Barriers and bridges for introducing agroforestry and community-based forestry among food insecure households in eastern Africa

The aim of introducing agroforestry and community-based forestry is to secure and improve livelihoods, maintain and restore ecosystem services, and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, the adoption and scaling up of these systems among food insecure communities have proved to be difficult. To better understand why, I identified barriers and bridges at different adoption stages and levels of governance. These were analysed using policy narratives and the sustainable livelihood approach in the light of sustainable development, sustainability and resilience of landscapes. The first stage was the negotiation process between the Swedish NGO Vi-Skogen and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) about funding. Three explanatory approaches were used: organizational, power and context. Vi-Skogen and Sida were caught in policy incompatibility dilemmas that slowed down the NGO policy process, and delayed critical changes that could have improved project outcomes. The second was Vi-Skogen’s agroforestry project in Tanzania’s Mara Region. A random sample of 21 households was drawn from each of 89 project villages. The proportion of households with surviving agroforestry trees varied from 10-90 % among villages. Field training and visits to farmers with good practices were important for households to start planting trees. Local collaboration, perceived ownership of trees and benefits of trees for crop production were additional factors important for households’ decision to continue with agroforestry practices. The third was eleven community-based forest producer and user groups (CBFGs) in eastern and southern Africa. Development of many groups had stagnated and few had managed to develop large scale value-added production. I identified eight barriers and four bridges that influenced the scaling up process of agroforestry and community based forestry among food insecure households. All resulted from interactions among social, political, and economic structures and processes at multiple levels of governance. It is concluded that these interactions influenced the scaling up process and the development of sustainable subsistence systems among food insecure households. Collaborative knowledge production and learning is an approach through which the social capital and organisational capacity of the food insecure households can grow, enabling them to constructively address these multidimensional interactions to work in their favour. The use of this approach, i.e. a landscape approach, holds the opportunity through which subsistence systems can be transformed from causing degradation to promote sustainable development and livelihoods

Conclusions from the European Roadmap on Control of Computing Systems

The use of control-based methods for resource management in real-time computing and communication systems has gained a substantial interest recently. Applications areas include performance control of web-servers, dynamic resource management in embedded systems, traffic control in communication networks, transaction management in database servers, error control in software systems, and autonomic computing. Within the European EU/IST FP6 Network of Exellence ARTIST2 on Embedded System Design a roadmap on Control of Real-Time Computing Systems has recently been completed. The focus of the roadmap is how flexibility, adaptivity, performance and robustness can be achieved in a real-time computing or communication system through the use of control theory. The item that is controlled is in most cases the allocation of computing and communication resources, e.g., the distribution or scheduling of CPU time among different competing tasks, jobs, requests, or transactions, or the communication resources in a network. Due to this, control of computing systems also goes under the name of feedback scheduling. The roadmap is divided into six research areas: control of server systems, control of CPU resources, control of communication networks, error control of software systems, feedback scheduling of control systems, and control middleware. For each area an overview is given and challenges for future research are stated. The aim of this position paper is to summarize the conclusions concerning these research challenges. In this paper, we will only cover the first four of the areas above. A preliminary version of the roadmap can be found on http://www.control.lth.se/user/karlerik/roadmap1.pd

Multiple Loop Self-Triggered Model Predictive Control for Network Scheduling and Control

We present an algorithm for controlling and scheduling multiple linear time-invariant processes on a shared bandwidth limited communication network using adaptive sampling intervals. The controller is centralized and computes at every sampling instant not only the new control command for a process, but also decides the time interval to wait until taking the next sample. The approach relies on model predictive control ideas, where the cost function penalizes the state and control effort as well as the time interval until the next sample is taken. The latter is introduced in order to generate an adaptive sampling scheme for the overall system such that the sampling time increases as the norm of the system state goes to zero. The paper presents a method for synthesizing such a predictive controller and gives explicit sufficient conditions for when it is stabilizing. Further explicit conditions are given which guarantee conflict free transmissions on the network. It is shown that the optimization problem may be solved off-line and that the controller can be implemented as a lookup table of state feedback gains. Simulation studies which compare the proposed algorithm to periodic sampling illustrate potential performance gains.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technolog

Urban greenspace for social integration: Which types of greenspace do new-Swedes prefer and why?

Urban greenspace (UGS) is a key public resource offering a broad range of nature -based solutions and is increasingly looked to as a potential arena to promote social integration in Europe 's increasingly multicultural urban and peri-urban areas. However, relatively little research has explored the preferences and perceptions of immigrants in relation to UGS, especially in European contexts. Without such knowledge, planners risk entrenching planning structures that inadvertently result in segregation and environmental injustice. Using survey and participatory mapping methods with 261 immigrants in eight sampled settlements across Sweden, this study explores which types of UGS foreign -born immigrants in Sweden (i.e., new -Swedes) prefer and why. We found that new -Swedes are frequent users of a wide spectrum of UGS types, with the most preferred types including forests, large parks and lakes. The majority of respondents were satisfied with the quality (73%), availability (68%) and accessibility (76%) of UGS in their hometowns. Our regression analysis identified 51 key factors that had a meaningful effect on preferences for different types of UGS. Key factors were distributed relatively evenly across blocks of predictor variables concerning characteristics of UGS, socio-demographic factors, activity preferences, and perceptions. Our results indicate that new -Swedes ' UGS preferences are broadly comparable with those of the general population in Sweden. We found little evidence to suggest that ethnocultural factors played a major role in the preferences of our respondents. Furthermore, our results suggest that nature -connectedness might be an important determinant of new -Swedes ' UGS preferences. Based on these findings, we highlight several opportunities to further develop UGS strategies to support different dimensions of social integration, e.g., using popular UGS as interactive spaces for cultural learning, as a platform for intercultural contacts and for maintaining cultural traditions, and to contribute towards a greater sense of social membership in their new country. A crucial implication of our study is that the use of UGS to support social integration may further contribute to the increasing complexity of the UGS planning and management challenge. This implies the need for a systems perspective in UGS research, policy -making, planning and management to consider UGS as part of an integrated urban social -ecological system and to coordinate measures across sectors

Genetic diversity of Clostridium perfringens type A isolates from animals, food poisoning outbreaks and sludge

BACKGROUND: Clostridium perfringens, a serious pathogen, causes enteric diseases in domestic animals and food poisoning in humans. The epidemiological relationship between C. perfringens isolates from the same source has previously been investigated chiefly by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). In this study the genetic diversity of C. perfringens isolated from various animals, from food poisoning outbreaks and from sludge was investigated. RESULTS: We used PFGE to examine the genetic diversity of 95 C. perfringens type A isolates from eight different sources. The isolates were also examined for the presence of the beta2 toxin gene (cpb2) and the enterotoxin gene (cpe). The cpb2 gene from the 28 cpb2-positive isolates was also partially sequenced (519 bp, corresponding to positions 188 to 706 in the consensus cpb2 sequence). The results of PFGE revealed a wide genetic diversity among the C. perfringens type A isolates. The genetic relatedness of the isolates ranged from 58 to 100% and 56 distinct PFGE types were identified. Almost all clusters with similar patterns comprised isolates with a known epidemiological correlation. Most of the isolates from pig, horse and sheep carried the cpb2 gene. All isolates originating from food poisoning outbreaks carried the cpe gene and three of these also carried cpb2. Two evolutionary different populations were identified by sequence analysis of the partially sequenced cpb2 genes from our study and cpb2 sequences previously deposited in GenBank. CONCLUSION: As revealed by PFGE, there was a wide genetic diversity among C. perfringens isolates from different sources. Epidemiologically related isolates showed a high genetic similarity, as expected, while isolates with no obvious epidemiological relationship expressed a lesser degree of genetic similarity. The wide diversity revealed by PFGE was not reflected in the 16S rRNA sequences, which had a considerable degree of sequence similarity. Sequence comparison of the partially sequenced cpb2 gene revealed two genetically different populations. This is to our knowledge the first study in which the genetic diversity of C. perfringens isolates both from different animals species, from food poisoning outbreaks and from sludge has been investigated

Sustainable Development and Sustainability: Landscape Approach as a Practical Interpretation of Principles and Implementation Concepts

The situation for governors and managers of natural resources has increased in complexity. Previously it was enough to sustain the yields of wood, food and energy. Today, maintenance of ecosystem services, conservation of biodiversity, rural development and human wellbeing are new additional objectives. At the same time there are new risks and uncertainties linked to climate change, economic globalisation, energy security and water supply. Consequently, adaptive and holistic research, governance and management are needed. Landscape is a concept and framework that can be used as an approach to enhance implementation of policies about sustainable development as a societal process and sustainability as outcomes on the ground. For our analysis to define the landscape approach we used a hierarchical framework consisting of principles, concepts and initiatives; and included three principles defining SD and sustainability and five international concepts to analyze its implementation for our analysis to define landscape approach. We propose a practical operationalization that consists of five core attributes, (1) a sufficiently large area that matches management requirements and challenges to deliver desired goods, services and values, (2) multi-level and multi-sector stakeholder collaboration that promotes sustainable development as a social process, (3) commitment to and understanding of sustainability as an aim among stakeholders, (4) integrative knowledge production, and (5) sharing of experience, results and information, to develop local or tacit to general or explicit knowledge. Finally, we discuss the need for integrative research to study landscape approach concepts and what local initiatives using different concepts deliver on the ground

Fraud by Hindsight

Wireless networked embedded systems are becoming increasingly important in a wide area of technical fields. In this tutorial paper we present recent results on the design of these systems and their use in control applications, that have been developed within the project Reconfigurable Ubiquitous Networked Embedded Systems (RUNES). RUNES is a European Integrated Project with the aim to control complexity in networked embedded systems by developing robust and scalable middleware systems. New components for control under varying network conditions are discussed for the RUNES architecture. The paper highlights how the complexity of the closed-loop system is increased, due to additional disturbances introduced by the communication system: additional delays, jitter, data rate limitations, packet losses, etc. Experimental work on integration test beds that demonstrates these results is presented, together with motivating links to the RUNES disaster relief tunnel scenario.© 2006 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. QC 20120216</p

Uppvärmning av Almunge brandstation med pyrolys

This project has been carried out on the behalf of Ihus in collaboration with Stuns Energi. The goal was to find and model a solution based on the process of pyrolysis that can deliver enough heat to Almunge fire station while storing maximum amount of CO2 in the form of biochar. Two systems that primarily used waste heat from a pyrolysis reactor were studied. In one case a wood pellet boiler was used to cover peak load and the second system used a coal boiler that uses some of the coal produced in the reactor. The result shows that both solutions can theoretically deliver the required amount of heat and have lower emissions of carbon dioxide than the current method of heat generation used on the property, a wood pellet boiler. A model of the system that uses a coal boiler shows that it, under a period of one year, releases 5 % more CO2, has a 60 % higher amount of unused waste heat, and consumes 22 % more substrate per month than the system that uses a wood pellet burner. However, the coal boiler resulted in 18 % higher in biochar production, potentially 33 % more coal bound if the produced biochar is used as a carbon sink, and 18 % higher economical value after 20 years.Detta projekt har genomf¨orts p˚a best¨allning av Ihus i samarbete med Stuns Energi. Det gick ut p˚a att hitta och modellera en energil¨osning, baserad p˚a en pyrolysprocess, som f¨orser en brandstation i Almunge med den v¨arme stationen kr¨aver p˚a m˚anadsbasis samtidigt som maximal m¨angd CO2 binds i form av biokol. Tv˚a system som prim¨art anv¨ander spillv¨arme fr˚an en pyrolysreaktor i uppv¨armningssyftet togs fram. I ena fallet anv¨ands en pelletspanna f¨or att t¨acka de effekttopparna som kan uppst˚a och det andra systemet anv¨ander sig av en kolpanna som matas med kolet fr˚an pyrolysprocessen. Resultatet visar att b˚ada l¨osningar kan teoretiskt leverera den m¨angden v¨arme fastigheten kr¨aver och har l¨agre utsl¨app av koldioxid ¨ an den nuvarande d¨ar fastigheten endast v¨arms upp av en pelletspanna. Systemet som anv¨ander sig av kolpannan visade sig under ett ˚ars period sl¨appa ut 5 % mer CO2, har 60 % st¨orre andel av ej utnyttjad spillv¨arme och konsumerar 22 % mer substrat per m˚anad ¨an systemet med pelletspannan men kompenserade det med 18 % h¨ogre produktion av biokol, potentiellt 33 % st¨orre m¨angd kol som binds om biokolet anv¨ands som kols¨anka och 18 % h¨ogre ekonomiskt v¨arde efter 20 ˚ar

Multiple factors shape the interaction of people with urban greenspace: Sweden as a case study

This study identifies and analyses multiple factors that impact people's interactions with urban greenspace in Sweden. An unrestricted, self-selected online survey was used to collect the data. The survey questions were related to individual characteristics of respondents, including socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported nature connectedness, and self-reported constraints to greenspace usage; perceived characteristics of urban greenspace, including its availability, quality, and accessibility, and benefits and problems; and preferences of respondents regarding types of urban greenspace and activities. Additionally, several spatially explicit variables were included in the analysis. A total of 2806 respondents from 208 (of 290) municipalities completed the survey. Our findings indicate that greenspace users are highly heterogeneous and utilise diverse green spaces along the urban-peri-urban gradient for various benefits. The statistical analyses identified 61 explanatory variables that affect the frequency of interactions with urban greenspace. In addition, we identify key factors that shape critical differences between frequent and infrequent urban users, such as nature connectedness, perceptions of urban greenspace functions, and their perceived accessibility. Our results highlight the complex challenge facing urban planners and managers of green spaces, who have to consider and integrate a vast array of factors influencing the willingness of increasingly diverse urban populations to interact with greenspace

Genome characteristics of primary carcinomas, local recurrences, carcinomatoses, and liver metastases from colorectal cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths in the Western world, and despite the fact that metastases are usually the ultimate cause of deaths, the knowledge of the genetics of advanced stages of this disease is limited. In order to identify potential genetic abnormalities underlying the development of local and distant metastases in CRC patients, we have, by comparative genomic hybridization, compared the DNA copy number profiles of 10 primary carcinomas, 14 local recurrences, 7 peritoneal carcinomatoses, and 42 liver metastases from 61 CRC patients. RESULTS: The median number of aberrations among the primary carcinomas, local recurrences, carcinomatoses, and liver metastases was 10, 6, 13, and 14, respectively. Several genetic imbalances, such as gains of 7, 8q, 13q, and 20, and losses of 4q, 8p, 17p, and 18, were common in all groups. In contrast, gains of 5p and 12p were more common in the carcinomatoses than in other stages of the disease. With hierarchical cluster analysis, liver metastases could be divided into two main subgroups according to clusters of chromosome changes. CONCLUSIONS: Each stage of CRC progression is characterized by a particular genetic profile, and both carcinomatoses and liver metastases are more genetically complex than local recurrences and primary carcinomas. This is the first genome profiling of local recurrences and carcinomatoses, and gains of 5p and 12p seem to be particularly important for the spread of the CRC cells within the peritoneal cavity