Small forests, big ambitions and a hard reality - Community Forestry in Nepal

Community forestry in Nepal is intended to reduce poverty by sustainable management of forests. Timber is one of the most high-value forest products, especially in the case of Sal (Shorea robusta) forests in the Terai region of Nepal. Despite having several advantages, including high value forests on fertile land, connection with transportation networks, and being close to regional markets, community forests in the Terai region produce little or no timber from their Sal forests. This research looks at what is affecting the production of Sal timber from community forests. Three aspects of community forest user groups (CFUG) are examined using institutional economics, transaction cost economics and micro-economics. First, the scale of CFUG operations is examined in terms of their ability to profitably carry out logging and organise market sales. Second, the capacity of CFUGs to carry out logging in terms of internal physical and human resources, and property rights is examined. Finally, barriers to vertical integration with the market in terms of contracting and cooperation with other CFUGs are investigated. To answer these questions, data was collected from 85 CFUGs and interviews were carried out with 39 key respondents from CFUGs, government agencies, and private firms. The results show that the size of the forest was not an issue for harvesting and marketing logs. However, the organisational capacity of CFUGs was found to be weak because of a lack of financial resources, limited property rights over timber, control over decisions by the District Forest Office, policy constraints, and corruption. In terms of vertical integration, a lack of legal rights to enter into contracts, a high degree of uncertainty about policy and property rights, small and irregular amounts timber harvest, and the interpretation of CFUG rules by the District Forest Office were found to be barriers for the formation of long-term contracts between CFUGs and private firms, and of cooperative developments between CFUGs.Community forest user group, institutional economics, transaction cost economics, cooperatives, contractual arrangement, Nepal, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

A W:B4C multilayer phase retarder for broadband polarization analysis of soft x-ray radiation \ud

A W:B4C multilayer phase retarder has been designed and characterized which shows a nearly constant phase retardance between 640 and 850 eV photon energies when operated near the Bragg condition. This freestanding transmission multilayer was used successfully to determine, for the first time, the full polarization vector at soft x-ray energies above 600 eV, which was not possible before due to the lack of suitable optical elements. Thus, quantitative polarimetry is now possible at the 2p edges of the magnetic substances Fe, Co, and Ni for the benefit of magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy employing circularly polarized synchrotron radiatio

Society and happiness, land and humanity. Considerations on Gabriel Miró

Este artículo utiliza la obra de Germán Bernácer y el estudio realizado por Laura Palomo Alepuz de Figuras de Bethlem, de Gabriel Miró, para reflexionar sobre los conceptos de tierra, humanidad, y felicidad, y sobre el papel de la sexualidad, especialmente en la mujer, en la obra madura de Miró: Figuras de Bethlem, Nuestro padre San Daniel, El obispo leproso y Años y leguas. La tierra es la base de la identidad y del trabajo, y la humanidad reemplaza al amor y a lo sobrenatural como valor, mientras que la felicidad se busca sin fin.This essay uses the work of Germán Bernácer and the research by Laura Palomo Alepuz on Gabriel Miró’s Figuras de Bethlem to reflect on the concepts of earth, humanity, and happiness, and on the role of sexuality, especially that of women, in the mature work of Miró: Figuras de Bethlem, Nuestro padre San Daniel, El obispo leproso and Años y leguas. Earth is the basis of identity and work, and humanity replaces love and the supernatural as a value, while happiness is sought without end

Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 2. Milk production

Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or with supplement at 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. The two supplements given in both years were rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods formulated to nutritionally balance the diet (BR). In experiment 2, another treatment, of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day) (AP), was imposed on an additional group of early lactation cows during each season. Direct milk solids (MS) (milk fat plus milk protein) responses in experiment 1 to MG were 169, 279, 195 and 251 g MS per cow per day in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, while those to BR were 107, 250, 192, 289 g MS per cow per day. In experiment 2, however, milk solids responses to both supplements during spring were slightly below the control treatment, with values similar to those in experiment 1 in summer and autumn for cows on the BR but not the MG supplement. Milk solids responses to supplementary foods were largest during seasons of the year when the quantity and quality of pasture on offer resulted in the lowest milk solids yield from unsupplemented cows. When carry-over effects of feeding MG and BR on milk solids production were detected, they were only about half the magnitude of the direct effects. Serum urea concentrations were higher in control cows than those offered MG with a similar effect for BR in all but summer in experiment 1, while serum glucose concentrations were highest in winter and lowest in summer. The most important factor influencing milk solids responses was the relative food deficit (RFD) represented by the decline in milk solids yield of the respective control groups after,changing from a generous pasture allowance to restricted allowance when the feeding treatments were imposed. Total milk solids responses (direct and carry-over) to supplements were greatest when severe food restrictions, relative to the cows' current food demand, resulted in large reductions in milk solids yield of the control groups. The RFD was the best predictor of milk solids response to supplementary foods. Therefore, it is likely that cows are most responsive to supplementary foods during or immediately after the imposition of a severe food restriction

Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 1. Pasture intake and substitution

Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or supplemented with 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. Two different supplements were offered, namely, rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods (BR) formulated to nutritionally balance the diet. In experiment 2, a fourth treatment consisting solely of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day, AP) was introduced. Offering MG and BR increased DM intake (DMI). At the restricted pasture allowance, increasing total ME allowance (MEA) by offering supplementary foods increased ME intake (MEI) by 0.68 (s.e. 0.047) MJ per extra MJ ME offered. This highly significant (P < 0.001) linear relationship was consistent across seasons, and did not diminish at higher MEA. In experiment 2, cows in early lactation had lower substitution rates than mid and late lactation cows irrespective of season. Substitution rate was higher when higher pasture allowance or quality of pasture on offer enabled the unsupplemented cows to achieve higher DMI from pasture than at other times of the year. These results suggest that one of the key factors determining the intake response to supplementary foods is pasture allowance. Within spring calving dairying systems, the largest increases in total DMI per kg of supplement offered is likely when offering supplements to early lactation cows grazing restricted allowances of high quality pasture

Performance Evaluation of Simultaneous Sensor Registration and Object Tracking Algorithm

Reliable object tracking with multiple sensors requires that sensors are registered correctly with respect to each other. When an environment is Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) denied or limited – such as underwater, or in hostile regions – this task is more challenging. This paper performs uncertainty quantification on a simultaneous tracking and registration algorithm for sensor networks that does not require access to a GNSS. The method uses a particle filter combined with a bank of augmented state extended Kalman filters (EKFs). The particles represent hypotheses of registration errors between sensors, with associated weights. The EKFs are responsible for the tracking procedure and for contributing to particle state and weight updates. This is achieved through the evaluation of a likelihood. Registration errors in this paper are spatial, orientation, and temporal biases: seven distinct sensor errors are estimated alongside the tracking procedure. Monte Carlo trials are conducted for the uncertainty quantification. Since performance of particle filters is dependent on initialisation, a comparison is made between more and less favourable particle (hypothesis) initialisation. The results demonstrate the importance of initialisation, and the method is shown to perform well in tracking a fast (marginally sub-sonic) object following a bow-like trajectory (mimicking a representative scenario). Final results show the algorithm is capable of achieving angular bias estimation error of 0.0034 o , temporal bias estimation error of 0.0067 s, and spatial error of 0.021m

Outcomes for looked after children

The Looking After Children: Transforming Data into Management Information Study is designed to explore how data gathered in the course of social work interactions with individual children can be aggregated and used at a more strategic level. This interim report on the data from the case files of 242 children looked after by six local authorities, whose progress is being monitored over three years, produced the following findings

Does self-control improve with practice? Evidence from a 6-week training program

Can self-control be improved through practice? Several studies have found that repeated practice of tasks involving self-control improves performance on other tasks relevant to self-control. However, in many of these studies, improvements after training could be attributable to methodological factors (e.g., passive control conditions). Moreover, the extent to which the effects of training transfer to real-life settings is not yet clear. In the present research, participants (N = 174) completed a 6-week training program of either cognitive or behavioral self-control tasks. We then tested the effects of practice on a range of measures of self-control, including lab-based and real-world tasks. Training was compared to both active and no-contact control conditions. Despite high levels of adherence to the training tasks, there was no effect of training on any measure of self-control. Trained participants did not, for example, show reduced ego depletion effects, become better at overcoming their habits, or report exerting more self-control in everyday life. Moderation analyses found no evidence that training was effective only among particular groups of participants. Bayesian analyses suggested that the data was more consistent with a null effect of training on self-control than with previous estimates of the effect of practice. The implication is that training self-control through repeated practice does not result in generalized improvements in self-control

Direct measurements of ice-shelf flexure caused by surface meltwater ponding and drainage.

Global sea-level rise is caused, in part, by more rapid ice discharge from Antarctica, following the removal of the restraining forces of floating ice-shelves after their break-up. A trigger of ice-shelf break-up is thought to be stress variations associated with surface meltwater ponding and drainage, causing flexure and fracture. But until now, there have been no direct measurements of these processes. Here, we present field data from the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica, showing that the filling, to ~2 m depth, and subsequent draining, by overflow and channel incision, of four surface lakes causes pronounced and immediate ice-shelf flexure over multiple-week timescales. The magnitude of the vertical ice-shelf deflection reaches maxima of ~1 m at the lake centres, declining to zero at distances of <500 m. Our results should be used to guide development of continent-wide ice-sheet models, which currently do not simulate ice-shelf break-up due to meltwater loading and unloading.This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under award PLR-1443126 to the University of Chicago, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2014-412) and a CIRES Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship, both awarded to A.F.B., and a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NNX15AN44H) awarded to G.J.M