Defining poverty as distinctively human

While it is relatively easy for most people to identify human beings suffering from  poverty, it is rather more difficult to come to a proper understanding of poverty. In this article the author wants to deepen our understanding of poverty by interpreting the  conventional definitions of poverty in a new light. The article starts with a defence of a claim that poverty is a concept uniquely applicable to humans. It then present a critical discussion of the distinction between absolute and relative poverty and it is then argued that a revision of this distinction can provide general standards applicable to humans everywhere

Research gaps in scale up of family planning and reproductive health programming

The Evidence Project, in collaboration with the Evidence to Action Project, the Health Policy Project, and MEASURE Evaluation convened a meeting to discuss research gaps related to scale-up. The meeting was held at the request of USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health (OPRH) to help guide their research strategy. The meeting had four objectives: discuss scale-up experiences and the role of research and monitoring for strengthening program performance at scale; identify research gaps related to scale-up; prioritize the scale-up research gaps for OPRH; identify next steps for addressing these priority research gaps. This meeting generated a rich discussion about the need to better document the scale-up process, particularly the vertical (institutionalization) aspect of scale-up. Key questions revolved around determining capacity building for scale, identifying and disseminating the facilitating factors, working with key health-system elements as defined by WHO, shortening the scale-up timeframe, and balancing sustainability with equity. The results of this meeting will be used to inform the OPRH Research Strategy and the work of implementing partners

Multifractal methodology

Various methods have been developed independently to study the multifractality of measures in many different contexts. Although they all convey the same intuitive idea of giving a “dimension” to sets where a quantity scales similarly within a space, they are not necessarily equivalent on a more rigorous level. This review article aims at unifying the multifractal methodology by presenting the multifractal theoretical framework and principal practical methods, namely the moment method, the histogram method, multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MDFA) and wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM), with a comparative and interpretative eye

Studies on the quantitative and qualitative characters of cocoons and silk from methoprene and fenoxycarb treated Bombyx mori (L) larvae

Juvenile hormone analogues (JHA s) are known to prolong larval life in insects, and these have been tried for the improvement of silk production in the silkworm, Bombyx mori (L). In the cocoons and silk from 5thinstar B. mori treated with selected doses of methoprene and fenoxycarb, quantitative parameters like cocoon weight, shell weight, shell percentage, filament length and denier followed by qualitative charactersof the silk like non-breakable filament length, reelability, winding capacity, tenacity, elongation percentage, cohesiveness, sericin and fibroin contents were determined. The cocoon from 1.0 mg methoprene and 3.0fg/larvae treated on days one and two showed improved quantitative characters of cocoons followed by qualitative characters of the silk over the control. The use of juvenile hormone like methprene and fenoxycarb during summer season will help to get improved cocoon yiel

Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Essen. Alemania Federal

Ten-story building on a slope, with following distribution: tellers desks, offices and administrative departments, reserved and rental space, a cafeteria, meeting room, installation rooms and a swimming pool with its corresponding services, located on the top of the building. It also has five basements for supplies, storage and garage. The site is surrounded on all four sides with streets on different levels which permit various entrances and different vertical Communications between floors, which results in an optimum relationship between the passage surface and the usable space, taking full advantage of the space available. The concrete structure, with 8.30 m reticule on the sides, provides sufficient flexibility for adapting the different floors to the different operation schemes. The building offers a special architectural interest as a result of the offset in the upper floors and the contrast achieved in treating the facades, where the dark aluminum of the offices floors is broken by the bodies jutting out of the stairwells and elevators, treated with artificial white stone. The building is topped with a roof made of inclined facing on the last floor, also treated with dark aluminum panels.Este edificio consta de diez plantas sobre rasante, en fas que se distribuyen: una sala de cajas, oficinas y departamentos administrativos, espacios de reserva y alquiler, una cafetería, salón de actos, cuartos de instalaciones, y una piscina, con sus correspondientes servicios, montada en el remate de la edificación. Asimismo cuenta con cinco sótanos destinados a abastecimientos, almacén y garaje. La parcela se halla delimitada en sus cuatro costados por redes viarias a distinto nivel, que permiten la existencia de diversos accesos exteriores, así como distintos núcleos de comunicación vertical entre plantas, de donde resulta una óptima relación entre las superficies de circulación y las útiles, aprovechándose plenamente los espacios. La estructura de hormigón, resuelta con una retícula de 8,30 m de lado, proporciona suficiente flexibilidad a las plantas para la adaptación de distintos esquemas de funcionamiento. El conjunto ofrece un especial interés arquitectónico, debido al retranqueo de las plantas superiores y al contraste logrado en el tratamiento de las fachadas, donde el aluminio oscuro de las plantas de oficinas es interrumpido por los cuerpos salientes de las cajas de escaleras y ascensores, tratados en piedra artificial blanca. El edificio está coronado por una cubierta constituida por los paramentos inclinados de la última planta, tratada, igualmente, con paneles de aluminio oscurecido

Evolutionary conservation of lampbrush-like loops in drosophilids

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Loopin-1 is an abundant, male germ line specific protein of <it>Drosophila melanogaster</it>. The polyclonal antibody T53-F1 specifically recognizes Loopin-1 and enables its visualization on the Y-chromosome lampbrush-like loop named kl-3 during primary spermatocyte development, as well as on sperm tails. In order to test lampbrush-like loop evolutionary conservation, extensive phase-contrast microscopy and immunostaining with T53-F1 antibody was performed in other drosophilids scattered along their genealogical tree.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the male germ line of all species tested there are cells showing giant nuclei and intranuclear structures similar to those of <it>Drosophila melanogaster </it>primary spermatocytes. Moreover, the antibody T53-F1 recognizes intranuclear structures in primary spermatocytes of all drosophilids analyzed. Interestingly, the extent and conformation of the staining pattern is species-specific. In addition, the intense staining of sperm tails in all species suggests that the terminal localization of Loopin-1 and its orthologues is conserved. A comparison of these cytological data and the data coming from the literature about sperm length, amount of sperm tail entering the egg during fertilization, shape and extent of both loops and primary spermatocyte nuclei, seems to exclude direct relationships among these parameters.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, the data reported strongly suggest that lampbrush-like loops are a conserved feature of primary spermatocyte nuclei in many, if not all, drosophilids. Moreover, the conserved pattern of the T53-F1 immunostaining indicates that a Loopin-1-like protein is present in all the species analyzed, whose localization on lampbrush-like loops and sperm tails during spermatogenesis is evolutionary conserved.</p

Risk and Ethical Concerns of Hunting Male Elephant: Behavioural and Physiological Assays of the Remaining Elephants

BACKGROUND: Hunting of male African elephants may pose ethical and risk concerns, particularly given their status as a charismatic species of high touristic value, yet which are capable of both killing people and damaging infrastructure. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We quantified the effect of hunts of male elephants on (1) risk of attack or damage (11 hunts), and (2) behavioural (movement dynamics) and physiological (stress hormone metabolite concentrations) responses (4 hunts) in Pilanesberg National Park. For eleven hunts, there were no subsequent attacks on people or infrastructure, and elephants did not break out of the fenced reserve. For three focal hunts, there was an initial flight response by bulls present at the hunting site, but their movements stabilised the day after the hunt event. Animals not present at the hunt (both bulls and herds) did not show movement responses. Physiologically, hunting elephant bulls increased faecal stress hormone levels (corticosterone metabolites) in both those bulls that were present at the hunts (for up to four days post-hunt) and in the broader bull and breeding herd population (for up to one month post-hunt). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: As all responses were relatively minor, hunting male elephants is ethically acceptable when considering effects on the remaining elephant population; however bulls should be hunted when alone. Hunting is feasible in relatively small enclosed reserves without major risk of attack, damage, or breakout. Physiological stress assays were more effective than behavioural responses in detecting effects of human intervention. Similar studies should evaluate intervention consequences, inform and improve best practice, and should be widely applied by management agencies

Nietzsche between History, Economics, and Politics

Is Nietzsche best approached through the lenses of intellectual history, the history of political thought, political theory or indeed political economy? This is the challenge James Chappel, Udi Greenberg, Dotan Leshem and Rebecca Mitchell all pose in their wonderfully stimulating reviews of my book. In an age of post-truth, fake news and the rejection of experts, it is a true honour to be read with such care and precision by four brilliant and leading scholars in their field. I am extremely grateful for their overall positive response to the book, and thank them for their many kind words about it. There is, of course, so much to discuss, so many avenues to explore that arise out of these reviews. But there is also, as always, so little time. So I think the best way for me proceed – and the best way to repay the favour – is to engage directly with the comments of my interlocutors

Feasibility study on distribution transformer based urban grid connected energy islands with distributed generation

Sri Lanka’s distribution network has been facing drastic changes during recent past due to the continuous addition of distributed renewable generation into the network. Addition of rooftop solar PV into the low voltage distribution feeders has significantly increased during 2016-2017, due to the government initiative “Surya Bala Sangramaya” on promoting rooftop solar generation. As a result, in highly populated urban areas, some distribution transformer service areas now have more than 50% of installed solar rooftop capacity, compared to the connected transformer capacity. These transformers export power to the medium voltage network from low voltage side during daytime due to high solar generation and low energy usage inside these service areas. An increasing number of transformers will experience such reverse power flow in near future with the acceleration of promoting rooftop solar programs. Operating with higher density of rooftop solar in distribution transformer service areas will result in numerous power quality issues and higher distribution losses in spite of the advantages of utilizing household rooftops for solar PV generation. In this study, a futuristic solution is proposed to effectively utilize the daytime solar PV generation in a single distribution transformer service area itself with the formation of smart grid type operation. Distribution transformer based smart grid, which operates with controlling mechanisms, loads, rooftop solar and battery storage systems is discussed in this report. This system can be developed and operated as a community-based smart grid that is formed inside the distribution transformer service area with the contribution of the electricity customers. Other than operating as individual energy customers and energy producers, public can become procumers who operate and control their loads and PV generation together to optimize load flow, power quality and economics in this proposed smart grid. This research is a preliminary study to identify the possibility of such distribution transformer based smart grid for Lanka Electricity Company Private Limited operation area. Extensive simulations were carried out using Matlab Simulink by modeling the three phase four wire LV network for a single transformer area to identify the present behavior of the LV Network. Then the model was upgraded to proposed future smart grid arrangement. Results on the customer behaviors, load flows and power quality on both normal and smart grid type scenarios are presented for several case studies including the present situation, future expected situation and for the proposed smart grid. As the outcome of this research, simulated results were obtained for smart grid arrangement inside an actual transformer service area and technical compatibility of the concept is presented to the Sri Lankan urban distribution transformers