Ecology and Equity in Rights to Land and Water: A Study in South-Eastern Palakkad in Kerala

This article explores the impact of the existing property rights regime over land and water on the sustainable and equitable management and use of these resources, in the context of changing irrigation practices in a paddy-growing area in the south-eastern part of the Palakkad district in Kerala, India. Since land rights determine rights to water in the area, the article discusses the changing rights regime over land, primarily after the implementation of land reforms in 1970. It shows how the implementation of land reforms and nationalization of private forests have paid little attention to the ecological context in which redistribution was taking place. As a result, while an agricultural-cum- forested landscape was divided into privately owned and government owned parcels, the ecological relationships between these different land use categories were ignored. In the same vein, land and water were treated as separate entities, with redistribution of land rights overlooking the distribution of water rights. The compartmentalized view of resources coupled with the consolidation of the private property regime has resulted in a situation where landowners exploit the resource without any consideration for its ecological characteristics and inter-resource linkages. The failure to view land and water in integration has precipitated inequitable access and unsustainable use of water. In addition, the availability of external water supplies and the introduction of energised pumping facilitate the enclosure of water within privately owned land parcels. The article concludes that a re-envisioning of rights to resources within the concerned ecological context is necessary if sustainable and equitable resource use and management are to be achieve

Traitement par prothèses sur implant de l’édentement postérieur partiel : suivi à long terme d’une étude prospective

Objective: This paper reports on the long-term outcome of patients with Kennedy Class IV partial edentulism treated in the Implant Prosthodontic Unit (IPU) at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. Methods: The information for this paper was gathered from the charts of the first 30 consecutive, partially edentulous patients treated at the IPU. These patients all had Class IV edentulism and formed part of the original prospective clinical studies that were initiated in 1983. The patients’ dental history suggested maladaptive experiences with traditional removable prostheses or a reluctance to have intact or quasi-intact teeth prepared as retainers for fixed prostheses. Fifteen men and 15 women treated with 94 Brånemark dental implants, supporting 34 prostheses, were followed until June 2000 (25 patients) or until they were lost to follow-up (5 patients). The multiple missing teeth occurred in 19 maxillae and 15 mandibles. Results: The original prosthodontic treatments were intended to result in 33 fixed partial prostheses and 1 overdenture. At the time of this report, 25 patients with 86 implants supporting 31 fixed prostheses and 3 overdentures had been followed for an average of 12 years (range 7–16 years). The overall survival of implants was 92%. The difference between men (94%) and women (89%) was not statistically significant. Conclusions: This report is an interim update on an ongoing long-term prospective study. The results so far demonstratea high survival rate for Brånemark implants supporting tissue-integrated prostheses for the management of anterior partial edentulism.peer-reviewe

Federal Grants and the Problem of Financing Public Assistance

Livestock and poultry are two growing subsectors of global farming economy with an impact on the environment and thus deserving closer attention. While the farms play a major role in providing protein essential for human diets, they are also sources of significant amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Hence, the sectors need to improve their environmental performance and mitigate their negative impacts on climate. To estimate the annual GHG emissions from a dairy and poultry farm, a case study was conducted in the rural area of Bangladesh. The study has considered the supply chains of both farms while estimating the emissions.  The study also estimated the GHG emission reduction potential of a small biogas based polygeneration system aimed at providing energy services in the rural area. LCA (lifecycle assessment) has been used as the main tool while estimating the emissions

Recognising the ageing face: the role of age in face processing

The effects of age-induced changes on face recognition were investigated as a means of exploring the role of age in the encoding of new facial memories. The ability of participants to recognise each of six previously learnt faces was tested with versions which were either identical to the learnt faces, the same age (but different in pose and expression), or younger or older in age. Participants were able to cope well with facial changes induced by ageing: their performance with older, but not younger, versions was comparable to that with faces which differed only in pose and expression. Since the large majority of different age versions were recognised successfully, it can be concluded that the process of recognition does not require an exact match in age characteristics between the stored representation of a face and the face currently in view. As the age-related changes explored here were those that occur during the period of growth, this in turn implies that the underlying structural physical properties of the face are (in addition to pose and facial expression) invariant to a certain extent

Factors influencing the accuracy of age-estimates of unfamiliar faces

Factors affecting the accuracy with which adults could assess the age of unfamiliar male faces aged between 5 and 70 years were examined. In the first experiment twenty-five 'young' adult subjects, aged 16-25, and twenty-five 'old' adults, aged 51-60, were used. Each subject saw five versions of three different faces: these consisted of an original version of each face and four manipulated versions of it. The manipulations consisted of mirror reversal, pseudo-cardioidal strain, thresholding, and elimination of all but the internal features of the face. The second experiment was similar except that a between-subjects design was used: each subject saw three faces for each age category of target face, but was exposed to only a single type of manipulation (plus a set of 'original' faces which were identical for all groups, so that the comparability of the different groups in age estimation could be checked). Results from both experiments were similar. Age estimates for unmanipulated 'original' faces were highly accurate, although subjects were most accurate with target faces that were within their own age range. Results for the manipulated faces implied that the importance of cardioidal strain as a necessary and sufficient cue to age may have been overestimated in previous reports: subjects' age estimates were accurate when cardioidal strain was absent from the stimulus, and poor when cardioidal strain was the only cue available

Low temperature dephasing saturation from elastic magnetic spin disorder and interactions

We treat the question of the low temperature behavior of the dephasing rate of the electrons in the presence of elastic spin disorder scattering and interactions. In the frame of a self-consistent diagrammatic treatment, we obtain saturation of the dephasing rate in the limit of low temperature for magnetic scattering, in agreement with the non-interacting case. The magnitude of the dephasing rate is set by the strength of the magnetic scattering rate. We discuss the agreement of our results with relevant experiments.Comment: This paper supersedes cond-mat/021022

A.E.S. Circular, No. 39

During 1979 and 1980, soil fertility research was conducted at two locations in the Delta Clearwater area. One of the test sites, Lee F ett’s Farm, was cleared in the mid-1950s and has been in production for about 25 years. The other test site is situated on a tract of newly cleared land owned by Dennis Green. The new lands site was cleared by the traditional berm-pile method during the winter of 1978-79. This method removes much of the moss layer, and in some cases, part o f the topsoil. Land cleared by this procedure is lower in natural fertility, but has the advantage of enabling the farmer to plant a crop the first summer after clearing. In this publication, progress reports are given for several research projects involving fertilizer use and rates of application.Introduction -- Weather Summary for the 1979 and 1980 Growing Season: Table 1: Climatic Data for Delta Junction During the 1979 and 1980 Growing Season -- Response of Barley to Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizer Applications on New Land: Table 2: Response of Barley to Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizers on New Land in the Delta-Clearwater Area of Alaska -- Variety-Fertilizer Interactions of Barley Grown on Newly Cleared Land: Table 3: Variety-Fertilizer Interactions of Barley Grown on New Land in the Delta-Clearwater Area of Alaska -- Response of Barley and Rapeseed to Sulfur Fertilization: Table 4: Response of Barley to Sulfur Fertilization When Grown Under Different Crop Rotations; Table 5: Response of Sulfur Fertilization When Grown Under Different Crop Rotation