nor the smallholders did see much benefits other than financial from cooperation with the agribusinesses. Political issues cause problems for agribusinesses as well as smallholders, and have created a nervous society where independence seems to be the goal of each party. 1 Agribusiness refers to the various businesses that are connected with producing, preparing and selling farm product (www.dictionary.cambridge.org, 2012). 2 Smallholder refers to farmers operating a farm of 2 ha or less (www.ifpri.org , 2007).Sudan har alltid visat stor potential för kycklingproduktion men det är först nu som denna potential tillåts blomstra och växer snabbt. Då stora företag tar över marknadsandelar i städerna, tvingas småproducenterna lägga ner sin verksamhet. De inte har möjlighet att konkurrera med massproduktion och saknar finansiella tillgångar för att förbättra sina produktionssystem. Kontraktsproduktion definieras som initiativ tagna av stora företag för att säkra tillgången till småföretagarnas produktion och har i utvecklingsländer varit ett sätt för småproducenter att nå en större marknad (Farrington, 1999). Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka lämpligheten att införa kontraktsproduktion inom fjäderfäindustrin i Sudan i dag. Studien är en kvalitativ fältstudie och författarna har genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med respondenter involverade i Sudans fjäderfäindustri. För ett helhetsperspektiv representerade de intervjuade olika delar av fjäderfäbranschen. De empiriska resultaten analyserades i förhållande till Agenteorins teorier. Resultaten antyder att det skulle vara svårt att införa kontraktsproduktion inom Sudans fjäderfäindustri idag. Detta förklaras främst av att de stora företagens ovilja att ta ett större ansvar, eftersom de redan är under stress på grund av regeringens inblandning. Dessutom ser de stora företagen inga fördelar med att ingå avtal med småproducenter. Studien fann även att även småproducenterna såg få förmåner utöver finansiella från samarbete med stora företag. Politiska problem gör det svårt för både företag och småproducenter och har skapat ett oroligt samhälle där autonomi tycks vara varje parts mål

Contact-Less Measurement System for Cardiopulmonary Activity

International audienceThis paper presents a wireless cardiopulmonary activity measurement system. This system generates a continuous wave toward a person's chest set at a distance of 1 m, then reflected to the system. Using a vector network analyzer, the phase of S21 is computed. The phase variation of S21 contains information about cardiopulmonary activity. Several processing techniques are used to separate heartbeat signal from cardiorespiratory signal either in frequency or in temporal domain. The measurements were performed simultaneously with a PC-based electrocardiogram to validate the heartbeat rate detection techniques. In conclusion, processing techniques used in this paper give accurate results

Microwave Doppler Radar for Heartbeat Detection Vs Electrocardiogram

International audienceThis paper presents a contact-less system to detect the heartbeat activity from a distance of one meter. The proposed system is based on using a vector network analyzer. Measurements are performed at 16 GHz for different power levels between 0 and -25 dBm. Results for two S-parameters are obtained and compared to an ECG simultaneous signal in terms of heartbeat rate and heart rate variability

Cardiopulmonary Activity Monitoring with Contactless Microwave Sensor

International audienceThe aim of this paper is to provide a contactless microwave sensor allowing continual remote monitoring of the heartbeat and respiratory rates. This work provides a comparative study to signal detection of heartbeat, considering different frequencies and transmission powers. In addition, a model based on cardiorespiratory measure is presented. This determines the most accurate signal processing technique for the lowest possible signal to noise ratio (SNR) values. This practical approach is a necessary step before dealing with the hardware implementation and system integration

Doppler Radar for Heartbeat Rate and Heart Rate Variability Extraction

4 pagesInternational audienceThis paper presents a Doppler radar system used to detect the heartbeat signal from a d√istance of one meter. The proposed system is based on using a vector network analyzer and two antennas. Measurements are performed at 16 GHz for different power levels between 0 and -25 dBm. Both heartbeat rate and heart rate variability are extracted and compared to a simultaneous ECG signal

Touch-less Heartbeat Detection and Measurement-based Cardiopulmonary Modeling

ISBN: 978-1-4244-4124-2 - WOSInternational audienceThis paper presents a system for touch-less heartbeat detection and a cardiopulmonary signal modeling approach. Using a vector network analyzer, a microwave system is tested in detecting the heartbeat signal at a distance of 1-m from a person. The proposed system shows the ability of detecting the heartbeat signals with the possibility of tuning both frequency and power; measurements are performed at 2.4, 5.8, 10, 16, and 60 GHz, as well as at different power levels between 0 and -27 dBm. Based on real measurements performed for both respiration and heart beatings, a model representing the cardiopulmonary activity is presented. The heartbeat rate and the heart rate variability are extracted from the modeling signal using classic and wavelet filters, for SNR between 0 and -20 dB

Anticancer activity studies of some cyclic benzimidazole derivatives

New benzimidazole derivatives, namely, (N-(4-methoxyphenyl)methylene]-1H-benzimidazol-2-amine (2a), (N-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)methylene]-1H-benzimidazol-2-amine (2b), and (N-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)methylene]-1H-benzimidazol-2-amine (2c) were synthesized by reaction of a Schiff base with malononitrile in absolute ethanol. Structures of compounds have been confirmed by IR, 1H NMR and elemental analysis. Compounds 2a-c were screened for their in vitro anticancer potential using HeLa and PC3 cells. All compounds showed limited cytotoxicity except compound 2a that showed a moderate cytotoxic effect towards HeLa cells

Étude des poly(2-alkyl-2-oxazoline)s munis d'extrémités hydrophobes en solution aqueuse et à linterface eau/air

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