Agriculture and The Challenge to Reduce Poverty in East Africa

The three East African (EA) countries Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have a population of about 95 million people and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 34.2 billion. In recent years efforts has been made among the three East African countries, towards forging economic and regional co-operation by establishing the East African Community (EAC). The premise for economic and regional co-operation has been underpinned for the need for a common market and boost regional trade. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to achieve one of the international development objectives of increasing growth to 7% a year that is required to reduce income poverty. One of the challenges that East African countries need to tackle in the face of globalisation is the ability to participate in international markets. East African countries have to make serious consideration with regards to changing the composition of their exports away from primary products to manufactured exports. Value addition to both agricultural and industrial products is vital to improving the EA economies. This paper examines the composition of East Africa’s economic structure. The aim is to analyse how the economic structure has changed over time, and to assess whether or not East African countries have transformed their agricultural sectors, and what the impact has been on poverty reduction in these economies.Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Backscatter Transponder Based on Frequency Selective Surface for FMCW Radar Applications

This paper describes an actively-controlled frequency selective surface (FSS) to implement a backscatter transponder. The FSS is composed by dipoles loaded with switching PIN diodes. The transponder exploits the change in the radar cross section (RCS) of the FSS with the bias of the diodes to modulate the backscattered response of the tag to the FMCW radar. The basic operation theory of the system is explained here. An experimental setup based on a commercial X-band FMCW radar working as a reader is proposed to measure the transponders. The transponder response can be distinguished from the interference of non-modulated clutter, modulating the transponder’s RCS. Some FSS with different number of dipoles are studied, as a proof of concept. Experimental results at several distances are provided

Extended sources in the XMM-Newton slew survey

The low background, good spatial resolution and great sensitivity of the EPIC-pn camera on XMM-Newton give useful limits for the detection of extended sources even during the short exposures made during slewing maneouvers. In this paper we attempt to illustrate the potential of the XMM-Newton slew survey as a tool for analysing flux-limited samples of clusters of galaxies and other sources of spatially extended X-ray emission.Comment: 2 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "The X-ray Universe 2005", San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Spain), 26-30 September 200

Organizational Climate and Work Engagement

The study aimed to determine the correlation between organizational climate and the work engagement of the employees. To strengthen the theory of the study, related literature was reviewed. The study used a descriptive correlational research design. To gather the data, questionnaires were used. The population of the study was all faculty and employees of the colleges in the Ilocos region. Since it is a quantitative study, the statistic was used to interpret the data. The weighted mean was used to determine the average mean of different organizational climate dimensions and different dimensions of work engagement, while Pearson r Correlation was used to determine the correlation between the organizational climate and work engagement of the employees. The result of the Pearson r Correlation indicates that there is a significant correlation between organizational climate and the work engagement of employees. Therefore, the hypothesis of the study is accepted. 

The XMM-Newton Slew Survey: towards the XMMSL1 catalogue

The XMM-Newton satellite is the most sensitive X-ray observatory flown to date due to the great collecting area of its mirrors coupled with the high quantum efficiency of the EPIC detectors. It performs slewing manoeuvers between observation targets tracking almost circular orbits through the ecliptic poles due to the Sun constraint. Slews are made with the EPIC cameras open and the other instruments closed, operating with the observing mode set to the one of the previous pointed observation and the medium filter in place. Slew observations from the EPIC-pn camera in FF, eFF and LW modes provide data, resulting in a maximum of 15 seconds of on-source time. These data can be used to give a uniform survey of the X-ray sky, at great sensitivity in the hard band compared with other X-ray all-sky surveys.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "The X-ray Universe 2005", San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Spain), 26-30 September 200

Sobre algunas plantas de las yeseras de Almería

Corological and ecological data oj some interesting taxa of the gypsum flora from Almería province are presented. Fifteen taxa are probably cited at the first time for Almería province (SE of Spain).Se ofrecen datos corológicos y ecológicos sobre algunos távones de interés de la flora gipsicola almeriense. Quince tixones pueden haberse citado por primera vez en la provincia

Biological implications of differential expression of mitochondrial-shaping proteins in Parkinson’s disease

It has long been accepted that mitochondrial function and morphology is affected in Parkinson’s disease, and that mitochondrial function can be directly related to its morphology. So far, mitochondrial morphological alterations studies, in the context of this neurodegenerative disease, have been performed through microscopic methodologies. The goal of the present work is to address if the modifications in the mitochondrial-shaping proteins occurring in this disorder have implications in other cellular pathways, which might constitute important pathways for the disease progression. To do so, we conducted a novel approach through a thorough exploration of the available proteomics-based studies in the context of Parkinson’s disease. The analysis provided insight into the altered biological pathways affected by changes in the expression of mitochondrial-shaping proteins via different bioinformatic tools. Unexpectedly, we observed that the mitochondrial-shaping proteins altered in the context of Parkinson’s disease are, in the vast majority, related to the organization of the mitochondrial cristae. Conversely, in the studies that have resorted to microscopy-based techniques, the most widely reported alteration in the context of this disorder is mitochondria fragmentation. Cristae membrane organization is pivotal for mitochondrial ATP production, and changes in their morphology have a direct impact on the organization and function of the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes. To understand which biological processes are affected by the alteration of these proteins we analyzed the binding partners of the mitochondrial-shaping proteins that were found altered in Parkinson’s disease. We showed that the binding partners fall into seven different cellular components, which include mitochondria, proteasome, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER), amongst others. It is noteworthy that, by evaluating the biological process in which these modified proteins are involved, we showed that they are related to the production and metabolism of ATP, immune response, cytoskeleton alteration, and oxidative stress, amongst others. In summary, with our bioinformatics approach using the data on the modified proteins in Parkinson’s disease patients, we were able to relate the alteration of mitochondrial-shaping proteins to modifications of crucial cellular pathways affected in this disease.This work was financed by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020—Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/ Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the projects “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274), iBiMED (UID/BIM/04501/2013) and UnIC (UID/IC/00051/2013) research units, the COST ACTION CA15203, and the Investigator Grant to Rui Vitorino (IF/00286/2015). Ana Freitas acknowledges FCT for her Ph.D. scholarship (SFRH/BD/111423/2015), as does Sofia C. Guimaraes (SFRH/BPD/122920/2016), and Miguel Aroso (SFRH/BPD/123261/2016). Sara Rocha was founded by the project Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000008 -Porto Neurosciences and Neurologic Disease Research Initiative at I3S, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)”