3,723 research outputs found
Curbing Crop Farmers and Herders Clashes in Nigeria: The Ranching Option
Nigeria is a West African country with a huge population and over 70% of the population are peasant and subsistence farmers scattered in rural areas. Due to a decrease in arable and grazing lands, there are clashes between crop farmers and herders which have increased significantly in the last two decades. Some of the causes of the clashes include the destruction of crops by cattle, contamination of drinking water sources, sexual harassment of women by herders, animal rustling and killings, impunity and ineffective governance security agencies, tremendous increase in population, urbanization, desertification, industrialisation, insurgency, banditry, ethnic and religious inclination, effects of climate change, poverty among others. It is estimated that 13.7 billion dollars have been lost due to these clashes. This is in addition to the loss of human lives and a huge number of internally displaced persons. There are efforts to curb these clashes. One of the ways to achieve this is the use of ranching where livestock will not graze in the open. Ranching has the potential to increase productivity, the attraction of socio and economic infrastructure, create employment, and prevent animal rustling among others. This paper seeks to examine ranching as one of the ways to improve livestock productivity and curb farmers-herder clashes in Nigeria
Lattice model theory of the equation of state covering the gas, liquid, and solid phases
The three stable states of matter and the corresponding phase transitions were obtained with a single model. Patterned after Lennard-Jones and Devonshires's theory, a simple cubic lattice model containing two fcc sublattices (alpha and beta) is adopted. The interatomic potential is taken to be the Lennard-Jones (6-12) potential. Employing the cluster variation method, the Weiss and the pair approximations on the lattice gas failed to give the correct phase diagrams. Hybrid approximations were devised to describe the lattice term in the free energy. A lattice vibration term corresponding to a free volume correction is included semi-phenomenologically. The combinations of the lattice part and the free volume part yield the three states and the proper phase diagrams. To determine the coexistence regions, the equalities of the pressure and Gibbs free energy per molecule of the coexisting phases were utilized. The ordered branch of the free energy gives rise to the solid phase while the disordered branch yields the gas and liquid phases. It is observed that the triple point and the critical point quantities, the phase diagrams and the coexistence regions plotted are in good agreement with the experimental values and graphs for argon
Short Term Indian Club Swinging Improves Shoulder Flexibility
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Harmonic Tidal Analysis of Long Time Series
A harmonic tided analysis program is developed for observational records of 18.61 years or longer. The amplitudes and phases of over five hundred astronomical and shallow water constituents are calculated using a least squares approach. The program is tested with 38 years of hourly observations at Victoria and the amplitudes and phases of satellite constituents whose amplitudes lie above the background noise level are generally found to be consistent with potential theory. Predictions based on the results of a 19-year analysis are found to be only slightly better than those based on averages from 19 one-year analyses, thereby confirming the accuracy of G odin’s [1972] satellite correction algorithm and satellite inference based on potential theory relationships. However it is demonstrated with constituents NO1, J1, N2, and L2, that results from the 38-year analysis can be used to improve the satellite inference calculations in shorter analyses. Based on the stability of the 38 one-year analyses, recommendations are also made for the inclusion of additional constituents in the standard prediction of tides at Victoria
Toward understanding ambulatory activity decline in Parkinson disease
BACKGROUND: Declining ambulatory activity represents an important facet of disablement in Parkinson disease (PD).
OBJECTIVE: The primary study aim was to compare the 2-year trajectory of ambulatory activity decline with concurrently evolving facets of disability in a small cohort of people with PD. The secondary aim was to identify baseline variables associated with ambulatory activity at 1- and 2-year follow-up assessments.
DESIGN: This was a prospective, longitudinal cohort study.
METHODS: Seventeen people with PD (Hoehn and Yahr stages 1-3) were recruited from 2 outpatient settings. Ambulatory activity data were collected at baseline and at 1- and 2-year annual assessments. Motor, mood, balance, gait, upper extremity function, quality of life, self-efficacy, and levodopa equivalent daily dose data and data on activities of daily living also were collected.
RESULTS: Participants displayed significant 1- and 2-year declines in the amount and intensity of ambulatory activity concurrently with increasing levodopa equivalent daily dose. Worsening motor symptoms and slowing of gait were apparent only after 2 years. Concurrent changes in the remaining clinical variables were not observed. Baseline ambulatory activity and physical performance variables had the strongest relationships with 1- and 2-year mean daily steps.
LIMITATIONS: The sample was small and homogeneous.
CONCLUSIONS: Future research that combines ambulatory activity monitoring with a broader and more balanced array of measures would further illuminate the dynamic interactions among evolving facets of disablement and help determine the extent to which sustained patterns of recommended daily physical activity might slow the rate of disablement in PD.This study was funded primarily by the Davis Phinney Foundation and the Parkinson Disease Foundation. Additional funding was provided by Boston University Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (K12 HD043444), the National Institutes of Health (R01NS077959), the Utah Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA), the Greater St Louis Chapter of the APDA, and the APDA Center for Advanced PD Research at Washington University. (Davis Phinney Foundation; Parkinson Disease Foundation; K12 HD043444 - Boston University Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health; R01NS077959 - National Institutes of Health; Utah Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA); Greater St Louis Chapter of the APDA; APDA Center for Advanced PD Research at Washington University
Long-distance remote comparison of ultrastable optical frequencies with 1e-15 instability in fractions of a second
We demonstrate a fully optical, long-distance remote comparison of
independent ultrastable optical frequencies reaching a short term stability
that is superior to any reported remote comparison of optical frequencies. We
use two ultrastable lasers, which are separated by a geographical distance of
more than 50 km, and compare them via a 73 km long phase-stabilized fiber in a
commercial telecommunication network. The remote characterization spans more
than one optical octave and reaches a fractional frequency instability between
the independent ultrastable laser systems of 3e-15 in 0.1 s. The achieved
performance at 100 ms represents an improvement by one order of magnitude to
any previously reported remote comparison of optical frequencies and enables
future remote dissemination of the stability of 100 mHz linewidth lasers within
seconds.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
The Five Planets in the Kepler-296 Binary System All Orbit the Primary: A Statistical and Analytical Analysis
Kepler-296 is a binary star system with two M-dwarf components separated by
0.2 arcsec. Five transiting planets have been confirmed to be associated with
the Kepler-296 system; given the evidence to date, however, the planets could
in principle orbit either star. This ambiguity has made it difficult to
constrain both the orbital and physical properties of the planets. Using both
statistical and analytical arguments, this paper shows that all five planets
are highly likely to orbit the primary star in this system. We performed a
Markov-Chain Monte Carlo simulation using a five transiting planet model,
leaving the stellar density and dilution with uniform priors. Using importance
sampling, we compared the model probabilities under the priors of the planets
orbiting either the brighter or the fainter component of the binary. A model
where the planets orbit the brighter component, Kepler-296A, is strongly
preferred by the data. Combined with our assertion that all five planets orbit
the same star, the two outer planets in the system, Kepler-296 Ae and
Kepler-296 Af, have radii of 1.53 +/- 0.26 and 1.80 +/- 0.31 R_earth,
respectively, and receive incident stellar fluxes of 1.40 +/- 0.23 and 0.62 +/-
0.10 times the incident flux the Earth receives from the Sun. This level of
irradiation places both planets within or close to the circumstellar habitable
zone of their parent star.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Incentivizing OER Adoption with Course Development Mini-Grants
Open Educational Resources (OER) are one form of digital scholarship used across the country to make education more accessible to students by removing barriers to essential course materials (such as textbooks and supplementary readings). This case shows how one university has taken steps to increase the prominence of OER in classrooms on campus while engaging in a statewide pilot project
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