Encoding Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammars with a Nonmonotonic Inheritance Hierarchy

This paper shows how DATR, a widely used formal language for lexical knowledge representation, can be used to define an LTAG lexicon as an inheritance hierarchy with internal lexical rules. A bottom-up featural encoding is used for LTAG trees and this allows lexical rules to be implemented as covariation constraints within feature structures. Such an approach eliminates the considerable redundancy otherwise associated with an LTAG lexicon.Comment: Latex source, needs aclap.sty, 8 page

Food Prices and the Politics of Hunger: Beneath Market and State

What accounts for the persistence of hunger and undernutrition in political and administrative systems which might be otherwise sensitive to the risk of food price volatility and market failure? If pre?empting food price volatility has a political constituency why is there not a similar constituency for preventing vulnerability to hunger? The policy response to globally?driven food price volatility in Pakistan was largely successful in achieving its proximate goals, and price spirals and market shortages in 2008 were aberrations from which lessons were drawn effectively. Research for the Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility project shows that the food economy of the poorest is relatively insulated from price fluctuations, and vulnerability to hunger is mostly driven by idiosyncratic shocks. The poorest often operate beneath the market, or at the lowest rung of a highly segmented market, and their expectations with respect to rights and entitlements to food correspond with their prevailing sources of informal social support

Women Agricultural Workers and Nutrition in Pakistan

Pakistan has high rates of child undernutrition (both stunting and wasting). The country’s agricultural sector is a source of livelihood for over 40 per cent of the workforce. The LANSA Evidence Review for Pakistan found that there had been steady feminisation of the agricultural workforce as men moved out of the sector and women remained. LANSA researchers resolved to examine these issues through a formative study of the impact of women’s agricultural work on their own health and the health and nutrition of their children. For agriculture to play a more positive role for nutrition in Pakistan there needs to be greater recognition of the impact of women’s agricultural work by government, communities and families.Department for International Development (DFID)UKAI

Relation of nutrition and salinity to growth in black mollies

Optimum growth, impaired growth and mortality hi black molly are studied in diluted sea water, sea water and also by introducing laboratory prepared diets. Rapid acclimation in conjunction with enhanced growth capacity was attained at 2‰ concentration of common salt in water, and 2‰ and 5‰ dilutions of sea water. 22‰ protein content in the diet was found to be adequate for growth and fertility of fishes acclimated at a salinity of 2‰. Higher protein content and other nutritive elements were necessary for fishes acclimated at 5‰ and 14‰. Fertility was increased in sea-water dilutions rather than in common salt-water dilutions

Agriculture and nutrition in Pakistan: pathways and disconnects

LANSA is funded by UKAid through the Department for International Development (DFID).This paper analyses the pathways and disconnects between agriculture and nutrition in the context of Pakistan, using a framework developed by theTackling the Agriculture-Nutrition Disconnect in India (TANDI) research programme. The pathways identified are: agriculture as a source of food; agriculture as a source of income; supply and demand factors in agriculture that impact household food security; non-food expenditure of income derived from agriculture; and, role of gender through female employment in agriculture and its impact on intra-household allocations, care practices and women's own energy expenditure. The analysis highlights the importance of moving beyond understanding agriculture as a source of food for farm households, and examines the trade-off between self-consumption and the market price of food. The study shows that in Pakistan: the price of most food is not determined by local supply and demand conditions, but by global markets an increase in agricultural income from cash crops, such as cotton, does not necessarily lead to increase in consumption of own-produced food. Cash crops often leave less room for food crops some regions with the worst nutritional outcomes are those where the agricultural economy is doing relatively well. In such areas, demand for women's labour is often high, which can have both positive and negative effects on nutritional outcomes. These findings have important policy implications and the TANDI framework is a useful starting point to understand the agriculture-nutrition link in Pakistan. However, the authors establish that assessing progress along any particular pathway between agriculture and nutrition reveals that there are a wide range of intervening processes and conditions, which require further investigation: Agricultural growth may benefit those households which have access to land, but it may be the landless or land-poor that are the most nutritionally deprived. There is a clear hierarchy between farmers and labourers in terms of income, food security, nutritional outcomes. Patriarchy and unequal gender relations influence social policy and norms which adversely affects maternal health practices, women's empowerment and intra-household allocations of food. Behaviour and preferences of households and individuals over matters concerning food consumption, dietary diversity, and care practices have an influence over agriculture's ability to address undernutrition. Political priorities and organisational effectiveness. The authors conclude that a research agenda that addresses these gaps can play a strategic role in addressing agriculture-nutrition disconnects and improve nutritional outcomes. Existing programmes and policies, such as cash transfer programmes and land grant schemes, that address themes in gender relations and access to land provide opportunities for grounded empirical and policy research. [adapted from summary written by S. Zuberi, from CSSR Pakistan]UK AidDepartment for International Development (DFID

Women’s Agricultural Work and Nutrition in South Asia: Policy Priorities

ANSA research has highlighted the linkage between women’s agricultural work and nutrition in South Asia. Official statistics acknowledge that agriculture accounts for a majority of women workers in these countries. Many women who work in agriculture, however, are not counted, and many others’ work is under-counted and often uncompensated. The division of agricultural activities is highly gendered and many of the tasks undertaken by women are not regarded as work by men and women, families and communities. For many rural South Asian women, global efforts for the recognition of women’s contribution to the care economy, or for the greater visibility of women’s reproductive labour, is a step too far. They struggle to have their contribution recognised in the productive sphere of the economy. This Brief highlights the following policy priorities: Recognition of women as farmers and agricultural workers; Agriculture policies and programmes to be gender-sensitive; Nutrition-specific behaviour change: addressing and redistributing the care deficit; Social protection and public investment: reducing women’s time burdens and expanding choices.Department for International Development (DFID)UKAI

Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility: Evidence from Two Communities in Pakistan

This report contributes to the Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility project by examining the impact of food price volatility on poor and vulnerable households through qualitative research conducted in 2012 and 2013 at ‘listening posts’ in a rural and urban area of Pakistan. While food prices are high in relation to the purchasing power of the poor, price volatility has remained in check. This is partly due to policies for preventing shortages and price spirals which were put in place following the crisis period of 2007-09. Idiosyncratic shocks rather than price changes are conspicuous sources of food insecurity for poor households. Our study finds that the poor and vulnerable face short periods of hunger but prolonged hunger is prevented by informal mechanisms of support that operate through the ‘food economy’. While formal systems in the form of cash transfers and government employment are considered significant sources of support, the government is not considered as a guarantor of food security by the poor. We find that the ‘future farmers’ hypothesis does not hold true for Pakistan as increases in output prices have not changed attitudes of young people towards farming

Inheritance hierarchies and historical reconstruction: towards a history of Slavonic colour terms

The last decade has witnessed an interest in inheritance hierarchies for the representation of linguistic knowledge. An obvious application is to historical reconstruction of a language family, but this is largely unexplored territory. We demonstrate the merits of such an approach with a default inheritance treatment of the colour terms of Slavonic: Slavonic because it is uncontroversially a genetic unit, and colour terms both because of their universality and because of the tight constraints on a language\u27s colour term inventory (Berlin & Kay 1969, and subsequent work). In section I we discuss the colour terms of Slavonic and introduce Berlin and Kay\u27s typology and the notion of basic colour term. Section 2 describes our methodology and in section 3 we show how it is applied to Slavonic. The main results are discussed in section 4

Large Surveys and Small Voices: Meanings of Hunger in Pakistan

DFI