Community-based development of agricultural activities aiming to improve dietary diversity in Western Kenya

This research examines the suitability of community-based participatory workshops for developing agricultural activities in order to diversify diets. The study represents the second phase of a project consisting of a diagnostic phase covering agricultural biodiversity, diets and nutrition (phase I), participatory development of community activities (phase II) and a participatory implementation of the activities (phase III). The project is part of the nutrition cross-cutting cluster work within Humidtropics, a CGIAR research programme (CRP). A series of six participatory workshops was carried out in five sub-locations of Vihiga County in Western Kenya. The workshops aimed to raise awareness on nutrition, to discuss the results of the diagnostic phase (phase I) and to identify and plan community activities to improve nutrition. Per sub-location, 36 men and women were selected to participate in the workshops. In order to diversify diets in their communities, all sub-locations decided to plant ve- getables and legumes and to raise poultry. The participants developed community action plans specifying how these activities are going to be realised. In addition, they chose local funding mechanisms to finance the actions and developed a budget. The groups also suc- ceeded in organising an event to officially kick-off their activities and thereby reaching out to other community members. Except for one less successful sub-location, the workshop groups well developed agricul- tural activities for improved nutrition. Harmony within the group was a crucial factor for good performance. Sensitivity to group dynamics is thus very important for participatory development of community activities. It was observed that the continuous workshops built trust between researchers and participants and that ownership was developed among the groups. These findings are in line with similar studies on participatory intervention deve- lopment in Africa. Other related projects in low-income countries stress the importance of community-based approaches in improving nutrition and livelihood outcome

On Standard Reductions to Relative Gravity Measurements. A Case Study Through the Establishment of the New Local Gravity Net in the Province of Valencia (Spain)

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published in: “Survey Review"; Volume 43, Issue 319, 2011; copyright Taylor & Francis; available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/003962610X12747001420825Standard reductions to gravity readings due to Earth tides, ocean loading and attraction, polar motion, instrumental height and air pressure variations and loading of atmospheric masses are studied in this paper from a practical point of view, that is, taking into account their numerical values and their influence on gravimetric readings and relative gravimetric observations. The study was carried out using the observations and definition of a new local gravimetric net. This new local gravimetric net has been established in the province of Valencia (Eastern Spain) to meet the increasing requirements of geophysics, geology, geodesy and geodynamics. The net comprises 21 sites, which are an average of 45 km apart and was measured using Lacoste & Romberg D203 and G301 gravimeters. Gravity values were determined using one fixed station in relation to an absolute one and 202 relative gravimetric observables. Reductions are applied for Earth tides (with real accurate amplitude and phase-difference for the principal tidal waves analysed from 301 digitally recorded days of gravity readings) where oceanic attraction and loading has been considered. In addition, reductions for polar motion, vertical gradient to instrument height and air pressure and loading of atmospheric masses have been applied. The net was established using least square adjustment where the weights of each relative gravimetric observable were determined by iterative estimation in accordance with the Huber robust estimation procedure. Obtained standard deviations of the final gravity values have an average value of 18x10-8 ms-2 (18 µGal), minimum value of 10x10-8 ms-2 and maximum value of 26x10-8 ms-2 . The statistical analysis of the results concludes with a precision and reliability determination. Discussion of the numerical values obtained in the standard gravimetric reductions shows the importance of each one in the final solution, bearing in mind that the relative gravimetric observables have been obtained using Lacoste & Romberg instruments and the geographical location of the net. The main conclusion is that only Earth tides reduction (with approximate amplitude and phase-difference numbers for the principal tidal waves) have to be taken into accountMartín Furones, ÁE.; Anquela Julián, AB.; Padin Devesa, J.; Berné Valero, JL. (2011). On Standard Reductions to Relative Gravity Measurements. A Case Study Through the Establishment of the New Local Gravity Net in the Province of Valencia (Spain). Survey Review. 43(319):16-29. doi:10.1179/003962610X12747001420825S162943319Boedecker, G., & Richter, B. (1981). The new gravity base net 1976 of the Federal Republic of Germany (DSGN 76). Bulletin Géodésique, 55(3), 250-266. doi:10.1007/bf02530865Cartwright, D. E., & Tayler, R. J. (2007). New Computations of the Tide-generating Potential. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 23(1), 45-73. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246x.1971.tb01803.xCharles, K. and Hipkin, R.G. 1994. British precise gravity net 1993. Joint symposium of the International Gravity Comission and the International Geoid Comission, Symposium 113: 39–45, Graz, Austria. Ed. Springer-Verlag.Farrell, W. E. (1972). Deformation of the Earth by surface loads. Reviews of Geophysics, 10(3), 761. doi:10.1029/rg010i003p00761Jentzsch, G. (s. f.). Earth tides and ocean tidal loading. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, 145-171. doi:10.1007/bfb0011461Torge, W. 1989. Gravimetry. Ed. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York. 465 pages.Wahr, J. M. (1985). Deformation induced by polar motion. Journal of Geophysical Research, 90(B11), 9363. doi:10.1029/jb090ib11p09363Wenzel, G. 1998. Format and structure for the exchange of high precision tidal data, http://www.ife.uni-hannover.de/∼Wenzel/format/format.html, acceded on February 1999

Exploring agrobiodiversity for nutrition: Household on-farm agrobiodiversity is associated with improved quality of diet of young children in Vihiga, Kenya

Due to their limited access to the external productive inputs and the dependency on rain-fed agricultural production, small scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have continued to face undernutrition despite the significant advancements in agriculture. They however often live in areas endowed with high agrobiodiversity which could contribute, if explored, to improved diets and nutrition. Few studies have linked the contribution of agrobiodiversity to the micronutrient adequacy of the diets of young children among smallholder farmers. The study explored this relationship and contributes to the growing body of literature linking agrobiodiversity to nutrition of young children. Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted as part of baseline assessment for an intervention study, one in the lean and a second in the plenty season in Vihiga county, Kenya. Household level interviews were administered to 634 households with children 12–23 months. Agrobiodiversity was defined as the number of crop species cultivated or harvested from the wild and the number of livestock maintained by the household across two agricultural seasons. Dietary data were collected using two-non-consecutive quantitative 24-hour recalls and analyzed using Lucille software. Diet quality was assessed using dietary diversity score based on seven food groups and mean probability of micronutrient adequacy computed for eleven micronutrients. A total of 80 species were maintained or harvested from the wild by the households. Mean household species richness was 9.9 ± 4.3. One in every four children did not meet the minimum dietary diversity score. The average mean probability of micronutrient adequacy was 68.11 ± 16.08 in plenty season compared to 56.37± 19.5% in the lean season. Iron, zinc and calcium were most limiting micronutrients in the diet, with less than 30% average probability of adequacy in both seasons. Household agrobiodiversity was positively associated with both dietary diversity score (r = 0.09, p = 0.029) and micronutrient adequacy (r = 0.15, p<0.000) in the pooled sample. One unit increase in species diversity was associated with 12.7% improvement in micronutrient adequacy. Despite the rich agrobiodiversity in the study area the diets were low in diversity and there is an unrealized opportunity to improve micronutrient intake through greater promotion and consumption of locally available agrobiodiversity

Richness of Deep Echo State Network Dynamics

Reservoir Computing (RC) is a popular methodology for the efficient design of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). Recently, the advantages of the RC approach have been extended to the context of multi-layered RNNs, with the introduction of the Deep Echo State Network (DeepESN) model. In this paper, we study the quality of state dynamics in progressively higher layers of DeepESNs, using tools from the areas of information theory and numerical analysis. Our experimental results on RC benchmark datasets reveal the fundamental role played by the strength of inter-reservoir connections to increasingly enrich the representations developed in higher layers. Our analysis also gives interesting insights into the possibility of effective exploitation of training algorithms based on stochastic gradient descent in the RC field.Comment: Preprint of the paper accepted at IWANN 201