Agricultural research and poverty reduction:

International agricultural research has contributed enormously to increasing world food supplies to their current state of plenty. Yet poverty remains a major problem and the challenge for agricultural research now lies in developing strategies that more explicitly address the needs of the poor. This paper, based on the study commissioned by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the CGIAR system, addresses this issue. Based on an analysis of the links between agricultural research and poverty alleviation in different types of countries and rural regions, Peter Hazell and Lawrence Haddad identify six key priorities for a pro-poor agricultural research agenda and discuss strategies for achieving each of these goals with the least trade-off in national agricultural growth. (Excerpted from Forward by Per Pinstrup-Andersen and Emil Javier)agricultural research, poverty, food supply,

Historical Criminology and the Explanatory Power of the Past

To what extent can the past ‘explain’ the present? This deceptively simple question lies at the heart of historical criminology (research which incorporates historical primary sources while addressing present-day debates and practices in the criminal justice field). This article seeks first to categorise the ways in which criminologists have used historical data thus far, arguing that it is most commonly deployed to ‘problematize’ the contemporary rather than to ‘explain’ it. The article then interrogates the reticence of criminologists to attribute explicative power in relation to the present to historical data. Finally, it proposes the adoption of long time-frame historical research methods, outlining three advantages which would accrue from this: the identification and analysis of historical continuities; a more nuanced, shared understanding of micro/macro change over time in relation to criminal justice; and a method for identifying and analysing instances of historical recurrence, particularly in perceptions and discourses around crime and justice

Propulsion system-flight control integration and optimization: Flight evaluation and technology transition

Integration of propulsion and flight control systems and their optimization offers significant performance improvements. Research programs were conducted which have developed new propulsion and flight control integration concepts, implemented designs on high-performance airplanes, demonstrated these designs in flight, and measured the performance improvements. These programs, first on the YF-12 airplane, and later on the F-15, demonstrated increased thrust, reduced fuel consumption, increased engine life, and improved airplane performance; with improvements in the 5 to 10 percent range achieved with integration and with no changes to hardware. The design, software and hardware developments, and testing requirements were shown to be practical

Spectral methods for the wave equation in second-order form

Current spectral simulations of Einstein's equations require writing the equations in first-order form, potentially introducing instabilities and inefficiencies. We present a new penalty method for pseudo-spectral evolutions of second order in space wave equations. The penalties are constructed as functions of Legendre polynomials and are added to the equations of motion everywhere, not only on the boundaries. Using energy methods, we prove semi-discrete stability of the new method for the scalar wave equation in flat space and show how it can be applied to the scalar wave on a curved background. Numerical results demonstrating stability and convergence for multi-domain second-order scalar wave evolutions are also presented. This work provides a foundation for treating Einstein's equations directly in second-order form by spectral methods.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Contribution of Non-Timber Forest Products to Rural Household Income in Zambia

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) play an important role in supporting rural livelihoods and food security in Zambia. NTFP-dependent households are poorer, have younger household heads with lower levels of education, and are located closer to district towns than other rural households are. NTFPs are a particularly important source of income in Luapula, Northwestern and Western provinces. • Income from woodfuel represented the greatest share of income for households that participated in NTFPs, and it was the most commonly reported business activity, with 68% of NTFP households reporting income from charcoal and firewood. NTFPs contribute an average of 32% to total household income among participants, with the poorest being more dependent on these sources. • Given the widespread demand for woodfuel and other forest products, it is likely that rural households will continue to engage in the extraction and trade of NTFPs as a business activity. However, charcoal production, if left unchecked, could compromise the integrity of forests and adversely affect the availability of other NTFPs. In order to reduce households’ reliance on charcoal/firewood as an income source, outreach efforts could promote other NTFPs such as wild honey, ants, and mushrooms as business activities. Mushrooms, ants, and caterpillars may particularly be important activities for female-headed households, as more female-headed households derived income from these sources.NON-TIMBER FOREST, ZAMBIA, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics,

Climigration? Population and climate change in Arctic Alaska

Residents of towns and villages in Arctic Alaska live on “the front line of climate change.” Some communities face immediate threats from erosion and flooding associated with thawing permafrost, increasing river flows, and reduced sea ice protection of shorelines. The term climigration, referring to migration caused by climate change, originally was coined for these places. Although initial applications emphasized the need for government relocation policies, it has elsewhere been applied more broadly to encompass unplanned migration as well. Some historical movements have been attributed to climate change, but closer study tends to find multiple causes, making it difficult to quantify the climate contribution. Clearer attribution might come from comparisons of migration rates among places that are similar in most respects, apart from known climatic impacts. We apply this approach using annual 1990–2014 time series on 43 Arctic Alaska towns and villages. Within-community time plots show no indication of enhanced out-migration from the most at-risk communities. More formally, there is no significant difference between net migration rates of at-risk and other places, testing several alternative classifications. Although climigration is not detectable to date, growing risks make either planned or unplanned movements unavoidable in the near future

Measuring Planck beams with planets

Aims. Accurate measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy requires precise knowledge of the instrument beam. We explore how well the Planck beams will be determined from observations of planets, developing techniques that are also appropriate for other experiments. Methods. We simulate planet observations with a Planck-like scanning strategy, telescope beams, noise, and detector properties. Then we employ both parametric and non-parametric techniques, reconstructing beams directly from the time-ordered data. With a faithful parameterization of the beam shape, we can constrain certain detector properties, such as the time constants of the detectors, to high precision. Alternatively, we decompose the beam using an orthogonal basis. For both techniques, we characterize the errors in the beam reconstruction with Monte Carlo realizations. For a simplified scanning strategy, we study the impact on estimation of the CMB power spectrum. Finally, we explore the consequences for measuring cosmological parameters, focusing on the spectral index of primordial scalar perturbations, n_s. Results. The quality of the power spectrum measurement will be significantly influenced by the optical modeling of the telescope. In our most conservative case, using no information about the optics except the measurement of planets, we find that a single transit of Jupiter across the focal plane will measure the beam window functions to better than 0.3% for the channels at 100–217 GHz that are the most sensitive to the CMB. Constraining the beam with optical modeling can lead to much higher quality reconstruction. Conclusions. Depending on the optical modeling, the beam errors may be a significant contribution to the measurement systematics for n_s

Five Years Under the Veterans Judicial Review Act: The VA is Brought Kicking and Screaming into the World of Meaningful Due Process

I have been asked to give you the “veterans\u27 perspective” on whether the Court of Veterans Appeals has served the purpose for which it was created by Congress and also to describe what additional steps the court might take to further the ends desired by veterans. This is no easy task. It is difficult not because I do not have a lot to say. It is difficult because it is a charge to speak, in a sense, for all veterans. In order to understand what I mean, I think it may be helpful to give you a little background on the view of the veterans community regarding judicial review. There are forty veterans service organizations recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). These organizations range from the smallest, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, to the largest, the American Legion, which boasts 3.2 million members. The Paralyzed Veterans of America, of which I am the General Counsel, fits somewhere in the middle. In addition, there are other small organizations of veterans which do not have official VA recognition. In all, these organizations speak for some twenty-seven million veterans of the United States Armed Forces. The number of veterans organizations gives you an idea of the diversity of interests of veterans. There is complete unanimity of opinion on few issues affecting the veterans community. Judicial review is an example

Impacts of agricultural research on poverty: findings of an integrated economic and social analysis

Agricultural research, Sustainable livelihoods, Agricultural growth, Gender, Agricultural technology,