Producing Useful Knowledge for Sustainable Development

Africa makes a relatively minor contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions compared with developed nations, yet the African continent will be increasingly vulnerable to climate change processes in the coming decades. Critical challenges include meeting basic needs for food, water, shelter, and other necessities without undermining biodiversity and ecosystem services. Coordination efforts to address multiple global change related stressors has generally occurred at the national level and taken an external approach, with national governments favoring collaboration with foreign-based NGOs and other international institutions. However, the involvement of actors at the local level correlates with decisions that are better adapted to local social-cultural and environmental contexts, reducing implementation costs, and increasing trust, thereby increasing the equity and efficacy of decentralized approaches. This paper examines indigenous and local knowledge of climate change and its impacts. It addresses climate and environmental change from the perspectives of Kenyan pastoralists who identified a myriad of environmental issues that occur and interact at different scales. They also identified ways forward at several scales from the local to the global. The continued functioning of ecosystems for local populations will depend critically upon sound policy, planning, and practice that includes pastoralist leadership

Social-Ecological Innovations and Outcomes of Community-Based Conservation in Africa: Implications for the Future

Community-based conservancies (CBCs) are growing in numbers throughout Africa, particularly in the arid and semi-arid (ASAL) regions where pastoralists raise livestock and live among much of Africa’s remaining wildlife. CBCs emerge around national parks and other protected areas of wildlife spaces apart from people. Community conservancies, in contrast to national parks, are land tenure and land use governance arrangements to conserve wildlife while providing for the livelihoods of African pastoralists. Some conservancies develop by communities in partnership with public agencies, while others are associated with non-government organizations and/or the private sector. Others are more top-down in origin, supported by large international donors and governments. Conservancies tend to develop in nation states that, until recently, have ignored the ASALs. Currently however, ASALs are converting to towns and croplands as human populations and consumption grow. Shifting market incentives encourage different livestock strategies away from local production to commercial livestock products. Energy extraction and renewable energy production are expanding into these areas, transforming landscapes, communities, and rural cultures. Formerly communal rangelands are increasingly privatizing and subdividing as pastoralists permanently settle. Fragmentation of communal lands is the result. We assess the goals of formation of community-based conservation, the partnerships, and outcomes for pastoralists

Differences in the Experience of Caregiving Between Spouse and Adult Child Caregivers in Dementia With Lewy Bodies.

Background and objectivesDementia caregiving has been associated with increased burden, depression, grief, a decreased sense of well-being and quality of life, and a weakening of social support. Little is known about the experience of caregiving in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). The present study examines differences in the caregiving experience of spouse versus adult child caregivers of individuals with DLB.Research design and methodsIn this cross-sectional analytic study of spouses (n = 255) and adult children (n = 160) caregivers of individuals with DLB, participants completed an online survey of burden, grief, depression, well-being, quality of life, and social support.ResultsAdult child caregivers were more likely to care for women (p < .001) and see the care recipient less often (p < .001) than spouses. Adult child caregivers reported lower quality of life (p < .001) and more caregiver burden (p < .009), but also greater social support (p < .001) than spouses. Between group analyses of caregiver type by disease severity demonstrated that spousal caregivers experience greater grief with advancing disease (p = .005), while adult child caregivers increase social support with advancing disease (p < .001).Discussion and implicationsSpouses and adult children experience DLB caregiving differently. This was explained by the younger age of the adult child caregiver, frequency of contact with the care recipient, and differences in the care recipient's characteristics, frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms, and disease severity. DLB caregiver support for this population should target psychoeducation for complicated neuropsychiatric symptoms in the care recipient. Screening all DLB caregivers for burden, grief, and depression is suggested to identify those that may benefit most from intervention. Spouses specifically may benefit from interventions that target increasing social support, while adult child caregivers may benefit from interventions aimed at mitigating burden and improving quality of life

Wildlife Conservation and the Role of the Indigenous Communities Living around Conservation Areas

The Indigenous Kenyan Maasai community has coexisted with the wildlife surrounding it for decades from Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara and Amboseli. These parks border Maasai lands. Although the northern, eastern, and western perimeters of the Nairobi National Park are fenced, the southern part is not. It is at this point that the Maasai community’s land meets the park. This area also acts as a wildlife dispersal area where wildlife can freely migrate to other parks, including Maasai Mara and Amboseli. The park is only 117sq kms and its vitality depends on the plains to the south where the Maasai live so that the animals can migrate in and out. Without that open space, the park would be little more than a zoo. The fact is that approximately 60 to 80 percent of wildlife in Kenya is outside formally protected areas. For the Maasai community, wildlife poses an enormous threat. As herbivores migrate during the wet season, they are followed by predators such as lions. Livestock are an easy target for them. A lion attack can be devastating, ruining family lives and livelihoods. Lions have traditionally been the Maasai tribe’s greatest adversaries; they are a deadly threat to the cattle and other livestock that are both an integral part of the Maasai culture and the tribe’s greatest source of wealth. Despite the ongoing livestock predation, lions may be the tribe’s strongest hope of preserving their way of life. With these in mind, it becomes imperative that we think of systems for better correlation between all aspects of conservation and understand that the wildlife, livestock, and the surrounding pastoral communities play a key role in each other’s survival

A Design Process Framework to Deal with Non-functional Requirements in Conceptual System Designs

To simultaneously satisfy the user needs and project-specific technical requirements, it is imperative that complex engineering systems are designed using contemporary, systematic approaches. This study presents a framework that combines Axiomatic Design and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process to ensure that designers can concurrently satisfy the functional and non-functional requirements along with the design constraints of conceptual system designs. A conceptual design case of an autonomous battery charging system for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles is presented as an illustrative case study. The results showed that the approach can aid decision-making processes by systematic evaluation and comparison of conceptual designs such that the selected solutions satisfy user needs whilst also realising both functional and non-functional requirements of the system

Factors Related to Marketing Successes for Fibre Producers in Middle Asia

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the economic well-being of livestock producers of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan declined dramatically (see Kerven 2003; Kerven et al., 2003). Like the economies in general, the livestock economies are slowly recovering and restructuring. Livestock producers have been encouraged by international market prices to raise sheep, goats, camels, and animals producing specialty fibre. Fine-fibre sheep and goats remain in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but marketing of fibres from the region is not ideal. As examples, sheep pelts are not sorted and graded, which is expected by international buyers, and cashmere is shorn and sold in bulk. Lastly, marketing opportunities are limited, technology, transportation infrastructure, and market information is lacking, and the bargaining power of individual fibre producers is weak. Under support from the U.S. AID Global Livestock-Collaborative Research Support Program (GL-CRSP) project, Developing institutions and capacity for sheep and fibre marketing in Central Asia, we seek to understand the spatial relationships that can help determine success in fibre marketing

Impact of targeted chemistries on maraging steel precipitation evolution observed using SANS and APT

Building on a previous study of the novel aerospace maraging steel known as F1E, SANS and atom probe tomography (APT) have been used to study three variant chemistries designed to impact the growth and development of either laves or β-phase precipitates. One chemistry reduced the available laves forming elements, Mo and W, resulting in a reduction in both austenitization and aging laves populations. A second chemistry reduced the β-phase forming element, Al, causing a reduction in the nucleating laves but not β-phase precipitates. Mechanical properties such as tensile, creep and hardness are examined with respect to the precipitate populations

Physical activity patterns in a nationally representative sample of adults in Ireland

Original article can be found at: http://journals.cambridge.org/ Copyright - the authors. DOI: 10.1079/PHN2001192Objective To evaluate habitual levels of physical activity in a nationally representative sample of adults in Ireland. Design Cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire. Usual levels of work, recreational and household activities were evaluated in relation to anthropometric, demographic and socio-economic characteristics. The amount and intensity of all activities were quantified by assigning metabolic equivalents (METS) to each activity. Setting Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, 1997–1999. Subjects Random sample of 1379 adults aged 18–64 years. Results Men were approximately twice as active in work and recreational activity (139.7 ± 83.9 METS) as women (68.5 ± 49.8 METS; P 28kg m−2) or obese (BMI > 30kg m−2). Fewer obese subjects reported higher levels of work and leisure activities. However, a higher percentage of obese women reported participation in the higher levels of household activities. Participation rates in recreational activities were low. Walking was the most important leisure activity of both men (41%) and women (60%). In terms of hours per week spent in vigorous physical activity, men were more active than women, professional and skilled non-manual women were more active than women in other social classes, and younger subjects (aged 18–35 years) were more active than older subjects. Conclusions The holistic approach used in the assessment of physical activity in this study has revealed important and subtle differences in the activity patterns of men and women. Failure to fully characterise the respective activity patterns of men and women could lead to ill-informed public health policy aimed at promoting and sustaining lifetime habits of physical activity. The results suggest that simple population-focused programmes to promote physical activity are unlikely to offer the same chance of long-term success as more sensitive and individualised strategies.Peer reviewe

A qualitative study of mothers’ perceptions of weaning and the use of commercial infant food in the United Kingdom

Background: Commercially produced infant food has a different taste profile and nutritional content to homemade baby food and its consumption is now very widespread. This change in early food experience may lead to a reduced dietary variety and a decreased microbial load exposure.Objective: The purpose of this study was to gain insight into parental perceptions of complementary feeding, specifically opinions of commercially produced baby food, using qualitative research methods. Methods: Four focus group discussions took place (n = 24), with mothers of infants aged 4-7 months. Half of participants were first time mothers and a third had experience weaning infants with symptoms of cows' milk allergy. Participants were prompted with questions about complementary feeding and shown several different products to stimulate discussion. Results: Thematic analysis of focus groups indicated that three distinctive groups of mothers exis